September/October 2004

CONTENTS

ISSUES & VIEWS
— Voters Beware
Despite the numerous red flags raised during the 2000 election, efforts to disenfranchise and intimidate minority and student voters still persist.
By Jonah H. Goldman

FEATURES
— America's Future, You Decide
* Republican President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts are in a tight race for the White House. Each visited conventions of color this summer in an effort to woo African American support. Which candidate deserves your vote?
By Michael H. Cottman

— Presidential Portraits
The Kerry campaign and the Bush White House have at least one thing in common — both have Black chief photographers. Sharon Farmer and Eric Draper showcase their talents and their subjects in a photo essay
Edited by Deborah Willis-Kennedy

— Fight the Power
The hip-hop generation has been talking about organizing for years, key issues and the upcoming presidential election have finally prompted the voting bloc to jump into the political game.
By Lori S. Robinson

— The Crisis Interview: Colin Powell
The U.S. Secretary of State candidly responds to questions about failed intelligence, the Iraq war and whether or not his credibility remains intact.
By Joe Davidson

Cover: CORBIS

DEPARTMENTS
- Editor's Note

- Letters

- Up Front: Two national tours address the plight of Black men; Greensboro, N.C., establishes truth commission to investigate 1979 massacre; Walter Hood revitalizes urban communities using landscape design; Evidence of New Philadelphia, Ill., an early Black community, unearthed; Political convention calls for an African American agenda; Teaching Chicago youth the business of creativity
Questions: L. Douglas Wilder on why he is running for mayor of Richmond, Va.

- Crisis Forum
* Architecture: J. Max Bond will oversee the World Trade Center Memorial project
* Television: Def Poetry, a forum for political expression and personal confession
* Art: Basketball star Grant Hill is sharing his collection of African American art
* Books:
— Reviews of Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West;
— the biography Alice Walker: A Life by Evelyn C. White and Alice Walker’s recent novel Now is the Time to Open Your Heart;
— Flying Over 96th Street: A Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy by Thomas L. Webber; and
— Native Sons by James Baldwin and Sol Stein

- Backstory: Keith Boykin, who is running for the White House on the television show American Candidate, on the possibility of a Black president

- The NAACP Today
* Highlights from the convention in Philadelphia;
* Felony disenfranchisement;
* Grading Congress

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America's Future
Election 2004
You Decide