culture
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Rosa Parks Artifacts Sold to Warren Buffett’s Son
Artifacts belonging to legendary civil rights activist Rosa Parks have been auctioned off for a reported $4.5 million, according to a lawyer involved in the sale, the Associated Press reports. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, run by Howard G. Buffett, the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, purchased the items that once belonged to the…
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Man Who Reportedly Killed 3 Relatives Is Hit by Truck While Running From Scene
A Florida man who allegedly went on a shooting rampage on Friday, killing three people, might have killed more had he not been accidentally struck by a truck, police told 10 News. According to witnesses who spoke with the news station, George Mason III reportedly shot and killed Jannie Taylor, 81; Ralph Peyton, 29; and…
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Officer Charged With Raping 8 Black Women Finds Support Online
Daniel Holtzclaw, the Oklahoma City police officer arrested in August and charged with sexually abusing eight black women, has supporters online who have raised more than $7,000, according to MLive.com. According to the Raw Story, the 27-year-old cop is facing charges of “rape, forcible oral sodomy, sexual batter and indecent exposure” for allegedly assaulting women he…
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Do’s and Don’ts for Teaching About Ferguson
It’s no exaggeration to refer to the shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson, Mo., police officer, the treatment of protesters and civilians by a militarized police force in in its aftermath, and the context of racial inequality in which they all happened as an American tragedy. But there’s…
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Black New Yorkers Want Increased Policing Despite Eric Garner’s Death?
Despite the looming specter of police brutality, which casts shadows over street corners, neighborhoods and homes across black America, 56 percent of black voters in New York City support “broken windows” policing tactics, compared with 61 percent of the city’s white voters, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. The controversial policing style frames community…
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The Black Workforce by the Numbers
Labor Day, widely considered to mark the unofficial last weekend of summer, is, of course, also an annual celebration of the contributions American workers make to society. What does the black part of that workforce look like? Here, according to BlackDemographics.com, the Department of Labor and other sources, are the numbers: 1. In total, black Americans…
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I Allowed People to Mispronounce My African Name for 25 Years
In a recent interview with the Improper Bostonian, Emmy Award-winning star of Orange Is the New Black Uzo Aduba recalls telling her mother of a childhood desire to be called “Zoe,” a name more easily pronounced than her given Nigerian name, Uzoamaka. Aduba’s mother offered the following reply: “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo…
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At least 6 Ferguson Cops Named in Civil Rights Suits
Besides Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., officer who killed unarmed Michael Brown earlier this month, six others on the same force have been named in civil rights lawsuits alleging the use of excessive force, the Washington Post reports. Killing a mentally ill man with a Taser, pistol-whipping a child, choking and hog-tying a child and…
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2nd NYPD Death Ruled Homicide
The death of a 45-year-old man who struggled with police while being taken into custody in July in New York City has been ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office, according to CNN. The man, Ronald Singleton, died in police custody on July 13, just four days before Eric Garner died after an officer…
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11 Shot in Chicago as Labor Day Weekend Kicks Off
As the long holiday weekend kicked off, at least one person was killed and 10 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago, according to NBC Chicago. In shootings scattered across the city, one man was killed late Friday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. And just after 5 a.m. Saturday, a 28-year-old man was…