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'The Root Live' Video: Switching Careers
(The Root) — For the Feb. 19 taping of The Root Live, about making the leap and switching careers, host Harriette Cole — who knows a bit about this topic herself — talked to Marie Johns, deputy administrator with the U.S. Small Business Administration; Demetria L. Lucas, entrepreneur, author of A Belle in Brooklyn and columnist; and…
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Joe Biden to Make Civil Rights Trip to Selma
(The Root) — On Sunday, March 3, Vice President Joe Biden will mark the end of Black History Month with a trip to Selma, Ala., to celebrate the area’s historic role in the civil rights movement. He plans to take part in the annual crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a yearly tradition that commemorates…
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Trayvon Martin: The Latest, Week 51
Friday, Feb. 22, 4:59 p.m. EST: Zimmerman’s attorney wants to question the girl Trayvon Martin was talking to the night he was killed: Zimmerman’s lead attorney, Mark O’Mara, wants to question the woman known as Witness 8, the Huffington Post reports. Described as a friend of the 17-year-old Trayvon, she originally recounted the conversation she…
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Crazy Talk: Slavery-Themed Math Problems
As if math homework itself weren’t bad enough for elementary school kids, the New York Post reports that a class at Manhattan’s P.S. 59 recently got it with a side of disturbing imagery about the trafficking of human beings. Questions reportedly included, “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he…
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Nugent to Blacks: I Honor You; Obama Destroys You
A public service announcement to African Americans from the apparently unstable musician who was investigated by the Secret Service for threatening that he’d either be “dead or in jail” if President Obama won re-election, but who is currently very much alive, free and opinionated: Ted Nugent says at WorldNetDaily that black American politicians need to…
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How Do I Trace My Former-Slave Ancestor?
Updated Aug. 30, 2013: This Labor Day holiday weekend will bring many families together at picnics, barbecues and celebrations. Such gatherings are the perfect time for the genealogy-minded to research their roots: Get out the old photo albums, ask questions of kin with long memories, go digging for documents in the attic of your grandma’s…
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Lee Daniels Thanks God for Spike Lee
As we gear up for the 2013 Academy Awards, airing Feb. 24, The Root is speaking with black Oscar winners and nominees — past and present — about the prestigious honor. (The Root) — Lee Daniels is a known risk taker who doesn’t take no for an answer. It’s not an option for him. And…
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Who Was the Black Swallow of Death?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. (The Root) — Amazing Facts About…
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Why It's Time to End Black History Month
Black history should be integrated into our educational system at all levels, which would eliminate the need for the monthlong celebration in February, diversity expert Trudy Bourgeois writes at the Huffington Post. … Black History Month needs to go away. And it should have gone away a long time ago. Are you shocked I would…
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Confessions of a Black Woman Who Loves HBO's 'Girls'
Fordham University professor Christina Greer explains in a piece at Time why she as a black woman is a fan of HBO’s Girls, which has come under fire for representing only white New York. I am not ashamed to admit it: I am a black woman who loves the show Girls, HBO’s dramedy about the uncomfortable and…

