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Report: No Proof Cleveland Cop Warned Tamir Rice Before Fatal Playground Shooting
The Cleveland Police Department has claimed that an officer “shouted verbal commands” from inside his patrol car before fatally shooting 12-year-old Tamir Rice on a playground in November, but witness interviews do not support the statement, according to a report released Saturday by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, reports CNN. A grand jury will study…
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How Michael Cole Went From a Jail Cell to Selling Ice Cream With Hip-Hop-Inspired Flavors
The East Village neighborhood in New York City is chock-full of small bars and nightclubs that are destinations for people from far and wide, so it’s never a surprise to see a crowd spilling onto the sidewalk. Yet, the crowd at Mikey Likes It isn’t there for alcoholic beverages or the scene. They’re there for ice…
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The Germans Used to Pour One Out for the Black St. Maurice With This Drinking Horn
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The carefully rendered appearance of this magnificently crafted drinking horn comes from a hand-illustrated inventory of the vast collection of…
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Rachel Dolezal to Address Controversy Over Racial Identity
Rachel Dolezal, the leader of the Spokane, Wash., state chapter of the NAACP who made headlines last week after her parents said she has been falsely portraying herself as black for years, is scheduled to address the controversy on Monday, according to the Chicago Tribune. Dolezal, 37, an artist and activist, reportedly sent a message…
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Court Blocks Release of Albert Woodfox, Angola 3 Member in Solitary Confinement for Over 40 Years
Albert Woodfox, who has spent more that 40 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana prisons, was cautiously hopeful when a federal judge ordered his release earlier this week, his attorney said, according to the Times-Picayune. But his hopes were dashed Friday when the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an order continuing to block…
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Teen Convicted in Death of Her Mom in Bali Is Now Accused of Trying to Sell Her Baby From Prison
A 19-year-old Chicago woman who is serving 10 years in a jail in Bali, Indonesia, on a conviction in the death of her mother has been accused of trying to sell her 3-month-old baby daughter for $150,000, according to the Chicago Tribune. Lawyers for Heather Mack, 19, dismissed the allegation. She and her boyfriend, Tommy…
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Texas Teacher Fired After Racist Facebook Post About McKinney Pool Attack
A Texas elementary school teacher has been fired after her racist Facebook post about the McKinney pool attack went viral, according to the New York Daily News. The teacher, Karen Fitzgibbon, who worked as a fourth-grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School in the Frenship Independent School District in Wolfforth, Texas, was fired Thursday, the report…
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Jason Whitlock Is Out as Head of ESPN’s New Race-and-Sports Website
Just weeks before the scheduled launch of ESPN’s The Undefeated, a new website about the intersection of sports and race, commentator Jason Whitlock was replaced Friday as its head, reports the New York Times. Leon Carter, the site’s editorial director, will replace him on an interim basis, the report says. The Undefeated was built largely…
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Do I Have South African Ancestry via Antebellum Tenn.?
Recently I came across an amended birth certificate, which I am sending to you, that my great-grandfather Governor Burnett Crossing filed in Nashville, Tenn., in 1944. It says that my great-grandfather was born in 1879 in Martin, Dyer County, Tenn. The certificate states that his father, Zonnie Crossing, was from Tennessee and his mother, Hettie…
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It’s Time Again for ‘the Blackest White People We Know’
A few years ago, we did a few roundups of a bunch of white people who, well, exhibited traits, dispositions and interests more consistent with the black experience. Rachel Dolezal, the president of a local NAACP chapter in Washington state, has practically emerged as the mascot for this group. The prima donna of “the Blackest White People We Know.” Reports…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
