chicago
-
![The Saga Continues: Chicago Judge Orders Special Prosecutor Be Appointed in the Jussie Smollett Case [Corrected]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wfftkoymcfxvvluhqr8v-300x168.jpg)
The Saga Continues: Chicago Judge Orders Special Prosecutor Be Appointed in the Jussie Smollett Case [Corrected]
Will the Jussie Smollett case ever end? A Chicago judge Friday ordered that a special prosecutor be appointed to look into how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office decided to drop all 16 felony disorderly conduct charges against the actor over allegations he staged a homophobic and racist attack against himself in…
-
August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Film Adaptation Confirmed With Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman to Star, Denzel Washington to Produce
Another one of August Wilson’s brilliant plays is coming to the silver screen! Get ready to sound the trumpets because this time, it’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The film’s synopsis, per its press release: When Ma Rainey, the “Queen of the Blues,” makes a record in a studio in Chicago, 1927, tensions boil between her,…
-
Empire’s Bryshere Gray Is the Latest Castmember to Get Into a (Minor) Dustup With Chicago Law Enforcement
Is Chi-Town coming for those Empire boys? It’s a question now that a second member of the Fox TV show’s cast has apparently gotten into a little trouble with the law. According to TMZ, actor Bryshere Gray, who plays baby boy Hakeem Lyon on the show, was arrested in Chicago on a misdemeanor traffic offense—that…
-
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, With the 2020 Presidential Election Nearing, Slams Trump As Threat to LGBTQ Rights
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the first black woman and openly gay person to lead the nation’s third-most-populous city, says Donald Trump is a major threat to LGBTQ civil rights and that that should compel people to go to the polls and vote in 2020. Lightfoot made her remarks Monday as she made what the Chicago…
-
Study Finds Folks in Chicago’s Affluent Streeterville Live to Almost the Century Mark, While Blacks in Impoverished Englewood Don’t Live Long Enough to Collect Social Security
It’s just nine miles between Chicago’s predominantly white and wealthy Streeterville neighborhood and the predominantly black and poor Englewood in the city’s South Side, but the gulf of difference in life expectancies between the two represents the largest such gap in the nation. A New York University School of Medicine study has found the average…
-
R. Kelly Pleads Not Guilty to 11 New Sex-Related Felony Charges
Robert “R.” Kelly appeared at a brief hearing at Cook County Court in Chicago on Thursday for an arraignment regarding the 11 additional sex-related felony charges against him. The 52-year-old artist pleaded not guilty to the charges. According to Billboard, the new charges include four aggravated sexual assault charges. Those four counts each carry a…
-
Historic Ebony Photos Set to Be Auctioned Off for at Least $13,000,000
Photos from the Ebony magazine archives detailing some 70 years of African American life and history, including images of Emmett Till, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Coretta Scott King and so many more, are scheduled to be auctioned off next month in Chicago. The collection, up for sale to pay off secured creditors, or lien holders,…
-
Luxury Comes Home: At My City, 4 Ways, Law Roach Helped Celebrate the Undefeatable Style of Chicago
With the sometimes troubling narratives spun about Chicago, it can be easy to forget that America’s third largest city is also deeply rich with culture, beauty, style and great taste. But in all its complexity, Chicagoans intimately know how beautiful our city is, which is why even the expats always manage to come home, one…
-
Mom of Slain Sex Trafficked Teen Cries Out for Justice—and Gets It; Judge Slaps Pimp With 32 Years in Prison
The pimp who tricked out a 16-year-old girl before she was strangled, her throat slashed and her body discarded in a garage, allegedly by a man he set her up with, was sentenced Tuesday to 32 years in prison. The mother of 16-year-old Desiree Robinson, Yvonne Ambrose, testified before Joseph Hazley’s sentencing, compared Hazley to…