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St. Moses the Black: A Colorful Life
(The Root) — 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 Institute for African and African American Research. The life course of Abba Moses (or St. Moses the Black) runs the gamut from the utter degradation of…
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Will the Pistorius Case Change South Africa?
In a piece at the New Yorker, Charlayne Hunter-Gault writes that the shooting death of model Reeva Steenkamp, allegedly by South Africa’s star runner Oscar Pistorius, shines a light on some of the darker facts of life for so many South Africans: domestic abuse. Sometimes a murder manages to shine a light on a particular…
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Louis Gossett Jr. on Post-Oscar Heartbreak
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. First in the series: Louis Gossett Jr. (The Root) — Louis Gossett Jr. has been in the acting game for a long time. In…
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A Poet Unafraid to Confront Art and Race
(The Root) — We may never know for sure when and where Countée Cullen was born. He listed his birth date as May 30, 1903, and his birthplace variously as Louisville, Ky., and New York City. It was likely the former, however, since his mother, Elizabeth Lucas, died in Louisville in 1940. Cullen attended her…
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Why Can't President Obama Go on Vacation?
Some in the press are upset again about a lack of access to the president during his vacation: President Obama kept the press at bay while he spent the weekend relaxing with friends and golfing in Florida. Members of the White House press corps weren’t happy on Sunday, especially after learning that he was hitting…
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Thanks to 'Lincoln,' Mississippi Finally Bans Slavery
The Atlantic Wire reports that a recent immigrant from India set in motion a series of events that led Mississippi to finally ratify the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery. The circumstances for Dr. Ranjan Batra almost inadvertently inserting himself into Mississippi state history are accidental at best. After seeing Lincoln in theaters last November, he went…
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Fired: Air Passenger Who Used N-Word and Slapped Crying Child
Updated Feb. 18, 2013, 1:55 p.m. EST: Joe Rickey Hundley, the 60-year-old man charged with slapping a toddler on a Feb. 8 Minneapolis-to-Atlanta flight, has been fired, his former employer said Sunday, according to the Associated Press. Hundley, of Hayden, Idaho, is no longer an employee of AGC Aerospace and Defense, Composites Group, Daniel Keeney…
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Can JC Watts Help GOP Win Black Voters?
(The Root) — Still reeling from its losses in the 2012 election, the Republican Party has begun doing some serious soul-searching. Increasingly that search has led party leaders on a quest to re-evaluate what the party stands for, who it speaks for and, lately, whether or not it needs a little more soul in it.…
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Will Vogue's André Leon Talley Move to TV?
Ooh la la. What is next for André Leon Talley? At least that is what people familiar with the fashion world want to know. Apparently the flamboyant Vogue contributing editor is making a move to television and leaving the confines of the glossy after 30 years. According to Gawker, he recently signed on with former…
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Ex-Black Panther Head on Gun Control, Obama
(The Root) — Elaine Brown, the only woman to head the Black Panther Party, became chairman when Huey P. Newton fled to Cuba to avoid jail in 1974. The party shocked the nation with its advocacy of self-defense and images of defiant young black men and women in black leather jackets carrying rifles. What is…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
