Chicago Mayor Fires City’s Police Superintendent Over ‘Ethical Lapses’

Walmart’s Strategy When Wading Into Culture Wars: Offend Few

A Walmart in Secaucus, N.J. The retailer’s approach to public policy issues is more nuanced than a desire to simply do the right thing, interviews show.Credit...Gabby Jones for The New York TimesPublished Nov. 4, 2019Updated Nov. 5, 2019Walmart is getting out of the vaping business, but still sells cigarettes. It is working to reduce plastic…

Fiona Hill and the American Idea

A naturalized American exposes Trump’s attack on what America is and must be.Nov. 22, 2019Fiona Hill leaving a closed hearing on Capitol Hill early this month.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York TimesFor a naturalized American, raised in Britain, I found Fiona Hill’s testimony at impeachment hearings this week to be a powerful reminder of what…

Noose Found in Locker Brings Unrest to Mississippi Fire Department

(HATTIESBURG, Miss.) — There’s little disagreement that the object found in a white Mississippi firefighter’s locker was a hangman’s noose. But as with many things in America these days, there’s deep disagreement about what it meant. To some it was a reminder of lynchings that took hundreds of black lives in Mississippi, and it had…

Popeyes Sandwich Strikes a Chord for African-Americans

Credit...Nick Kindelsperger/Chicago Tribune, via Getty ImagesKANSAS CITY, Mo. — The videos of mind-numbing first bites and long lines, the celebratory memes and fawning reviews: The return of the Popeyes chicken sandwich on Sunday has met with the same social-media frenzy that first greeted it last summer.But embedded in many of the catchy memes and witty…

Overlooked No More: Lillian Harris Dean, Culinary Entrepreneur Known as ‘Pig Foot Mary’

From a baby carriage on a Manhattan street corner, she sold Southern food to African-Americans who, like her, had moved to New York during the Great Migration. Left, the corner of 135th Street and what is now Malcolm X Boulevard in the 1920s, near where Lillian Harris sold her traditional Southern meals. Above, Benja Kay…

William Loren Katz, Historian of African-Americans, Dies at 92

He documented the often overlooked contributions of black people in books for young adults, helping to refashion social studies curriculums across the country.William Loren Katz in an undated photo. He wrote some 40 books about the integral roles that black people played in American history.Published Nov. 21, 2019Updated Nov. 22, 2019The fountainhead of the historian…

That Recruitment Letter From Harvard Probably Doesn’t Mean Much

Especially if you’re African-American, according to a new study.A working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research argues that Harvard intentionally draws applications from African-Americans who effectively have no chance of getting in.Credit...Cody O'Loughlin for The New York TimesNov. 29, 2019The message, emailed to more than 100,000 high school students, was seductive and flattering:…

How Advocates of Reproductive Justice Found Their Spotlight

The hotel ballroom is packed when the spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin takes the stage on a Saturday morning in late October. At least 1,100 mostly women and nonbinary people of color have filled the vast space in the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta in anticipation of her performance and of Stacey Abrams’ keynote address, which will…

Battlefields: Recent Books in Military History

NonfictionEugene BullardCredit...US Air ForcePublished Nov. 5, 2019Updated Nov. 7, 2019Watching the recent resurgence of white supremacism in America, I have come to think that much of what I was taught about our history is wrong. For example, Reconstruction did not collapse because of its inherent faults, as my high school teachers said. Rather, it was…

The Pork Chops You’ll Make Again and Again

EatPork chops in lemon-caper sauce.Credit...Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Paola Andrea.There are precious few feelings as nice as the one that comes from falling in love with a cookbook — with its aesthetics and point of view, with its larder and stories, above all with the…

Five Places to Visit in Washington, D.C. With a Black Digital Storyteller

Travel|Five Places to Visit in Washington, D.C. With a Black Digital Storyteller5 PlacesLanae Spruce made a name for herself as a social media specialist at the Smithsonian’s African American Museum. Here are her top D.C. spots.Lanae Spruce, a social media storyteller, lists the Anacostia Arts Center as one of her favorite spots in Washington. “It’s…

‘Our Nation Is Being Torn Apart. Truth Is Questioned.’

Fiona Hill’s warnings challenge Trump to keep America safe from Moscow’s efforts to destabilize democracy and snare influence around the globe. By Jeffrey A. StaceyDr. Stacey is a former State Department official and is working on a book titled “Rise of the East, End of the West?”Nov. 23, 2019Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council…

Surviving Droughts, Tornadoes and Racism

TANNER, Ala. — “There are easier ways to make a living than farming,” Greg Bridgeforth said as he drove a combine through fields he farms in northern Alabama. “But this is what I truly love to do — till the soil and grow things, just like my father, grandfather and great-grandfather did. You know, when…

What Were the Most Memorable Moments From Last Night’s Debate? – The New York Times

Politics|What Were the Most Memorable Moments From Last Night’s Debate?For a Democratic debate that was without major fireworks, there were several memorable moments. Here are the lines that stood out. Videotranscripttranscript‘Donald Trump Got Punked’: The Best One-Liners From the DebateFrom Cory Booker’s buzzkill response to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s stance on marijuana legalization to Andrew…

30 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia Is Only Pretending to Be a Major Power

Vladimir Yakunin, the former Russian Railways boss and KGB spy, leaned forward to describe the way the world is going. It was the middle of October, and he had just convened an annual gathering of statesmen from countries that are, as a rule, sympathetic to the Kremlin. Held each fall on the Greek island of…

