Princeton professor Cornel West and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley stopped by Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to discuss their new book, The Rich and the Rest of Us. According to West, 22% of America’s children live in poverty. Smiley asserts that the “trickle-down theory” has made many people feel as if they’ve been…

The Los Angeles Times spoke to the actress playing the newest character on AMC’s Mad Men, secretary Dawn Chambers. Played by Teyonah Parris, Chambers is hired after the fictitious 1960s advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce places a newspaper ad in response to the insensitive actions of a rival company toward African-American civil rights protesters. Executives…

According to MSNBC, musician and activist Wyclef Jean has released a new song, “Justice (If You’re 17),” dedicated to Trayvon Martin and other young men his age. The Haitian-born veteran hip-hop producer, best known for his role in the Fugees and his work in his home country, said in a press release, “When I think…

According to CNN, 11 members of the Secret Service are under investigation for improper conduct before the arrival of the president in Cartagena, Colombia, for the Summit of the Americas. The men in question reportedly solicited prostitutes, and there was a dispute in the hotel room over payment. Prostitution is legal in Colombia in certain “tolerance…

Pregnancy in Arizona no longer begins at fertilization, reports the Daily Beast. Instead, thanks to a new bill signed by the state’s Gov. Jan Brewer, pregnancy now legally begins on the first day of a woman’s last period, the earliest delineation in American legislation. And while this bill may seem a matter of semantics, the…

CNN interviewed Jahvaris Fulton, older brother of the late Trayvon Martin, who described his younger sibling as “smart.” Fulton says that Martin visited him on his college campus with hopes of following in his footsteps. Watch Fulton discuss his memories of his younger brother with CNN’s Sunny Hostin below: Read more at CNN.

According to CNN, the two men accused of fatally shooting three black people in Tulsa, Okla., earlier this month, Jake England and Alvin Watts, have been charged with murder as well as hate crimes. The local Tulsa Crime Stopper hotlines also revealed that England had “bragged about other shootings,” in addition to writing that his…

According to the Associated Press, Cissy Houston has spoken to the press about her daughter, the late Whitney Houston, for the first time. The grieving mother sat down with Newark, N.J.’s My9 News last Thursday at New Hope Baptist Church, where the singer’s funeral was held last month. During the service, Tyler Perry, BeBe and…