Bill Cosby is the very opposite of the man of the hour at this point. As more companies pull support and distance themselves from the embattled TV dad in light of unsealed court documents in which Cosby admitted to buying drugs for women for the purpose of sex, a sexual-violence awareness group is now petitioning…

Memphis, Tenn., city leaders unanimously voted on Tuesday night to exhume the body of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader who is buried in the city’s Health Sciences Park, and move him to a private cemetery, Fusion reports. According to the report, the City Council also voted to move…

The Confederate flag that flies on South Carolina Statehouse grounds is one signature away from being removed after the state House of Representatives passed its final vote on the measure early Thursday morning, Reuters reports. According to the report, state representatives, on their third and final vote, passed the measure with a sweeping 94-20 vote…

Renowned ballerina Misty Copeland was made a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre on Tuesday, becoming the first African-American woman to hold the position with the company, the New York Times reports.  The promotion, the Times notes, brings to realization a well-known ambition of Copeland’s, who wrote about wanting to secure the promotion in…

Bree Newsome, the woman who became renowned after scaling the flag pole on the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse to remove the Confederate flag, has released her first full statement since the ordeal when she was arrested and later released on bail.  Titled with the rallying cry “Now Is the Time for Courage,” the detailed statement…

In a rousing eulogy punctuated by organ riffs, clapping and the occasional “Amen,” the president remembered and praised the life work of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney of South Carolina, who was also the pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. “We are here today to a remember a man of God who…

Same-sex couples can get married in all 50 states after a historic Supreme Court ruling on Friday struck down state bans, according to NPR. Gay marriage was already legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia, but now the narrow 5-4 ruling means that the remaining 13 states must stop refusing to marry same-sex…

The life of South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney will be celebrated Friday morning, with President Barack Obama delivering the eulogy for the Democrat, who was also pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. The Root will be live-streaming the event, which will begin at 11 a.m. at the TD Arena at…

Fire officials have determined that a fire that swept through a primarily black church in Charlotte, N.C., early Wednesday was no accident, Reuters reports. The blaze is estimated to have caused more than $250,000 worth of damage at the Briar Creek Baptist Church, according to the Charlotte Fire Department. “We completed our work on the…

Freddie Gray sustained a single “high-energy injury” that officials in Maryland’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office believe likely occurred when the police van that transported him abruptly decelerated, the Baltimore Sun reports.  Gray’s death, the agency concluded, was a homicide because of police officers’ failure to adhere to safety protocol “through acts of omission.” The Sun…