culture

The new movie Selma, which depicts the civil rights struggle and the 1965 voting-rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr. through the town of Selma, Ala., is being shown to residents of the town for free, but not everyone is sure that opening that old wound is good for the citizens of Selma. “I…

Before ending their two-week Hawaiian vacation, the presidential family took a little trip along the island to visit with rock legend and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and his family, according to the Associated Press. AP reports that President Barack Obama and his daughters, Sasha and Malia (looks like Michelle Obama sat out this visit),…

Civil rights activists targeted Sunday-afternoon restaurantgoers in California and New York to remind them of the black lives lost to police violence across the country. The event, called “Black Brunch,” began last year in Oakland, Calif., according to Yahoo News, after the tragic police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in…

Federal legislation related to police brutality and inspired by the spate of killings of unarmed African Americans, particularly men, will be making its way through Congress in 2015. The large demonstrations related to the #BlackLivesMatter movement are sure to mean even more bills in the 114th Congress. Many assume that the new Republican Congress will…

We didn’t have to know you to know that you knew us, got us and embodied us. That you spoke like us and got the duality of being both a professional and a poet. That a home run ball leaving the park wasn’t “hi-yoooo!” it was “boo-yahhhh!” And you got the difference for us, the…

In an effort to deter crime, an Oklahoma Republican lawmaker has drafted a measure to ban hoodies in public, following actions by several other states around the country, Oklahoma’s Channel 6 reports. Republican state Sen. Don Barrington has written a bill that would ban masks, hoodies and other face coverings that hide one’s identity in a…

After a long battle with cancer, longtime ESPN anchor Stuart Scott died Sunday, the sports cable station reported. He was 49. Scott joined ESPN in 1993 for the launch of ESPN2, quickly moving up the ranks as one of the network’s main SportsCenter anchors thanks to his rapid-fire delivery and unique phrasing to describe highlights,…

Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay thought he was practicing an important tenet of community policing when he obliged an activist’s request to take a picture holding an anti-racism sign at the city’s New Year’s Eve parade, MSNBC reports. The sign read, “I resolve to challenge racism @ work #EndWhiteSilence.” Instead of winning praise for addressing…

A police officer from suburban Detroit has been rehired against the wishes of her superiors, who fired her after she was caught on tape forcibly cutting a young hairdresser’s weave during an arrest, according to Raw Story, which cited a report by the Macomb Daily. Bernadette Najor was fired last year from the Warren Police…

A mentally ill Cleveland woman died in police custody nearly two months ago because she was physically restrained in a prone position, a coroner announced Friday, the Associated Press reports. A heart ailment and bipolar disorder also were found to have contributed to her death, the report says. As a result, the medical examiner in…