culture
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Who Were the White Folks of Freedom Summer?
It’s well-known that 1964’s Freedom Summer, as it came to be called, was an interracial effort, with many white college students joining African Americans to register voters in Mississippi. It was the murder of three civil rights activists—two of them white—by members of the Ku Klux Klan that sparked national outrage and drew national attention…
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Saul Williams: Tupac ‘Had an Innate Understanding of the Blues’
When Saul Williams first heard about Holler if Ya Hear Me, the Broadway musical inspired by the lyrics of rapper Tupac Shakur, he wanted no part of it. He says he was as skeptical as many fans were. Even though director Kenny Leon had garnered critical acclaim for reviving the works of great playwrights like…
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R&B Legend Bobby Womack Reported Dead
You could hear the life and the living in Bobby Womack’s voice. He was the gospel-trained son of a preacher man, who climbed back from the depths of addiction, had career highs and lows and was a most cherished protege of the great Sam Cooke. The soulful singer was back in the studio this year…
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A Matter of Law: What Everyone Is Missing About the Texas Child Support Case
Clifford Hall is not a deadbeat dad. And District Court Judge Lisa Millard, who sentenced him to six months in prison even after he caught up and overpaid on his late child support due to a clerical error, is not a crooked judge. The problem, insists Hall’s lawyer Tyesha Elam, is the law—more specifically, a…
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Jabari Parker Joins a Small Number of Black Mormons in the NBA
Talk about being a history-maker. Jabari Parker, the 6-foot-8-inch Duke power forward who was selected second overall in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, joins a small number of African-American Mormons who have played in the NBA, such as Thurl Bailey and Brandon Davies, and is the highest-ranked Asian-Pacific…
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Watch: The NBA’s Classy Move on Draft Night for Ex-Baylor Star
On Sunday former Baylor star Isaiah Austin’s NBA dreams came to a crashing halt when team doctors discovered that he suffered from an enlarged aorta in his heart a mere four days before he would have heard his name announced as a late first-round NBA-draft pick. Austin was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, a rare genetic…
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Nigerian Singer Offers Virginity in Exchange for Abducted Schoolgirls
One Nigerian pop star is taking the fate of the missing Chibok schoolgirls into her own hands, saying that she is willing to give her virginity to Boko Haram in exchange for the more than 200 who are still missing, the New York Daily News reports. “It is just unfair. They are too young. I…
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Woman Beats Mother in Front of 2-Year-Old Son
Police in New Jersey are looking for a 25-year-old woman who they believe beat and kicked a mother until she was bloody and disoriented in front of her 2-year-old son while several bystanders videotaped the attack, the New York Daily News reports. Authorities believe that Latia Harris attacked the 27-year-old mother Tuesday for allegedly spreading…
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Should I Tell My Husband Our Last Child Isn’t His?
I am the mother of two. I have an amazing husband and father to my children. The last child is not his, and he is unaware. His best friend and I had a one-night stand two years ago when my hubby was out of town. I can’t bring myself to come clean. I just started…
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DC Strip Club Built With HIV/AIDS Grant Money
A District of Columbia Superior Court jury found that nonprofit group Miracle Hands, Inc., misappropriated grant funds that were intended for a job-training center from the city’s HIV/AIDS program. After the four-day trial, the jury found that Miracle Hands and its executive director, Cornell Jones, owed a total of $329,653 in damages, according to Washington City…