WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An extraordinary House committee hearing began considering a contempt measure against Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday even though President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over documents sought by the panel investigating the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting.

(CNN) -- Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger of the Union Army announced to the assembled crowd at Ashton Villa in Galveston, Texas, "In accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." It was June 19, 1865.

(CNN) -- More than 160 years after its founding as a pro-slavery church, the Southern Baptist Convention was preparing Tuesday to elect a black pastor for the first time to lead the denomination.

(CNN) -- The immigration debate often centers on stemming the flow of people entering the United States illegally and what to do about securing borders to the south. But here's a fact that goes without much attention: Asians have now taken over Latinos as the largest group of new arrivals every year.

(CNN) -- The University of Texas' prestigious Center for Middle Eastern Studies recently got a blunt taste of the turbulent region it studies.

(CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court will rule this month on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the health-care reform law that President Obama had signed in March 2010. Here's a look at key moments in the law's history.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rather than celebrating Father's Day on Sunday afternoon, Horace Russell marched with several thousand people to take a stand against the New York Police Department's controversial "stop and frisk" policy.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Opponents of gay marriage have an unblemished track record in U.S. elections, chalking up 32 victories in 32 public votes.

A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling.

The Stand Your Ground law is most widely associated with the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who claimed he was acting in self-defense.