The Rev. Al Sharpton and relatives of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Michael Brown marched arm in arm Saturday along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., protesting the recent deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Members of several civil rights organizations joined Sharpton in…

San Diego protesters took to social media Friday with charges that a staff member who works for City Councilwoman Lorie Zapf called them “f—king idiots with their hands up” and added, “I wanted to shoot them.” According to KPBS, on Wednesday during the City Council inauguration, community representative Shirley Owen grew tired of protesters who…

A 19-year-old California woman is fighting for her life after taking a friend’s prescription medication and having an allergic reaction that caused her “body to burn from the inside out,” according to news station KABC. Yaasmeen Castanada began feeling sick on Thanksgiving and took a friend’s antibiotic, Castanada’s mother, Laura Corona, told the news station.…

Rapper Earl Hayes reportedly shot and killed his wife, actress and dancer Stephanie Moseley, before turning the gun on himself in what TMZ is calling a jealousy-fueled rage after he heard rumors that Moseley might have been cheating on him. According to KTLA, officers were called to the Palazzo East apartments, a high-end apartment complex…

On Saturday, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose hit the court during pregame warm-ups wearing a black T-shirt with white letters that read simply, “I Can’t Breathe.” On Sunday, Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush wrote the phrase on his shirt before taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The players’ silent protest wasn’t lost on the…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made waves with the police union last week after his comments that his biracial son needed to take special precautions when dealing with police. According to the Huffington Post, de Blasio commented, after a Staten Island, N.Y., grand jury decided not to indict an officer responsible for the…

The recent deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers have sparked debate and protests across the nation. According to an Associated Press report, there are “no firm statistics” to determine if this is a new trend or merely business as usual when it comes to policing the black community. “We have a…

Akai Gurley, 28, and his girlfriend, Melissa Butler, 27, were leaving Butler’s seventh-floor apartment at the Louis Pink Houses in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 20 after she had just finished braiding his hair. Tired of waiting for the elevator, they decided to take the stairs. At the same time, police say, two rookie officers were…

Deshawnda Sanchez, a 21-year-old transgender woman known to many as “Tata,” was gunned down on Wednesday in front of a house in South Los Angeles that police believe she had run to seeking help. “She was definitely at that door, pounding on that door seeking help,” Los Angeles police Detective Christopher Barling told KTLA 5.…

A Chicago man is facing battery and assault charges after he reportedly attacked a woman who refused to give him her phone number. DNAinfo Chicago reports that an unnamed 21-year-old woman from Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood was riding the city’s L train when Denzel Rosson, 24, approached her and asked for her number. The woman refused…