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Citing Grainy Video Footage, Justice Department Says It Won't Charge Officers in Tamir Rice’s Killing
The year is ending on a less than hopeful note in terms of justice for Black lives taken by police. The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it has closed the investigation into the November 2014 killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by police officers in Cleveland, Ohio, and will not make any federal charges against…
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Woman Falsely Accuses Black 14-Year-Old of Stealing Her Phone, Gets Support From Hotel Manager, and Then It Turns up in an Uber
Despite all that has happened this year, from Amy Cooper calling the cops on a Black man who asked her to leash her dog, to the many protests against racial injustice, things haven’t changed all that much in terms of everyday racism in America. Jazz musician Keyon Harrold and his 14-year-old son unfortunately had to…
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Martin Henry Freeman, First Black College President in the US, Honored With Sculpture in Vermont
Slowly but surely, efforts are being made to balance the scale in the documenting of this country’s history, in part through decisions about which Americans are honored with landmarks like sculptures and statues. In Vermont, a blindingly white state whose Black residents make up only 1.4% of the population, an initiative to recognize local history…
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Los Angeles Officials Trying To Determine if Increase in COVID-19 Cases Is Due To Mutated Strain
The end of the year has brought with it a mutated strain of COVID-19 which reared its head in the United Kingdom recently and could potentially be the cause of a current surge in coronavirus cases in California. This weekend, a stunning 225,818 new cases of COVID-19 were reported across the U.S., with troubling spikes…
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Indiana University Health Responds to Black Doctor's Video of COVID Treatment: Nursing Team 'May Have Been Intimidated'
Dr. Susan Moore died days before Christmas at 52, after a protracted battle to get racially equitable treatment at Indiana University Health North Hospital (IU), according to videos she posted on social media about her experience. The head of that hospital system, Dennis Murphy, has since issued a statement in response to Dr. Moore’s video…
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71-Year-Old Black Man Sues Police in South Carolina For Holding Him Naked Outside His Home at Gunpoint
More evidence continues to be revealed that police regularly practice cruelty against Black people in America. Jethro DeVane, a 71-year-old man in Rock Hill, South Carolina has filed a lawsuit against that city for a June 2019 incident in which police ordered him out of his home and held him at gun point with his…
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President Trump Spends Holiday Golfing and Tweeting From Florida While COVID-19 Relief Bill Languishes in Limbo
After throwing a wrench into Congress’ plans to pass a desperately needed COVID-19 relief bill (insufficient though the $600 stimulus payments would be), President Trump has predictably spent the past few days doing absolutely nothing to fix the problem he created. Ahead of Christmas Eve, Trump had announced that he would not sign the $900…
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RV Explodes in Nashville in Apparent Intentional Christmas Day Attack, Police Say They May Have Found Human Remains on the Scene
This year is determined to bring the dramatic and unexpected until the very last minute. Case in point: a recreational vehicle parked in downtown Nashville erupted in what appeared to be an intentional explosion on Christmas morning, damaging buildings and prompting an investigation by authorities into what or who was behind the incident. According to…
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Habari Gani? This Kwanzaa, We’re Celebrating All the Beautiful and Resilient Blackness We Saw in 2020
Kwanzaa is a Black holiday that takes place between December 26 and January 1 each year, during which Black people are encouraged to celebrate their community, culture, and kinship including by reflecting on the Seven Principles, or Nguzo Saba, that characterize some of our shared values as a people. In keeping with The Root tradition…
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Ohio Police Leave Bodycams Off and Kill Unarmed Black Man Who Had a Cellphone in His Hand. Incident Captured on Video Anyway
I’m angered and exhausted to report that another unarmed Black man has been killed by police, this time in Columbus, Ohio. The 47-year old man, who is still unnamed by authorities, was shot on Tuesday by a Columbus police officer while sitting in the garage of a home he was visiting on the northwest side…
