Columnist
Otis Sanford is a political columnist, author and professor emeritus in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis.
There are 278 articles by Otis Sanford :
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.
"Big Mo" – as in Momentum – is a nickname that just might stick. And as Mayor Jim Strickland makes his re-election bid, he would be wise to embrace it.
Gov. Bill Haslam's highly-publicized and celebrated decision granting full clemency to Cyntoia Brown is indicative of how he has governed during his two terms: a compassionate conservative moved simply by the desire to do the right thing.
After putting the kibosh on rumors about his political future, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is making a rather bold prediction of his own.
A steady flow of mostly positive economic news for Memphis and Shelby County – coupled with the solemn and tasteful commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination – was overshadowed at times by political bickering and grandstanding in 2018.