January/February 2002

CONTENTS

COVER STORY (Cover photograph: CORBIS)
— A Centennial Tribute to Langston Hughes
* The Life and Times of Langston Hughes - Remembering the prolific literary legend 100 years after his birth
By Arnold Rampersad

* Langston Hughes on Civil Rights - The postscript to his 1962 book Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP and his 1960 remarks upon acceptance of the Spingarn Medal

* Langston's Simple Genius - Hughes' Harlem everyman deftly distilled the issues of the day
By Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper

* The Beat Goes On
Langston Hughes' verse continues to resonate and influence
By Maryemma Graham

ISSUES & VIEWS
— Balm for the Body and Soul
Black churches are stepping up AIDS outreach efforts
By Tonya Adams

— Racism Takes World Stage
The U.N. gathering in Durban, South Africa, had mixed results
By Clarence Lusane

— The Killing Season
A history of lynching excerpted from At the Hands of Person's Unknown
By Philip Dray

DEPARTMENTS
- Editor's Note

- Letters

- Up Front: Library of Congress gets Jackie Robinson papers; A look back at the mini-series Roots; and the State of the Black World Conference gathers civil rights veterans and youth leaders; Questions: TransAfrica on its new leadership and expansion beyond matters of Africa and the Caribbean.
- The Color Line: Elaine R. Jones of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on preserving our Constitutional rights in the wake of the terrorist attacks

- Crisis Forum
* Film: Filmmaker Raoul Peck's decade-long effort to make Lumumba
* Music: Japan is eagerly embracing Black gospel music
* Books:
— Randall Kennedy's Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
— Clarence Thomas: A Biography by Andrew Peyton Thomas
— The Reckoning: What Black Owe Each Other by Randall Robinson
— Janet Cheatham Bell's Till Victory is Won: Famous Black Quotations from the NAACP; and a look at
— Walter Mosley's Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World and Black science fiction writing

- Backstory: Patricia Elam wonders how to allay her children fear's of terrorism when she is unsettled too

- The NAACP Today
* A preview of the 33rd Image Awards
* NAACP resolves Adam's Mark boycott
* Houston mayoral race
* Branch News: Stockton, Calif., Moss Point, Miss.

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Still Here:
A Centennial Tribute to Langston Hughes