African-american, 2012 Presidential Election | featured news

Some African American, Spanish-speaking and elderly voters in Florida and Virginia are apparently being targeted by anonymous voter-suppression groups trying to trick them or intimidate them into not voting in the November presidential election, according to election officials and voter protection organizations.

In our view, however, there is a more compelling explanation for the apparent apathy on this issue. It's not that no one cares about voter suppression. But to rise above the other issues of the day -- and to transcend the inhibiting language that has framed the debate left and right -- voters will need to know what only to think about voter suppression but also what they can do.

The patchwork quilt that is the Democratic Party base -- women, Latinos, African-Americans -- will be on full display at Tuesday night's opening session of the national party convention. The highlight will be a prime-time address by First Lady Michelle Obama who is expected to play the same role Ann Romney did one week ago at the GOP gathering in Tampa: eschewing hard-edged politics for a soft-focus testimonial to her husband.

Take a guess as to what percentage of black voters Mitt Romney is winning this election. Now take whatever number you've got in your head and go lower.

A group of black journalists says it is disappointed in the lack of ethnic diversity among the people chosen to moderate presidential debates.

According to the NAACP’s senior vice president of policy and advocacy, Hilary Shelton, cheers for Mitt Romney came from a group of black supporters who came to the speech with the presidential hopeful.

Vice President Joe Biden drew cheers from the nation's biggest civil rights group on Thursday with a fiery defense of President Barack Obama's record, and he warned that the election of Republican Mitt Romney could reverse years of economic and civil rights gains for blacks.

Republican Mitt Romney is telling black voters that he's a better choice than President Barack Obama to help build their neighborhoods and lessen unemployment among African Americans. But Romney was greeted with boos from attendees at the NAACP's annual meeting Wednesday in Houston when he pledged to repeal "Obamacare" ... Romney was heckled at another point in the speech when he criticized Obama.

As governor of Michigan, George Romney pressed an aggressive agenda on the issue, putting himself at odds with Republican Party leaders. His son presents a different figure. In 1963, an explosive year in the quest for civil rights, George Romney appeared unannounced in the mostly white suburb of Grosse Pointe and marched to the front of an anti-segregation demonstration to stand beside black leaders.

In a fiery summons to an important voting block, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity....