Breaking News! History in the Making

Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation”, Hollywood Clapback or Just Another Slave Movie?
By Riley Wilson and Shantrelle P. Lewis, Colorlines.com In this point/counterpoint about Nate Parker’s buzzy directorial debut, two Black independent filmmakers wrestle with the notion of seeing more chains, whips and nooses on the big screen. Riley Wilson: “The Birth of a Nation” Didn’t Change the Game …On the one hand, we have a film written, directed, and starring…

‘Proof of Life’ Video Shows Some of Chibok, Nigeria’s Kidnapped Girls
See the video in which parents saw their children for the first time in two years.

SNL’s “The Day Beyoncé Turned Black” and How White America Went Nuts
Watch white folks go off when they find out that Beyoncé is, gasp, black.

President Proclaims National African American History Month 2016
The full text of President Obama’s Proclamation, dated January 29, 2016, in which he states: “During National African American History Month, we recognize these champions of justice and the sacrifices they made to bring us to this point, we honor the contributions of African Americans since our country’s beginning, and we recommit to reaching for a day when no person is judged by anything but the content of their character.”

Ex-Cop William Melendez Gets Up to 10 Years for Beating of Michigan Driver Floyd Dent
Judge Vonda Evans: “You were so into your bravado that you forgot the eye of justice was recording you,”

Jan Rodrigues: The First Black Man on the Island of Manhattan
Hidden History: The story of the first African descendant to settle on New York’s Manhattan Island.

Hillary Clinton Goes Back to the Dunning School
How do you diagnose the problem of racism in America without understanding its actual history?

The Unflattering History of the Cop Who’d Run Over Black People
Sgt. Jeffrey Rothecker is very, very sorry about a recent Facebook post advising Twin Cities residents to run over Black Lives Matter protesters.

Stephen Colbert Let DeRay McKesson Interview Him About His Whiteness
A key black activist spoke candidly on a popular late night talk show about police brutality, the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and the Democratic debate.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday in 1986.

Congressman Wonders If Congressional Black Caucus Cares About All Black Lives
Wisconsin politician Sean Duffy claims that black folks are being “targeted” by the abortion industry in an attempt to ban healthcare.

‘Black Girls Vote’ looks to get young women to polls
“Our vote is our voice. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a GED, or if you have a PhD, we’re all the same.”

America’s Self-Destructive Whites
Over the past 15 years, one group — middle-age whites in the United States — constitutes an alarming trend. They are dying in increasing numbers. And things look much worse for those with just a high school diploma or less.

More Police Officers Facing Charges, But Few See Jail
One thing remains clear: The law gives the police the benefit of the doubt.

Grand Jury Could Still Snare Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland
Bland’s family is calling for a federal prosecution.

Cops kicked me so hard I lost a testicle
A Brooklyn man claims he was kicked in the testicles so hard by NYPD cops that he had to have one of them surgically removed.

John Boyega Braces for Galactic Fame
By David Itzkoff, the New York Times […] Were they specifically looking for a nonwhite actor to play Finn? Everybody was being seen for all these roles. I would have been suspicious if it was only black people going in for Finn. I would have thought, “Oh, maybe there’s an active agenda there.” It looked…