culture
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Why Whites Are Wanted to Play at a Chicago Park
In a city known for its racially segregated communities, residents in a neighborhood in Chicago’s Hermosa community on the Northwest Side are pushing for integration for personal reasons, according to a note scrawled on a sign. “Wanted white people to play so the city will take care of this park,” the sign reads, according to…
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Inside James Brown’s Fatherly Relationship With Al Sharpton
On May 6, 1981, James Brown appeared with boxing legend Muhammad Ali on the late-night Tom Snyder show to introduce a young and unknown civil rights leader to the world. That young activist was the Rev. Al Sharpton, and he was Brown’s kind of black leader. The two had become fast friends during the 1970s and…
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Eric Garner’s Death Ruled a Homicide by NYC Medical Examiner
All those who want justice for Eric Garner—the Staten Island, N.Y., father who died after New York City police officers placed him in a choke hold during an arrest—will be relieved by this update. According to the Daily News, the New York City medical examiner has declared Garner’s death a homicide—by choke hold. Some of…
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Sharpton, NYC Mayor and NYPD Commissioner Lead Roundtable on Police-Community Relations
As New York City continues to grapple with Staten Island dad Eric Garner’s death, which led an incensed city to demand justice, Mayor Bill de Blasio held a roundtable discussion with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to talk through the next step to be taken toward healing the community, the New…
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BART Workers Say They Received Racist Death Threats Drawn on Lockers
On June 27, black BART track-maintenance workers said they found graffiti messily drawn in black marker on three of their lockers. It read: “F-you [first name of worker] dies N-,” according to Jody LeWitter, an attorney representing the workers of California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit agency, SFGate reports. The employees said in a statement that…
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Fla. Man Convicted of Murder After Throwing 3-Month-Old Out of Moving Car
A 26-year-old Florida man was found guilty on Thursday of tossing an infant out the window of a moving car, the New York Post reports. Little Emanuel Wesley Murray died instantly. According to the report, Richard McTear attacked his ex-girlfriend Jasmine Bedwell in 2009 when she came home with her son. McTear grabbed the infant…
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Chicago Dad Killed Less Than a Week After Teen Son Was Fatally Shot
Samuel Walker Sr. barely had time to mourn the loss of his 13-year-old son, Samuel Walker Jr., before his own life was snatched from him. According to the Chicago Tribune, the elder Walker was shot on the 4100 block of West Crystal Street in Chicago a mere two days before “Lil Sam,” as his son…
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Journalists at NABJ Convention Discuss the State of Black Media
Black journalists have flocked to Boston for the 39th annual National Association of Black Journalists Convention & Career Fair, which is being held at Hynes Convention Center. It’s the first time NABJ has convened in the city once notorious for racial antagonism and tension. As the journalists filed in from media outlets throughout the country,…
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Ebola-Stricken US Aid Worker to Be Flown to US for Treatment
A patient infected with Ebola is expected to be flown into the United States to be treated in Atlanta at Emory University Hospital, Reuters reports. The patient, a U.S. aid worker who contracted the disease while working in West Africa, will be moved to a high-security ward and kept in a special isolation unit that…
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Sierra Leone in State of Public Health Emergency
The lethal Ebola virus ravaging West Africa has forced the hand of Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma, who issued a public health emergency declaration late Wednesday in an attempt to help stop the virus’ spread, the Associated Press reports. According to the news wire, Koroma promised that house-to-house searches would be conducted in order…