(The Root) — “My great-great-grandfather was named Issac Rowen. He came from Guinea to work as a fisherman sometime in the post-Civil War period. My late great-aunt told me that he came to the U.S. with a group of white men. He worked as a fisherman in New Orleans until was killed, by being thrown…

In an interview with WKYC, Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland man who rose to fame after discovering three women who had been missing since their teens, disputes a report by the Daily Mail that he is broke and homeless. He told the station why he moved out of his apartment near suspected kidnapper Ariel Castro and…

Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees — more than 1,000 of them teachers — as a result of a $1 billion budget deficit, officials said on Thursday, according to the Chicago Tribune. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis accused school officials of lying “to parents, employees and the public about keeping…

MSNBC‘s Adam Serwer examines the gulf between Rachel Jeantel and juror B37 in George Zimmerman’s second-degree-murder trial, concluding that their “perceptions of the case and the two men involved” mirrors the racial divide in America. Rachel Jeantel’s face lit up when describing how she and Trayvon Martin would sometimes talk on the phone all day.…

Author Walter Mosley addresses George Zimmerman’s acquittal at the Daily Beast by relating a powerful and lasting lesson on racism that he received as a teen from his father in 1969, which was that “living in the land of the free doesn’t make you free.” I remember when I was 17 years old, in 1969; three…

(The Root) — Just two days after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman, Jacksonville, Fla., lawyer Cory Strolla stood in the Florida State Court hallway and spoke to a huddle of reporters. “I worry they’re going to say, ‘We lost Zimmerman, so let’s get Michael Dunn,’ ” Strolla said, referring to Florida State Attorney Angela Corey.…

At Colorlines, Brentin Mock writes that the only good news about Florida’s colorblind trial against George Zimmerman is that it now allows the U.S. Department of Justice, which has broader resources and authority, to build a stronger case against the former neighborhood-watch captain without excluding race. Veteran civil rights attorneys and advocates are convinced that…