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How Did My Free Bajan Ancestor End Up in North Carolina?
My great-great-grandfather Sandy Powell Sr. moved to North Carolina in the late 19th century. The story is that he came from Barbados after 1865, as a free man. No one knows why or under what conditions. We don’t know from where in Barbados he traveled, either. Was he part of a larger migration from the…
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You Need to Follow Ken Griffey Jr. on Instagram
Baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. joined Instagram last month, and his #ThrowbackThursday photos are, in a word, dope. They’re dope because they actually meet the #TBT criteria. I don’t know if an official #TBT criteria exists, but I know that the dozens of photos taken last weekend (!!!) and the photoshopped images of a grown…
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The Most Important Civil Rights Issue of the Obama Era?
In what will likely be remembered as one of history’s greatest ironies, America’s first black president has led the country during a time of some of the greatest civil rights setbacks of the modern era. There was the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court ruling, which undid crucial provisions of the Voting Rights Act. While…
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Shutting Down the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Who could forget the alarming image of St. Petersburg, Fla., police officers clasping handcuffs around the wrists of Ja’eisha Scott, a 5-year-old African-American girl, as they placed her under arrest for throwing a tantrum at school? A video camera captured the incident on March 14, 2005, which took place at Fairmount Park Elementary School…
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World Champion Gymnast Focuses on Talent, Not Racism
For world champion gymnast Simone Biles, her talent has become her job. “When I’m healthy, I go to the gym from 9 to 6:30 p.m. and train twice, from 9 to 12 and 2:30 to 6:30, so seven hours a day,” Simone tells The Root in an airy, petite voice from Spring, Texas. “I do…
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Quote of the Day: President Barack Obama on Human Rights
Read a transcript of the president’s speech in its entirety here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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Black Beauty Queens Have Broken Barriers
Keli Goff is The Root’s special correspondent. Follow her on Twitter. On Saturday Nov. 9, 2013, Ytiyish “Titi” Aynaw will make history as the first woman of African descent to represent Israel in the Miss Universe pageant. Aynaw, who is of Ethiopian Jewish ancestry, is the first black woman to hold the Miss Israel title. She…
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GOP Blocks Black Nominees to Thwart Obama
The modern-day Republican Party appears to have a problem with black people—and especially black people in positions of power. Perhaps that can explain why they spend so much political capital trying to deny, undermine or prevent African Americans from entering or staying in the ruling class. Earlier this year, in anticipation of then-U.N. Ambassador Susan…
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The Perils of Asking for Help While Black
We’ve seen too many cases like Renisha McBride’s this year. On Nov. 3, the 19-year-old Detroit resident was involved in a car accident. After knocking on the door of a home in Dearborn Heights, Mich. for help, McBride was shot in the head by someone in the residence. You’ll remember Jonathan Farrell, the unarmed man…
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Renisha McBride Is Dead, and ‘Stand Your Ground’ Questions Emerge
Editor’s note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to reflect new developments. A Michigan woman’s death has joined the ranks of shootings that gun control advocates and those concerned about the dangers of racial profiling attribute to a gun owner emboldened by a “Stand your ground” law. On Nov. 3, Detroit…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
