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Black Mothers Under Siege
If you didn’t know any better, you might think, based on a flood of recent headlines about parenting-related arrests, that all black women are unfit mothers. But the truth is, many of the women at the center of these stories were simply between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Some observers have gone so…
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The Queen of Sheba and the Rise of Christianity
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Against a brilliant red background, a regal figure and her servant…
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50 Years After Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner Were Found, We Work To Honor Their Legacy
Fifty years ago this week on Aug. 4, 1964, the bodies of three courageous freedom fighters—James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24—were found buried in a dam near Philadelphia, Miss. Like hundreds of other youth organizers from around the country, they came to flood Mississippi to register African-American voters in what is…
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Pregnant Daughter and Boyfriend Charged in Death of Veteran Flight Attendant
At first it appeared that a veteran United Airlines flight attendant died brutally at the hands of her daughter’s boyfriend, who was looking to grab some fast bucks, according to reports by various news outlets. But now her pregnant teen daughter has been charged alongside her boyfriend in a grisly plot involving greed and revenge…
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Ebola Crisis Looms Over US-Africa Leaders Summit
More than 40 African heads of state touched down in Washington, D.C., on Monday for the first-ever three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and White House gala, but concerns about the deadly Ebola virus loom over the event—potentially overshadowing the festivities. As the summit kicks off, a second American infected with Ebola is expected to be brought…
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Nigerian Doctor Contracts Ebola After Treating Victim
Concern over the latest Ebola outbreak continued to mount Monday after Nigeria’s health minister confirmed a second case in a doctor who treated a victim last month in Lagos, one of Africa’s most populous cities, according to Reuters. The doctor had treated Patrick Sawyer, who died in Lagos last month after arriving by plane from…
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My Daughter Wants Me to Find Her a New Mom
I hate to use the term “acting out,” so I’ll say that my 3-year-old daughter is expressing a brand-new feeling that she doesn’t know how to articulate: heartbreak. And maybe even desperation. It’s understandable. She wants a mother. This is just the latest development in what’s been a long, and often hard, story for our…
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Psst! Here's a Cheat Sheet for the US-Africa Leaders Summit
Africa’s coming to town. And in a big way. Africa’s movers and shakers are in Washington, D.C., this week to chop it up with President Barack Obama about trade and investment opportunities, politics and the U.S.’s interests in the region’s stability. The 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit is the largest gathering of African presidents and leaders…
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Meet 3 of the Internet’s Young Black Stars
On Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT, join us for our live “Young, Black and Viral” Google Hangout, where we’ll be chatting with three of the Internet’s most influential young black creators. We’ll be joined by the following folks: Xavier D’Leau, executive producer of the award-winning Web series Quarter Century and host of the top-charting podcast…
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Man Who Filmed Eric Garner Video Arrested on Weapons Charge
The 22-year-old bystander who filmed Eric Garner’s fatal arrest was arrested Saturday on a charge of gun possession, Staten Live reports. The man, Ramsey Orta, and a teenage woman, identified by police as Alba Lekaj, were arrested about 10 p.m. after leaving a hotel in Staten Island, N.Y., the report says. The arrests came after officers…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
