Columnist
Otis Sanford is a political columnist, author and professor emeritus in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis.
There are 268 articles by Otis Sanford :
Willie Herenton still trails Mayor Jim Strickland in the mayor’s internal polls. A televised debate would be Herenton’s chance to convince skeptical voters that he’s still got it.
An unassuming, 87-year-old, recently retired black sanitation worker provides a powerful and authentic endorsement of Jim Strickland.
Investigators knew that the owners acted illegally by hiring undocumented workers. If they wanted to make this crackdown an example of equal justice, they would have pulled owners out of their offices the same day they snatched immigrant workers away from their frightened children.
Because of our toxic political climate, the two biggest motivators that drive voters to the polls are anger and excitement. The city election is nonpartisan and falls between the 2018 midterm and next year’s presidential contest, which may leave Memphis voters complacent.
Poverty, crime and implicit bias have a devastating effect on black male students. Researchers found the educational achievement gap between black and white students amounted to "the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.”
Trump’s slogan from the beginning was code for marginalizing people of color as different and inferior, while assuring white Americans who have an innate fear and distrust of multiculturalism that they would have a president who was always on their side.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, first elected in 2006, plans to seek reelection in 2020 and 2022, but it's no secret that more than a few Democrats are positioning themselves to run for the seat the moment he decides to step aside.
African-Americans were not about to just show up at all-white public schools and trust that they would be accepted. It required the power of the federal courts – and in some instances the muscle of the federal government – to force change.
As former Memphis mayors Dick Hackett and A C Wharton can attest, the top city job requires political skill in the face of bad news or calamity.
District Attorney John Champion is not serving as a P.R. spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service or any other law enforcement agency. He is speaking out for the Hernando shooting victim, whose ordeal has mostly gotten lost amid the violent unrest, the finger pointing and vigils that occurred after Brandon Webber was killed.
The gravity of violent crime continues to loom over Memphis like an ominous storm cloud that stubbornly refuses to break up and move on.
Most of us believe the Second Amendment gives us the unfettered right to own practically any type of weapon – high powered or otherwise – along with unlimited ammunition and accessories to go with it. The Virginia Beach shooter had several extended magazines that allowed him to continuously fire at his victims and responding police officers.
If Casada thinks that removing Cothren as chief of staff and smoothing things over with contrite words on the radio will put an end to the scandal, he is mistaken. The bipartisan chorus of calls for him to resign will only get louder, and Democrats are intensifying their demands for a TBI investigation.
Sequels are seldom as good as the original, but if this year's version of the People’s Convention sparks an increase in voter turnout and civic engagement, it will be well worth it.
Biden, 76, will face plenty of left-leaning challengers as he battles for the Democratic nomination. Among those challenges is the notion that the primary campaign will not be kind to anyone with moderate political views.
Instead of fueling another racial fight over the right to vote, lawmakers should be promoting better ways to help individuals and groups with the registration process.
As the 2019 city mayoral election starts to gain steam, there is little discussion about fighting violent crime, particularly by former mayor Willie Herenton and Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, the two major opponents vying to unseat Jim Strickland.
The history-altering transfer of public property to an upstart nonprofit transformed Van Turner from mild-mannered lawyer and county commissioner to gutsy leader, willing to take the heat for removing Confederate symbols of slavery and racism.
The 2019 mayor's race is shaping up as a three-way contest representing the past, present and, perhaps, future of city politics.
White inmates represent 58 percent of the total federal prison population, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The First Step Act, designed to lower mandatory-minimum sentences, shouldn't be considered an altruistic act exclusively for black inmates.
In his early career, Russell Sugarmon played a key role in Memphis' political evolution, both as a candidate for city office in 1959 and as a lawyer for college students who staged sit-ins at lunch counters and public libraries.
Mississippi’s Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is running to be the chief executive of a state where nearly 40 percent of its citizens are African-Americans. They and everyone else in Mississippi deserve to hear directly from him a definitive statement on race relations in 2019.
The Tennessee Republican Party must find the political courage to move the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust – a blatant symbol of Tennessee’s shameful history – out of the Capitol rotunda and into the museum, and replace it with a hero that is more representative of all Tennesseans.
The 10 women honored with Luminary Award medals this year represent the diversity, racially and otherwise, that makes Memphis a cool place in which to live.