A Bloomsburg, Pa., teen is facing charges of ethnic intimidation, harassment and disorderly conduct after he was arrested for yelling a racial slur at a black Bloomsburg University student, BloomUToday.com reports. According to the website, at around 9:40 p.m. on Aug. 4, Walter Corey Reibsome, donning a Ku Klux Klan hood, leaned out of the…

What was supposed to be fun for a group of teenagers ended up being detrimental to their school careers, claim the parents of four black Ohio students who say their children were unfairly targeted and discriminated against for making rap videos, the Associated Press reports. According to the report, the parents are suing the Northwest…

An Oakland, Calif., firefighter and father has filed a complaint regarding a local police officer who detained him and his children outside the fire station where he works, KPIX 5 reports. Firefighter Keith Jones, who is black, was with his 9- and 12-year-old sons, returning from a late Oakland Raiders game to their vehicle, which…

They have spent the last 30 years of their lives in prison for the gruesome rape and murder of an 11-year-old North Carolina girl, but now Henry Lee McCollum and his half brother, Leon Brown, have been given their freedom after DNA evidence cleared their names, the New York Times reports. According to the Times,…

Detroit-area homeowner Theodore Wafer, who was convicted in the death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride, has been sentenced to at least 17 years in prison, the Associated Press reports. Wafer, who was convicted on all three charges—second-degree murder, felony firearm and manslaughter—apologized to McBride’s family before his sentencing, acknowledging that he was responsible for killing someone who…

There was something different about officers in the Ferguson Police Department over the weekend as protesters continued their calls for justice in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in the Missouri city. Officers have started wearing the body cameras provided by two companies, Safety Visions and Digital Ally, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The cameras were…

One Mississippi mom is demanding answers after she went to pick up her daughter from elementary school late last month, only to find the child’s face swollen and bruised “beyond recognition,” the Huffington Post reports. Lacey Harris, the mother of AvaLynn, says that the child told her another student kicked her repeatedly in the face…

The first trial on human beings for an untested Ebola virus vaccination will begin next week, U.S. health officials have announced, according to USA Today. According to the report, 20 healthy participants will take part in the trial, which will take place at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Researchers are expecting results…

Questions remain in the fatal kidnapping of a Decatur, Ga., couple as the authorities continue their search for suspects, WXIA-TV reports. Jeronta Brown and his fiancee, Briana Brooks, were returning home after taking their 8-month-old baby and teenage niece out to eat early Saturday morning. As they were walking toward the house, they were jumped…

Literature—regardless of how it is delivered, whether in song, sermon, novel, short story, poem or essay—has the unique ability to inform, to uplift, and to shape our opinions and worldviews. At least that’s how James Basker, the Richard Gilder Professor of Literary History at Barnard College at Columbia University, sees it. It’s a crucial point and…