(REAL TIMES MEDIA)—By now you have likely heard that Barack Obama has selected Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy left open by retiring judge John Paul Stevens. Stevens was a liberal stalwart on the court, and the perfect foil to the rightward lurching of the Supreme Court under eight years of the Bush administration. We’ll be lucky if Kagan is half as progressive. In fact, the only hope that the public has that her nomination will balance out the court rather than be another squishy moderate, is if it turns out that she really is a lesbian.

On May 4, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered that the undeservedly little-known Pittsburgh African-American pioneer George Boyer Vashon be admitted to the state bar 132 years after his death. Pittsburghers deserve to know the details of this remarkable local son’s life and contributions.

My own recollection of the name Vashon dates to more than 50 years ago and not in Pittsburgh but in my hometown of St. Louis. But I never heard or read his name in New York City, where I later grew up and where he took the bar, becoming the first Black licensed attorney in New York State. Nor did I come across his name or account of his life in Syracuse, where I have lived full-time and part-time for 33 years and where Vashon first practiced law.

(NNPA)—When we reflect on the civil rights struggle within this nation, we often focus—and rightfully so—on the works of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In school, students learn of the boycotts and sit-ins that transformed the landscape of everyday American life. And those of us that lived it, remember signs that read “Whites only,” the segregated schools and the countless marches that eventually united and integrated society. But in order to alter peoples’ mindsets when it came to race relations, there were also those who utilized their own influence to make a bold, lasting statement. One such talent was the late Lena Horne, whose sheer existence changed the way we view African-American women forever.

(NNPA)—After pretending to be seriously considering up to 10 people for appointment to the Supreme Court, including two African-American women, President Obama did what most of us predicted all along: He selected Solicitor General Elena Kagan to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens. I wrote more than a month ago that Kagan is a less than ideal appointment and nothing in recent weeks has changed my opinion.