The Professor Who Schooled Tavis Smiley

By: Les Payne

Bristling in the face of the calm scholar, Tavis Smiley was having none of the lesson that Randall Kennedy was teaching on Smiley's TV show in early September. So the Harvard law professor contented himself with taking PBS viewers to school on the complex relationship between the first black U.S. president and his African-American constituency.

Kennedy weighed in with the scholarship of his new book, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency, noting that President Barack Obama has mastered the dual audience so troubling to black seekers of high office. African-American voters broke for him in the '08 primary after largely white voters in Iowa favored him over John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.

Already, Kennedy argued, Obama was overcoming skepticism among grassroots blacks wary about his upbringing by a white mother and her parents. He heaped praise upon Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders and displayed the requisite level of "comfort with black history, black culture, black rhythms, black colloquialisms."And whereas Obama did not choose his parents, the young politician had chosen a "very distinguished black woman, Michelle Robinson" as his wife. CONTINUE....

Henry Louis Gates' Arrest Spurs Profiling Claims

By: Melissa Trujillo, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Police responding to a call about "two black males" breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there — Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation's pre-eminent black scholar.

Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said. Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.

Henry Louis Gates' Arrest Spurs Profiling Claims....

HARVARD ANNOUNCES FREE TUITION

Harvard University announced recently that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition.

In making the announcement, Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers said, 'When only 10 percent of the students in Elite higher education come from families in lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution.'

If you know of a family earning less than $40,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition.

The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-in come families can go to Harvard for free...no tuition and no student loans!

To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $40,000 a year visit Harvard's financial aid website at: http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/ or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY BECOMING AFFORDABLE

Harvard University - one of the nation's most prestigious and expensive colleges - last week expanded its efforts to get more students from both low-income and middle class families attending school on its Ivy League campus.

The school announced that beginning next fall families earning between $120,000 and $180,000 a year will be required to pay no more than 10 percent of their income for their child's education.

The move comes atop a decision three years ago to waive all costs for students coming from families earning less than $40,000 a year.

And last year the free education program was extended to students coming from families earning up to $60,000 a year.

In addition, Harvard will eliminate student loans and replace them with grants which do not have to be repaid.