culture

Analyses that evaluate the success of HBCUs by observing their six-year graduation rates often miss the mark. On the surface, graduation rates tell us little about a college’s or university’s ability to educate a racially and economically diverse student body. Few colleges and universities educate a majority low-income student body and also graduate the majority…

The FBI is investigating hate crimes in a rural Florida county where three predominantly black churches were recently defaced with racist graffiti scrawl, according to the International Business Times, which cites a report at the Tallahassee Democrat. The latest case was discovered Wednesday when members of Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church in Crawfordville in Wakulla…

The Associated Press is reporting that three cardboard cutouts of black people were found hanging by nooses Saturday on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. University spokeswoman Amy Hamaoui said police are investigating the incident to determine who hanged the effigies, which were found at two prominent campus locations Saturday morning, the report…

Amid a welter of decades-old allegations of sexual assault, embattled actor and comedian Bill Cosby broke his silence recently, placing the burden on black media outlets to remain neutral in the widening scandal, the Hollywood Reporter writes, citing a piece at the New York Post. “Let me say this,” Cosby told the New York Post Friday.…

As a nation marched against police violence in the black community, the Associated Press reports that the St. Louis prosecutor on Saturday quietly released additional documents from the investigation into the police shooting death of Michael Brown, including an interview transcript of a friend who reported seeing the teen get shot in the back. St.…

Jonathan Jayes-Green immigrated to the U.S. from Panama when he was 13, but it wasn’t until his senior year in high school, when he began to fill out college applications and financial-aid forms, that he realized how much of an impact his status as an undocumented immigrant would have on his ability to attend college…

Thousands descended on Washington, D.C., on Saturday to participate in the Justice for All march. They wore masks and shirts with messages and carried rally signs down Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza to the U.S. Capitol to protest police brutality and demand reform. Here are some of the more memorable signs and messages: “I’m here…

Thousands of demonstrators joined the families of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Akai Gurley on Saturday in Washington, D.C., for the Justice for All march to end police brutality and increase police accountability. Participants made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza to the U.S. Capitol. A coalition of several…

Armed with posters and a camera, Delores and Shannon King made the three-hour trek from Portsmouth, Va., to the nation’s capital on Saturday to join thousands of people gathered for the Justice for All demonstration protesting the recent deaths of several unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. “We are here to…