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Key Ferguson Protester Arrested on Arson Charge
A vocal 19-year-old protester who rose to prominence this summer after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., was arrested this weekend on an arson charge in a neighboring community, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Joshua Williams, 19, was arrested Friday and charged Saturday with setting fire to a convenience store in Berkeley,…
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Over 20,000 Mourn Slain NYPD Officer; Cops Turn Backs on Mayor
Thousands of law-enforcement officers from across the nation gathered Saturday at a New York City funeral to mourn the death of an officer who was gunned down along with his partner Dec. 20, the Associated Press reports. A sea of blue uniforms stretched for blocks outside the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens as police helicopters…
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5 Black Students Named Rhodes Scholars
Five black students have been selected as Rhodes scholars in one of the highest academic achievements for U.S. college students, according to the Rhodes Trust, which administers the program, and the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. The 2015 class of Rhodes scholars was chosen from a pool of 877 students who were endorsed by…
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Chef Sam Kass Is Leaving the White House
Sam Kass, the personal chef of President Barack Obama and also a senior adviser for nutrition policy at the White House, is leaving his post after a six-year stint, the Associated Press reports. Kass, who recently married MSNBC host Alex Wagner, said he has decided to leave the White House to be with his wife…
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Bar Owner Apologizes for Michael Brown Shot Special
Owners of a bar in St. Joseph, Mo., apologized this month after offering a Michael Brown six-shot special, Fox 4 News reports. The unarmed Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, with at least six bullets striking the 18-year-old. The killing touched off protests that continue across the…
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North Korea Compares Obama to Monkey in Hacking Battle
Accusing the U.S. of shutting down the country’s Internet and angry over the release of the movie The Interview, North Korea has compared President Obama to a monkey, the Associated Press reports. The North’s National Defense Commission, which is headed by Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader, and is the country’s top governing body, blamed…
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The Top 20 Most Searched African Americans in 2014
Which African-American sports figure sparked a national conversation on spanking? Whose wedding photos had everybody in a frenzy? With all the news that happened in 2014, it’s always interesting to look back to see who had us furiously typing into that search box. According to Google, which compiled the rankings based on data from trillions of searches,…
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Poll: Did We Miss Your Favorite Denzel Washington Movie?
It was no easy task to come up with a Denzel Washington top 10 list. The arguments among The Root staff continued long after this video stopped rolling. You’ve seen our list. So now let’s hear from you about which Denzel movie classics you think we missed.
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How Do I Trace My Cape Verdean Ancestry?
My father is African American and Cape Verdean, and he grew up on Cape Cod. His mother was Almeda Matilda Santos, born Jan. 22, 1922. She died March 7, 2002, and her parents had immigrated to the United States from Cape Verde Islands in the early 1900s. My father’s father, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, was the…
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What South Africa Can Learn From Black America
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in South Africa’s Rand Daily Mail. When Henry Louis Gates Jr. applied for admission as a student at Yale University, he felt the need to include the following personal statement in his application: “My grandfather was colored, my father was Negro and I am black. As always, whitey…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
