-
Once a Slave, Then a Soldier in a Battle for Freedom and His Family
In September 1864, Spotswood Rice, a 44-year-old soldier in the 67th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, wrote two letters from his hospital bed at a U.S. Army barracks near St. Louis. Seventy-three years later, in the same city, his daughter, Mary A. Bell, by then an 85-year-old widow, sat down in her four-room,…
-
Ill. Governor to Shut Down Troubled Youth Detention Center
Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Friday that he’ll close a troubled youth detention center, a move being praised by juvenile-justice advocates, according to the Chicago Tribune. Located in Kewanee, about 150 miles southwest of Chicago, the downstate facility houses mentally ill youths and those charged with sex crimes. The Tribune notes that about 43…
-
Haiti Gets a New President Today … for Another 4 Months
Haitian lawmakers on Sunday chose the country’s Senate chief as president of an interim government, reports the Washington Post. In the early hours of Sunday, Jocelerme Privert was elected as provisional president and sworn in by Haiti’s legislature. Privert was one of three candidates vying to lead an interim government that’s only supposed to last…
-
Watch: SNL’s “The Day Beyoncé Turned Black” and How White America Went Nuts
There’s always been some speculation and lots of room for interpretation when it came to Beyoncé’s, um, ethnicity. No shade, but between the blond wigs, Creole propers and that L’Oreal ad where she self-identified as part French, Native American and black, well, one could comfortably assume that Queen Bey was just a shade black. Black-ish,…
-
A White Journalist Discovers the Lie of Portugal’s Colonial Past
I was born in 1975, the same year that Portugal withdrew from its five African colonies—Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde Islands and Guinea-Bissau—becoming the last of the European powers to finally abandon colonialism. Throughout my life, I have been told that we, the Portuguese, were the explorers who discovered the world. We were…
-
Supreme Court: Time for a Black Woman?
Keli Goff is The Root’s special correspondent. Follow her on Twitter. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Shelby County v. Holder, which overturned a key prevision of the Voting Rights Act, rattled civil rights proponents who see it as a major setback in the quest for racial equality and justice. The role of the court’s lone…
-
Report: Obama to Name Successor to Antonin Scalia
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead Saturday at a West Texas ranch, reports My San Antonio. According to reports, Scalia, 79, arrived at the Cibolo Creek Ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch…
-
Watch: Kevin Hart and Drake Act Up at All-Star Celebrity Basketball Game
Some wisenhammer got the bright idea to bring back rapper Drake’s first on-screen character, Jimmy Brooks, from Degrassi: The Next Generation, with a clip featuring Kevin Hart’s head superimposed onto another character. The 15-second short, in which Drake’s character, Jimmy (before his character became paralyzed), took on a bully on a basketball court, was a…
-
Hampton Becomes 1st HBCU to Play Division I Lacrosse
On Saturday the Hampton University Pirates will make history as the first HBCU to compete in Division I lacrosse. They will face the Roberts Wesleyan College Redhawks at 12:30 p.m. EST. As part of Black History Month, ESPN’s SportsCenter on the Road will originate from Hampton’s campus from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and provide pregame coverage, but…
-
Woman Travels From Nigeria to Brooklyn, NY, to Deliver Triplets
A Nigerian woman traveled all the way to Brooklyn, N.Y., to deliver her healthy triplets Thursday morning, reports the New York Daily News. Temitope Alao had been trying to conceive for about six years, and at about eight months into her pregnancy, she gave birth to two boys and a bouncing baby girl. The 34-year-old welcomed…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
