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Federal Judge and Civil Rights Icon Damon J. Keith Dead at 96
Judge Damon J. Keith, a civil rights icon who became the sixth black person in U.S. history to serve on the federal court of appeals, died at his home in Detroit Sunday morning surrounded by family. He was 96. Keith, a grandson of slaves who was born July 4, 1922, in Detroit, served as a…
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NFL Rookie Shot Just Hours After Being Drafted By New York Giants
What should have been the best weekend in one college football player’s life turned into tragedy when he was injured and his college teammate killed in a shooting early Sunday morning at a party in Topeka, Kan. Corey Ballentine, a 23-year-old senior cornerback at Washburn University in Topeka, was the 180th pick in the NFL…
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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh Reportedly Not ‘Lucid’ Enough to Make a Decision on Resigning
Following FBI and IRS raids on her two homes, City Hall and the offices of some of her allies Thursday, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is said to be in poor health and not “lucid” enough to make a decision as to whether or not she will resign from office amid a financial scandal and controversy…
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Is This the New Poll Tax? Florida House Passes Bill Requiring Former Felons to Pay Up Before They Can Vote
In November, people in the state of Florida voted “yes” on Amendment 4—an initiative that would restore voting rights to more than one million former felons. The amendment would restore the rights of those with felony convictions who had completed their sentences—including prison terms, parole and probation. The only exclusion was those who had been…
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Trill OG for Real: Rapper Bun B Shoots Armed Intruder at His Home
If you ever thought for a second that the things Bun B raps about were fake, here is a story that will make you think again. Bernard Freeman is, as the kids say, about that life. The UGK rapper was reportedly at his home in the Houston area around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday evening when he…
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What Gentrification and the New NFL Stadium Mean for Longterm Black Residents of Inglewood, Calif.
By now, we have all heard the stories of how hard Nipsey Hussle was working to keep his Hyde Park neighborhood from becoming gentrified. For years, the area has been inhabited almost exclusively by blacks, but as the city’s Metro has been constructing a new train that will take travelers down Crenshaw Boulevard and eventually…
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Nipsey Hussle to be Honored on House Floor Next Week by Rep. Karen Bass
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), a Los Angeles native, wants to make sure Nipsey Hussle’s legacy lives on and his contributions to the community are recognized. To that end, she plans to honor the slain rapper on the House floor next week. In a tweet sent out Wednesday evening, Bass wrote “I will be heading to…
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White Teens in Maryland Sentenced to Weekends in Jail for Racist, Anti-Semitic Graffiti
Last year, four graduating seniors at Glenelg High School in Howard County, Md., defaced their school with racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti that they spray painted across the school—defacing sidewalks, parking lots and other parts of the high school building. Some of the graffiti directly targeted the school’s principal, David Burton—who is black—with the word…
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Money Moves: Cardi B Gets 21 Billboard Music Award Nominations
It’s that time of year again. The 2019 Billboard Music Awards are coming next month, and Dick Clark Productions and NBC announced the nominees in 56 categories across all genres of music live on Today Thursday. Cardi B, who is still enjoying her meteoric rise to fame, leads the pack with 21 nominations. That includes…
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Why the NRA Is Against the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization in Congress
“The No. 1 way that women are being killed with guns is by their beloveds, their boyfriends, their significant others,” freshman Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) said as she argued in favor of stricter gun laws. Her son, Jordan Davis, was murdered in 2012 by a man at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station who was upset…
