birmingham
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Where Is America's Blackest City?
How do you define the blackness of a city? For Black History Month, we challenged writers to explain why they think their city deserves the title of blackest city in America. And man, did they rep their cities hard. So now, we’re asking you, our readers, to vote for who made the strongest case. Here’s…
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After Civil Rights Institute Rescinded Prestigious Award, Angela Davis Showed Up Anyway
Angela Davis’ homecoming was perfect. The freedom fighter and civil rights icon was supposed to return to her beloved hometown to accept the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s highest honor. Then the institute rescinded the award because of Davis’ support for the rights of Palestinians. A few days later, after…
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Alabama Public Defender Accused of Creating ‘Law & Order: Special Racist Unit’
The man in charge of defending indigent citizens in the criminal justice system of one of America’s blackest cities has been accused of filling his office with racists who toss around the n-word like it’s 1799…or 1899…or, well, it’s Alabama, so 1999, too. David Luker was appointed as the Jefferson County Public Defender in 2016,…
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After Cops Refuse to Release Video, Report Reveals E.J. Bradford Shot 3 Times From the Back
Minutes after the police department whose officer allegedly killed Emantic “E.J.” Bradford, Jr. in a Thanksgiving mall shooting, the Bradford family held a press conference disclosing the results of a medical examination that revealed a reality that might have been worse than the initial rumors and suppositions surrounding Bradford’s death. After Hoover, Alabama’s lone black…
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There Was Another Mass Shooting This Weekend But No One Cares
“Black” is a magical word. Black is an adjective. Black is a noun. It is a verb, an adverb, pronoun, preposition … It is all the parts of speech in one. Yes, “black “ is a magical thing. In America, that simple word can render a thing invisible. It can make a whole human disappear…
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Not All Cops: Unarmed Black Teen Not Shot and Killed by Police
Police unions, objective observers and whatever they call white people (I’m using “‘MAGA’ Yeezys” this week) often accuse the media of casting law enforcement officers in a negative light simply because some news outlets believe the public should know about police brutality and the disproportionate killing of black people. But The Root would like to…
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Young, Black and Progressive: Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Randall Woodfin Chop It Up in Birmingham, Ala.
What was billed as an afternoon with two brand-new young, progressive mayors recently elected to serve two of the blackest cities in America quickly turned into a perfect example of how new ideas, radical thinking and a new guard of black leadership are changing the political landscape for African-American voters. We should pitch this movie to…
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Pastor Fights Megachurch Gentrification With Sign Telling Black Folks to ‘Stay Out of White Churches’
In a Birmingham, Ala., controversy involving the mayor, a black church, gentrification and a white megachurch, an Alabama pastor is being accused of reverse racism after displaying a sign in front of his church that says, “White folks refused to be our neighbors.” New Era Baptist Church is located in the West End section of…
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#NappyGirlMagic: She Left the Corporate Grind and Became America’s Natural-Hair Whisperer
You can see the precision of corporate influence in every crevice. The customers don’t wait a second. Appointments are tightly regimented. All scheduling is online. Kinky Curly Beauty’s Hair Studio in Birmingham, Ala., is like the love child of a Fortune 500 engineer and your favorite girlfriend’s beauty salon, but with more melanin and fewer…