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2016 Triumph Awards Honor Spike Lee, Benjamin Crump and Sean 'Diddy' Combs
It’s become one of the most anticipated civil rights awards programs of the year. Even the Rev. Al Sharpton smiled for the cameras as he and his girlfriend, Aisha McShaw, made their way along the red carpet. They weren’t alone. A litany of stars gathered Sept. 18 at the Tabernacle Theater in Atlanta for the…
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Al Sharpton on Nate Parker: Hollywood Trying to ‘Smear the Messenger’
The Rev. Al Sharpton has pledged not to let Hollywood “discredit” and block actor Nate Parker’s plans to release his upcoming film The Birth of a Nation, which tells the story of an 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. The movie, which won national praise from critics after its debut at the Sundance Film…
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Bill Clinton Admits Federal Sentencing Laws ‘Made the Problem Worse’
Philadelphia, Wed., July 15: In an address to the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, former President Bill Clinton offered a mea culpa for signing a criminal-justice reform bill into law during his two-term presidency. “I signed a bill that made the problem worse. And I want to admit it,” Clinton said at the 106th NAACP National…
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Sharpton Responds to Criticism That His Movement Excludes Younger Activists
Within social-justice movements, tensions often surface between older and youngster activists—that’s hardly new. But the Rev. Al Sharpton says that recent criticism that he isn’t doing enough to groom younger, up-and-coming activists within his civil rights tradition is simply not true. “This is more about ideology than it is about generational differences,” Sharpton told The…
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‘A Movement, Not Just a Moment’: Thousands March to Call for an End to Police Violence
Armed with posters and a camera, Delores and Shannon King made the three-hour trek from Portsmouth, Va., to the nation’s capital on Saturday to join thousands of people gathered for the Justice for All demonstration protesting the recent deaths of several unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. “We are here to…
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Sharpton: Public Outrage Was Exacerbated by Prosecutor’s ‘Frontal Attack’ on Michael Brown’s Character
Two days after a grand jury refused to indict Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, Brown’s parents appeared with the Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem headquarters of National Action Network, the civil rights organization founded by Sharpton in 1991. They remain determined to keep the legacy…
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Bill Cosby: Blacks Must Prepare to Fight Voter Suppression
Author Mark Whitaker will release his much-anticipated biography of Bill Cosby this week, three decades after the comedian debuted The Cosby Show and single-handedly altered the portrayal of African Americans on television. Could Cosby have known back then that the NBC sitcom would become an immediate hit? “Oh sure, I recognized it,” he told The Root…
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Inside James Brown’s Fatherly Relationship With Al Sharpton
On May 6, 1981, James Brown appeared with boxing legend Muhammad Ali on the late-night Tom Snyder show to introduce a young and unknown civil rights leader to the world. That young activist was the Rev. Al Sharpton, and he was Brown’s kind of black leader. The two had become fast friends during the 1970s and…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
