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Henrietta Lacks Estate Sues Company Using Her ‘Stolen’ Cells
The estate is accusing a biotechnology firm of selling cells taken from her in 1951 without her knowledge or consent.
Read MoreAlabama spends more than a half-million dollars a year on a Confederate memorial. Black historical sites struggle to keep their doors open.
By Emmanuel Felton, The Washington Post MOUNTAIN CREEK, Ala. — Down a country road, past a collection of ramshackle mobile homes, sits a 102-acre “shrine to the honor of Alabama’s citizens of the Confederacy.” The state’s Confederate Memorial Park is a sprawling complex, home to a small museum and two well-manicured cemeteries with neat rows…
Read More‘We Can Not Forget’: Miami-Dade County Renames ‘Dixie Highway’ to Honor Harriet Tubman
The Harriet Tubman Highway in South Florida has been unveiled after many county workers and a very determined teenager called for the removal of the road’s previous problematic “Dixie Highway” title.
Read MoreUSDA to Form Commission to Tackle Racial Disparities That Hurt Black Farmers
The agency has long been accused of discrimination against Black farmers regarding loan applications and debt forgiveness.
Read MoreMelvin Van Peebles, Champion of New Black Cinema, Dies at 89
Melvin Van Peebles, known as the godfather of modern Black cinema and a trailblazer in American independent movies, has died. He was 89. A Renaissance man whose work spanned books, theater and music, Mr. Van Peebles is best known for his third feature film, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” Mr. Van Peebles’s fiercely independent legacy can be seen in some of the most notable Black films of the past half-century.
Read More12 Years A Slave’ Director Steve McQueen Remembers Michael K. Williams: ‘He Lifted Everybody’ On Set
Actor Michael Williams was found dead in his apartment on Sept. 6. Many members of the film industry paid tribute to Williams and his work. Director Steve McQueen of the Academy Award winning film 12 Years a Slave opens up about what is was like to work with Williams.
Read MoreDigital records from 19th Century give Black families a glimpse of their ancestry
By Curtis Bunn, NBCBLK After more than 20 years researching her family’s origin in America, Nicka Sewell-Smith found the name of an uncle who had filed a complaint about having his horse stolen. Another notation said he had shopped for bacon, a broom and tobacco in “Short’s Place” in Louisiana about seven months before the 13th…
Read MoreDOJ Announces New Limits on Chokeholds and No-Knock Warrants
By Rachel Pilgrim, TheRoot.com The agency acknowledged that the tactics lead to unnecessary deaths but doesn’t outright ban them in the new directive. In the past year, the calls to end fatal encounters with law enforcement have only gotten louder. Many of the physical restraints and apprehension tactics that result in the unnecessary deaths of Black…
Read MoreHe Taught About White Privilege and Got Fired. Now He’s Fighting to Get His Job Back
In his Contemporary Issues class that day at a Tennessee school, social studies teacher Matthew Hawn led a discussion of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha WI. Over the next several months, Hawn, 43, used the news cycle to show students, almost all of whom are white, how systemic racism is an indisputable element of American life. When he got fired, Hawn became one of the first casualties from the nation’s debate this year over “critical race theory” and whether or how teachers should acknowledge racism in class.
Read MoreMaia Chaka Makes History as the First Black Woman to Officiate an NFL Game
By Rashad Grove, Ebony.com Maia Chaka made history by becoming the first Black woman to officiate an NFL game on Sunday, Sporting News reports. Making her debut as a line judge during the New York Jets vs. Carolina Panthers game, Chaka is only the third on-field female official in the history of the NFL. She joins Sarah Thomas,…
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