March/April 2005

CONTENTS

ISSUES & VIEWS
— The Great Debate
Social Security is an insurance program, not just for retirees, but for families. Is it wise to privatize if such a change would erode the system’s security and do nothing to address future shortfalls?
By William E. Spriggs and Maya Rockeymoore

FEATURES
— Uphill Battle
Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore is the first African American elected to Congress from her state. She is a political veteran who continues to fight for the underserved
By Terence Samuel

— Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Forty years ago, civil rights activists crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Attacked by state police, their nonviolent march for voting rights turned into a “Bloody Sunday”
By Denise L. Berkhalter

— Family Medicine
The Primms have pooled their medical expertise to form Health Disparities Solutions in Baltimore, a nationally recognized, multifaceted effort to improve African American health
By Ericka Blount Danois

— The Rap on "Rosa Parks"
The 1998 OutKast song that borrowed the name of a civil rights icon remains the subject of a controversial lawsuit
By Trevor W. Coleman

Cover: William Duke for The Crisis

DEPARTMENTS
- Editor's Note

- Letters

- Up Front: Spelman College oral history project preserves women’s wisdom; 1951 civil rights murder of Florida couple is reopened; Majority whip Karen Bass makes inroads in California State Assembly; Young CEO spots trends for corporations; Female attorneys of color form networking group; Black Republicans gain modest ground in the South
Questions: AARP President Marie Smith discusses the state of Social Security

- Health: What the nation can learn from TennCare, Tennessee’s troubled effort to provide universal health care

- Crisis Forum
* Television: Eyes on the Prize, the definitive documentary on the Civil Rights Movement, has been shelved due to expensive copyright issues
* Books:
— Reviews of Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968-1980 by Kimberly Springer;
— Keith Boykin’s Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America; and
— Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality in America by Dwight McBride

- Backstory: Taigi Smith reflects on covering the deadly tsunami in Thailand

- The NAACP Today
* Special honors at Image Awards;
* Women in the NAACP (WIN);
* NAACP takes stand against IRS audit;
* Special Report: Regional Updates;
* Branch News: St. Cloud, Minn.;
* New health director Lucille Perez

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Social Security:
The Heated Debate