Politics
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#DerickWiley: Grand Jury Returns ‘True Bill’ Against Officer in Lyndo Jones Shooting
A Texas grand jury has returned a true bill indictment against now former Mesquite, Texas, Police Officer Derick Wiley in the Nov. 8 shooting of 31-year-old Lyndo Jones (pdf), The Root has exclusively learned from Jones’ attorney, S. Lee Merritt. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is expected to make the announcement Wednesday afternoon, at…
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Long Live the Chairman: On This Day in 1969, the FBI and Chicago Police Assassinated Black Panther Fred Hampton
Dec. 4, 1969—48 years ago today—police officers from the Cook County, Ill., State Attorney’s Office, in collusion with the FBI, assassinated Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Black Panther Party leader Mark Clark. Hampton and Clark were 21 and 22 years old, respectively. At approximately 4:45 a.m., 14…
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Trump Is Making the GOP Look Like Fake Russia Hawks
President Ronald Reagan may go down as the greatest Russia hawk in U.S. history. His tough stance against the Soviet Union’s expansionism and his efforts to support anti-Soviet movements in former communist-bloc states helped lead to the USSR’s fall in 1991. His “Tear down this wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June…
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Black Lives Matter Kicks Off The Provocateurs Series at California African American Museum
Nina Simone once said that “an artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” “At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don’t think you can help but be involved,” Simone said. It makes sense, then, that the Black Lives Matter Global Network…
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#JusticeForJason: Wis. DOJ Claims Jason Pero, 14, Called 911, Described Himself, Before Deputy Fatally Shot Him
Updated Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017, 2:19 a.m. EST: On Saturday the Wisconsin Department of Justice released the initial findings of its investigation into the fatal police shooting of 14-year-old Jason Pero of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe, which occurred Nov. 8. The Wisconsin DOJ claims that Jason called 911 at approximately…
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Reproductive Justice for Black Women, Latinas, More Critical Than Ever
For the past three years, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, or COLOR, along with dozens of partners, has hosted a Halloween-themed social media conversation on Twitter about the frightening facts and the disparate outcomes in health, wealth, safety and well-being that reproductive-justice warriors like Sister Song have been fighting to address…
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Former Felons Voted in Tuesday’s Elections and Republicans Are Big Mad
If you noticed a change in the climate at the polls, specifically in the atmospheric pressure due to moisture in the air, it might be because of the meteorological phenomenon known to research scientists as Blubberus caucasianus, more commonly referred to as “white tears.” Lost in the hullabaloo surrounding Democratic victories around the country on…