November/December 2002

CONTENTS

COVER STORY (Cover photo: Ron Aira for The Crisis)
— J.C. Watts
* The GOP's one-time rising star talks about his decision to retire, race, racial politics and his new book, What Color is a Conservative?
By Terence Samuel

FEATURES
— Race Matters
A new California initiative seeks to ban the collection of race information
By Trevor W. Coleman

— Freedom: The African American Struggle
A new book of photographs captures pivotal moments in Black history from emancipation to the Civil Rights Movement and today's fight for reparations
Text by Manning Marable and Leith Mullings

— A New Day for Blacks in Ecuador
Relegated to second-class status, Black activists are organizing to gain respect and improve their living conditions, economic status and educational opportunities
By Lori S. Robinson

ISSUES & VIEWS
— The Rush to War
Assessing the threat from Iraq and the Bush administration's response
By Harold Scott Jr.

DEPARTMENTS
- Editor's Note

- Letters

- Up Front: Stanford University Linguist John Baugh studies housing discrimination over the phone; Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards recognize Black literary talent; University of Mississippi marks 40 years since James Meredith integrated the school; South Carolina's historically Black United Citizens political party remains standing; Two sisters offer a life lesson about organ donation Questions: Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose on the sniper shootings

- The Color Line: Kendra Lee on prostate cancer, which disproportionately strikes Black men

- Crisis Forum
* Music: Broadway songstress Heater Headley gets personal on her CD, This is Who I Am
* Film: A new documentary takes a look at the Funk Brothers, the band behind the Motown Sounds
* Books:
— Reviews of Al on American by Rev. Al Sharpton with Karen Hunter;
— Echoes of a Distant Summer by Guy Johnson; and
— Zadies Smith's second novel, The Autograph Man

- Backstory: After caring for her dying mother, M. Brenda Smith reflects on the reality of elder care

- The NAACP Today
* Congress passes election reform bill, Pres. Bush signs it into law;
* Youth and College division, training tomorrow's leaders;;
* Branch News: Elkhart County, Ind.;
* Resolutions

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J.C. Watts