Politics
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Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart, Fidel Castro’s Eldest Son, Commits Suicide
Fidel Ángel “Fidelito” Castro Díaz-Balart, 68, the eldest son of Cuban revolutionary and former President Fidel Castro, committed suicide Thursday, Cuba’s state media reported. He was found Thursday morning in Havana and is said to have suffered from depression. Díaz-Balart was a nuclear physicist who served as a scientific adviser to the Council of State…
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Black History Can’t and Shouldn’t Be Relegated to a Single Month
Last year, Vice President Mike Pence commemorated the start of Black History Month by acknowledging Abraham Lincoln, a white man, for submitting the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Pence’s snubbing of black people happened on the same day President Donald Trump talked as if Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, writer and civil rights leader, were still alive…
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Texas Man Fined Less Than $600 for Assaulting 8-Year-Old Black Child
A Fort Worth, Texas, man has been found guilty of misdemeanor assault by contact for attacking his neighbor’s 8-year-old son in 2016, whom he had accused of littering in his yard. Itamar Vardi was ordered to pay a $569 fine and sentenced to community service and six months of deferred adjudication. If Vardi fulfills his…
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Tougaloo College Receives Grant to Finally Tell Story of Civil Rights Hero Fannie Lou Hamer
Of all the stories from the civil rights era, perhaps the most extraordinary and least told tale is that of the icon and freedom fighter Fannie Lou Hamer. An upcoming documentary will finally tell Hamer’s stirring story in her own words, thanks to a historic grant by the Kellogg Foundation to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. Keith…
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Jackson, Miss., Community Leaders Step In as Students Face Food Insecurity During School Water Crisis
Jackson Public Schools remain closed due to low water pressure—or no water at all—in outdated school infrastructures, and many students are left wondering how they will eat during the day. Mississippi’s capital city has struggled to function as subfreezing temperatures continue to cause water main breaks and hazardous driving conditions. To date, 60 percent of…
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Dear White People Cast, Crew Create Jordan Edwards Scholarship Fund
The cast and crew of the Netflix series Dear White People are honoring the life and legacy of Jordan Edwards with a scholarship fund created in partnership with Jordan’s family and the Black Alumni Association. The Jordan J. Edwards Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund was conceptualized “to promote the education of deserving undergraduate students who enroll…
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Hey, Democrats: MLK Was Talking About You, Too
Today, on social media, I’ve seen quite a few white Democrats admonish Republicans not to pretend to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on MLK Day if those same Republicans haven’t spoken out against Donald Trump’s racist “shithole” statement. This is a valid, necessary point; conservative hypocrisy should be called out at every…
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Rosa Parks, Recy Taylor and Gertrude Perkins Are Mothers of the #MeToo Movement
In 2016, former Oklahoma City Police Officer and rapist Daniel Holtzclaw was sentenced to 263 years in prison for the rapes and sexual assaults of seven black women and one black girl, ranging in age from 17 to 58. He was found guilty of 18 of 36 charges, including four charges of first-degree rape, one…
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Erica Garner: ‘I’m in This Fight Forever’ [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.