July/August 2004

CONTENTS

ISSUES & VIEWS
— Election 2004: Who Will Win the Swing Vote?
With the country closely divided, the outcome of the presidential election rests on a handful of key battleground states.
By Ronald Walters

— Legacy of an American Diplomat
With international affairs topping the news, the centennial of the birth of
Ralph Bunche reminds us of his prescient views of the world .
By Charles P. Henry

FEATURES
— Having Her Say
* Democratic strategist Donna Brazile demands respect for Black voters and is willing to go “off message” to get it .
By Terence Samuel

— A Delegate Situation
When Mississippi sent an all-White delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party demanded that their delegates be seated.
By Vern Smith

— Murder in Mississippi
The families of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman remember the slain civil rights workers.
By Lottie L. Joiner

— The Killing Season
A decade later, survivors bear the wounds of Rwanda’s genocide.
By Jimmie Briggs

Cover: Welton Doby III for The Crisis

DEPARTMENTS
- Editor's Note

- Letters

- Up Front: Up Front Emmett Till murder case reopened; Bill Cosby upbraids behavior of poor Blacks; African American architects have their designs on Washington, D.C.; Attorney appeals for equal funding at Black colleges in Mississippi; Universities examine their connections to slavery; Raising money to support Black female politicians
Questions: Jonathan Davis on his son Sgt. Javal S. Davis, who has been court-martialed on charges of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq

- The Color Line
Cassie M. Chew on reproductive rights for Black women

- Crisis Forum
* Film: Mario Van Peebles’ new movie Baadasssss!
* Art: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
* Music: The classical soul of Imani Winds
* Books:
— Reviews of Children of the Movement by John Blake;
— Saving the Race: Conversations on Du Bois from a Collective of Souls edited by Rebecca Carroll;
— Steven Classen’s Watching Jim Crow: The Struggles Over Mississippi TV and Changing Channels: The Civil Rights Case that Transformed Television by Kay Mills;
— Blood on the Leaves by Jeff Stetson; and
— Walter Mosley’s Little Scarlet

- Backstory: Reporter Ervin Dyer finds spiritual renewal in Jordan

- The NAACP Today
* NAACP 95th annual convention in Philadelphia;
* Youth & College registering voters at concerts;
* Branch News: Mississippi State Conference

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Having Her Say
Donna Brazile