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UN Pleads With Texas to Delay Execution of Mentally Ill Man
The United Nations is making a last-minute plea to Texas officials to delay the execution of Scott Panetti, a prisoner who is said to have mental disabilities that should have made him ineligible for the death penalty, Al-Jazeera reports. “There is no doubt that it is inherently cruel and unworthy of civilized societies to execute persons…
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A Murder Mystery in Ferguson
The day after the Darren Wilson grand jury announcement, a burned body was found in Ferguson, Mo., near the apartment complex where Wilson shot and killed unarmed teen Michael Brown. That body has been identified as Deandre Joshua, 20, reports the Huffington Post. Joshua had been shot in the head, and his burned body was found in…
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Janay Rice and Her Mom Are Living in Denial
On the heels of a tell-all interview with ESPN published Friday, in which Janay Rice spoke for the first time about the night her then-fiance, Ray Rice, knocked her unconscious in an elevator, Janay and her mother, Candy Palmer, sat for a two-part interview with the Today show’s Matt Lauer yesterday morning and today. (Ray…
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Supreme Court Hears Case to Decide if Rap Lyrics Were Really Facebook Threats
The Supreme Court is hearing a case this week about Anthony Elonis, a Pennsylvania man who was sentenced to four years in prison for posting “explicit rap lyrics” to his Facebook page that expressed his desire to kill his wife, shoot up an elementary school, and “slit the throat” of the FBI agent who was…
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Portrait of a Black Servant in Eastern Europe
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. In a portrait format usually reserved for the privileged classes, an elaborately dressed, elderly black man regards the viewer with…
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The Ferguson Movement Has Too Much to Do—Don’t Let It Fizzle Out Like Occupy Wall Street
When we heard last week that Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, wouldn’t be indicted, there was a collective gasp of despair that soon gave way to protests, tear gas and, in some cases, riots and looting. Ferguson’s outrage has inspired kindred, mostly peaceful demonstrations across the nation—with young…
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GOP Congressional Staffer, Who Was Reportedly Arrested as a Teen, Quits After Slamming Obama Girls
It’s a timeless adage: If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. But Republican congressional staffer Elizabeth Lauten apparently never got that memo. She formally resigned on Monday after her comments about Malia and Sasha Obama went viral. Lauten, previously the communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), came under fire this weekend…
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Coming Clean After Living Secretly With HIV for More Than 25 Years
Imagine going through your entire childhood having to hide your HIV-positive status because your mother wanted to protect you from being shunned, humiliated, bullied or abused like the late Ryan White, the Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion in 1984. Now imagine keeping that secret even as a college student while engaging…
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What Benjamin Watson’s Facebook Post Gets Wrong When It Comes to God, Sin and Ferguson
New Orleans Saints player Benjamin Watson penned one of the most-talked-about essays in the aftermath of last Monday’s racial violence in Ferguson, Mo. The heartfelt essay discusses Watson’s personal feelings regarding the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict police Officer Darren Wilson in connection with…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