The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s

Many of the best nonfiction books of the decade tap into the lives of individuals to speak to universal human experiences — those of grief and recovery, hubris and failure, dreams and disappointments. Some, in their intimate specificity, open doors to worlds that only few have seen. All employ dazzling prose to draw readers further…

Trump Aims at U.S. Diplomat, Shoots Himself in the Foot

On Nov. 15, the public got to see what it looks like when President Donald Trump attacks someone in public and the cameras are rolling. Weeks of hearings, months of allegations, and more than a year of behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Trump’s allies came to a sharp point today as the ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine,…

Five Polling Results That May Change the Way You Think About Electability

Our battleground surveys had some outcomes that upended the conventional wisdom. Nov. 12, 2019ImageDemocratic strength in Arizona was perhaps the most surprising topline result in the six states polled.Credit...Matt York/Associated PressDemocratic voters have a clear ideological choice in this year’s presidential primaries. But if there is any lesson from the recent New York Times/Siena College…

Race and ‘The Real Housewives’

Bravo’s shows offer a wealth of diversity, but its crown jewel has often been divided on racial lines.How the cast of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” has evolved since it premiered in 2010Credit...Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Getty Images“The sun always shines on Beverly Hills, but not on everyone,” Camille Grammer says…

Five Polling Results That May Change the Way You Think About Electability

Our battleground surveys had some outcomes that upended the conventional wisdom. Nov. 12, 2019ImageDemocratic strength in Arizona was perhaps the most surprising topline result in the six states polled.Credit...Matt York/Associated PressDemocratic voters have a clear ideological choice in this year’s presidential primaries. But if there is any lesson from the recent New York Times/Siena College…

10 Candidates Will Take the Stage in November’s Democratic Debate. Here’s Everything to Know

Get ready for heated arguments, political debates and pointed questions. No, it’s not your Thanksgiving dinner — it’s the November Democratic debate. Democratic presidential primary candidates will square off tonight on a debate stage in Atlanta, where the primary debate will be co-hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post, airing live from 9 p.m. to…

Confederate Statue in North Carolina Comes Down After 112 Years

U.S.|Confederate Statue in North Carolina Comes Down After 112 YearsThe statue’s removal came after months of “high emotions, division and even violence” in the small town of Pittsboro, a county official said.Workers loaded the monument onto a truck after it was removed from its place in front of the Chatham County Courthouse in Pittsboro, N.C.,…

The Democrats Are in Georgia. The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher.

The state’s demographics have been favorable to turn it blue, but destiny is shaped by history, too. By Joseph CrespinoMr. Crespino is a history professor at Emory University.Nov. 20, 2019Voters last year in Atlanta.Credit...Jessica Mcgowan/Getty ImagesWith tonight’s presidential primary debate, Georgia Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief. Finally, they are saying, the national party…

Students Protest a Series of Racist Incidents at Syracuse University. Here’s What to Know

A series of racist incidents at Syracuse University — including derogatory graffiti and the sharing of an alleged white supremacist manifesto — have sparked outrage at the upstate New York school, prompting student sit-ins and demands for action, as well as criticism from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, while authorities continue to investigate. Students have…

16-Year-Old Girl Accused of Planning Attack on Black Church in Georgia

(ATLANTA) — A white 16-year-old girl is accused of plotting to attack a mostly black church in a north Georgia city, where police say she planned to kill worshippers because of their race. Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church has a predominantly black congregation, Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish said in a statement Tuesday. “Our investigation…

Trump Is Speaking at a Historically Black College. His Allies Will Outnumber Students.

President Trump, speaking at Benedict College in South Carolina, said he had done more for black voters than any other president.President Trump spoke at a criminal justice forum at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., on Friday.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesCOLUMBIA, S.C. — President Trump, speaking to a handpicked audience of supporters at a historically black…

Essex Crossing Is the Anti-Hudson Yards

Even half-done, Essex Crossing, on the Lower East Side, is shaping up as one of New York’s most promising new mixed-use developments — the anti-Hudson Yards. A $1.9 billion, six-acre, for-profit mega-project occupying several blocks around Delancey Street where traffic barrels onto and off the Williamsburg Bridge, it replaces what had been a vast no-man’s…

Nebraska Just Approved More Inclusive Social Studies Guidelines. They’re a Window Into the Changing Way Kids Are Learning U.S. History

JoAnna Wood was in fifth grade when her class watched the movie of The Indian in the Cupboard. At one point in the 1995 film, a cowboy calls an Indian a savage. Her fellow students cracked up. “I didn’t think it was funny,” says Wood, 12, who is a member of the Winnebago tribe and…

Transit System Chief Apologizes to Black Rider Detained for Eating a Breakfast Sandwich

(SAN FRANCISCO) — The head of a San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system apologized to a black rider who was detained and cited by police for eating a breakfast sandwich on a train platform after an outcry from people who assailed enforcement of a no-food rule as racist. More than two dozen people staged…

Who Will Wear My Dead Husband’s Clothes?

It took me a long time to find a new home for the belongings he left behind.By Fernanda SantosMs. Santos, a former national correspondent for The Times, teaches journalism at Arizona State University.Nov. 1, 2019Credit...Bianca BagnarelliPHOENIX — My husband and I shared a narrow, shoebox-shaped closet in our home here, his clothes facing mine from…