Annette John-Hall is a metro columnist for The Inquirer. She was previously a features reporter and columnist focusing on music, film television and pop culture. A native of Berkeley, Calif., she covered professional, college and high school sports at the San Jose Mercury News, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Oakland Tribune.
Her column appears Tuesdays and Fridays in The Inquirer's metro section.
Email Annette at johnhaa@phillynews.com
Annette John-Hall: I realize now that the chance to champion ordinary folks and write about the issues affecting all of us was the most extraordinary opportunity I would ever have.
The entire treatment of slavery in my junior high history books - crack sources of information that they were - consisted of one or two illustrations of nameless black people, in chains, standing on auction blocks or picking cotton. Nary a mention of who the enslaved were, how they felt about their lives, or whether they had any dreams or aspirations.
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President Obama needs everyone's help to make history
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Now that Barack Hussein Obama has placed his hand on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Bible and taken the oath of office for his second term as 44th president of the United States, the clock begins to tick on history.
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Ramsey: Gun-control debate is not going away
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This week, President Obama put forth a series of executive orders and a sweeping legislative package to implement, finally, some kind of lasting gun control.
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Black mortician outraged by TV series
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Annette John-Hall: Amid such breakout hits as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs. comes TLC's new reality show, Best Funeral Ever.
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Dr. King's contribution at Girard College
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Despite his lifelong quest for integration, justice, and equality, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said life's "most urgent and persistent question is, what are you doing for others?"
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Stopping gun violence her main target for 2013
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Annette John-Hall: Here is the No. 1 issue my pen will push forward in 2013: A full-scale citizen assault on gun violence.
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Christie is looking better and better
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Annette John-Hall: I said this after Hurricane Sandy and I'll say it again. Chris Christie has started to grow on me. And no, that's not meant as a joke.
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Stories to warm the heart during holidays
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With all of the evil we've witnessed in the last week, I'm so thankful my mailbox is overflowing with your testaments to goodness.
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This country still can't get it right on guns
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Annette John-Hall: For all our sophistication and brain power, we're the most violent nation on the planet.
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An underground story no more
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As the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation approaches, we're being offered all kinds of ways to imagine how freedom for enslaved African Americans materialized.
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Defying the odds, this young man gives of himself
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A couple of weeks ago, I challenged you to take a holiday giving pledge. I asked you to share how you were giving back, not just by writing a charitable check for that all-important year-end tax deduction - but what exactly are you doing to give of yourself?
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