Breaking News! History in the Making
Black History: October 7th 1954
By HuffingtonPost.com (October 7th) in 1954, the New York Metropolitan Opera hired Marian Anderson making her the first black singer that the famed opera house signed on. Anderson would make her debut performance with the company three months later, on January 7, 1955. Before the big hire, Anderson made a name for herself performing at venues like…
Do Racial Issues Still Push Some Over the Edge?
By Richard Prince, theRoot.com The suspect slain after a chase from the White House to the U.S. Capitol Thursday wasn’t identified by race, unlike the Washington Navy Yard killer who left 12 others dead less than three weeks earlier. Miriam Carey wasn’t at large, as was Aaron Alexis of Fort Worth, Texas, whose race was broadcast when reporters had little…
Never-Ending Story: ‘Conversation About Race’ Has Not Brought Cultural Consensus
By A.O. Scott, The New York Times The “conversation about race” that public figures periodically claim to desire, the one that is always either about to happen or is being prevented from happening, has been going on, at full volume, at least since the day in 1619 when the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown.…
KKK Rally At Gettysburg Canceled Because Of Government Shutdown
By Paige Lavender, Huffington Post A Ku Klux Klan rally planned for Saturday, Oct. 5 has been canceled because of the government shutdown. On Sept. 26, officials at Gettysburg National Military Park granted a special-use permit for a rally to a Maryland-based KKK group. According to NBC 10 Philadelphia, the event was canceled when park officials rescinded all permits for special events…
Unequal Pain Relief in the Emergency Room
By Nicolas Bakalar, The New York Times Black and Hispanic children who go to an emergency room with stomach pain are less likely than white children to receive pain medication, a new study reports, and more likely to spend long hours in the emergency room. The analysis, published in the October issue of Pediatrics, examined the…
Hollywood’s Race Problem
By Kia Makarechi, www.HuffingtonPost.com In bleak situations, incremental improvements can be mistaken for big time progress. So it goes with Hollywood’s consistent inability to include actors of color. Popular critical consensus suggests that we may have as many as four black Best Actor nominees: Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”), Idris Elba (“Mandela: Long Walk…
‘Because You’re Black’
By Nathan Place and Erin Durkin, NYDailyNews.com At the Framboise Patisserie in Middle Village, Queens, the pastries are elegant, the cakes are custom-made — and city officials say the hiring is discriminatory.“I can’t hire you because you’re black,” Jamilah DaCosta, 25, said she heard when she applied for a job working the counter at the…
Hate Crime Punished With Excecution
By Julie Carr Smyth, TheBigStory.ap.org A white gunman who spewed racial slurs before fatally shooting a black man and a police officer in a 1994 rampage that prosecutors called one of Ohio’s worst crimes was put to death Wednesday with the state’s last dose of its execution drug. (…) Mitts was convicted of aggravated murder…
Act Like a Slave?
By Jamil Smith, Tv.Msnbc.com When James Baker heard the words “Nature’s Classroom” in reference to the Massachusetts location of his 12-year-old daughter’s forthcoming four-day field trip, he thought she and her fellow students would “just be going to learn what side of the tree moss grows on.” Instead, as he and his wife Sandra described…
New Mandela Film Well Received in South Africa
By Ron Allen, NBCnews.com, TheGrio.com I think he would be pleased.” The words of Ahmed Kathrada, one of Nelson Mandela’s closest confidants, giving what he thinks would be Mandela’s assessment of the new film based on his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. “This will be the first fairly complete resume of his life from childhood onward,” Kathrada…
What is a “Black Name”?
By Jamelle Bouie, TheDailyBeast.com Reddit isn’t just a clearinghouse for interviews, animal pictures, and crazy stories. It’s also a place where people ask questions and have discussions. (…) One user wondered about “black” names, posing a question to the “Black American parents of Reddit,” as he put it. “Before racism is called out, I have plenty…
Tiana Parker Hair Controversy
By Rebecca Klein, HuffingtonPost.com Controversy continues to brew over an Oklahoma charter school’s dress code banning “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks and other faddish styles.” The policy rose to national prominence last week when 7-year-old Tiana Parker spoke out about being reprimanded by Deborah Brown Community School officials for wearing dreadlocks. State legislators are…
Teenage Waitress Receives Racist Tip
An image of a receipt left by a customer with a racist remark toward a Black waitress has gone viral after she shared it on social media.
Freedom House Church Not So Free
By Carrie Healey, TheGrio.com The lead pastor of Freedom House Church in North Carolina sent an e-mail to her congregation requesting that “only white people” serve as greeters. Carmen Thomas, an African-American member of the church, reached out to WBTV upon receiving the e-mail. “I was floored,” Thomas said during an interview with the local station.…
‘The Butler’: Lifting the Veil on Black Life
By Henry Louis Gates Jr., TheRoot.com I watched Lee Daniels’ The Butler in a standing-room-only theater on Martha’s Vineyard, with a thoroughly integrated audience of well-educated black and white people, whose ages ranged from teenagers and college students to midcareer professionals and retirees. The audience sat riveted over the entire course of the film, alternatively moved to laugh…
Politics Gets Its Own Cheerios Ad
The black son of a white candidate tackles stop and frisk in a campaign ad. By Keli Goff, theRoot.com Earlier this year, Cheerios generated extensive media attention — and countless racist comments online — for becoming the first major American brand to feature a mixed-race family in a television advertisement. Now an ad for a political campaign is poised…
NAACP: Stop-and-frisk Ruling a ‘Groundbreaking Victory’
By Lily Workneh, TheGrio.com Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled Mondy morning that New York City’s Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practice violated constitutional rights – and the NAACP is pleased with her decision. (…) “This is a groundbreaking victory,” said NAACP President Ben Jealous. “Judge Scheindlin recognized what the NAACP has been saying for years: the racial profiling tactic…
‘Race-switch’ Robbers Found Guilty On All Counts
By Selim Agar, Nypost.com The trio of black robbers who donned Hollywood-grade masks to appear Caucasian during the stickup of a Queens check cashing joint were found guilty on all counts in Brooklyn federal court today and each face life in prison. (…)Drawing their criminal inspiration from the Ben Affleck flick “The Town,” the crew…
On This Date in History: Alex Haley Was Born
From the African American Registry Alex Haley was born on this date in 1921. He was an African American author, whose books helped popularize the study of Black history and genealogy. Born in Ithaca, New York, Haley was educated at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College and at Elizabeth City Teachers College. He served in the…
A Family Consents to a Medical Gift, 62 Years Later
By Carl Zimmer, New York Times Henrietta Lacks was only 31 when she died of cervical cancer in 1951 in a Baltimore hospital. Not long before her death, doctors removed some of her tumor cells. They later discovered that the cells could thrive in a lab, a feat no human cells had achieved before. Soon the…
Ohio Organization Raising Funds to Buy George Zimmerman a New Gun
By Carrie Healey, TheGrio.com The Buckeye Firearms Foundation started a fund to buy George Zimmermann “a new gun and fight attacks on the Second Amendment.” (…) “This move to prevent Mr. Zimmerman from claiming his property is an unacceptable abuse of power,” the Buckeye Firearms Foundation wrote in their post. ”And the threats of federal…