culture
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Detroiters Wait in Line a Week for New Air Jordans
Detroit may be bankrupt and jobs may be scarce, but some diehard Air Jordan fans waited on line for about a week for a chance to spend $250 on a new pair of the commemorative sneakers on Saturday, CBS Detroit reports. Young men began camping outside sneaker emporium Burn Rubber in downtown Royal Oak, Mich.,…
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Michael Sam Signs $2,650,000 Contract With St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams have signed Michael Sam to an historic four-year, $2.65 million contract, the New Civil Rights Movement reports. The team announced Thursday that it had signed all 11 of its 2014 draft picks. Sam, a former University of Missouri defensive end, became the first openly gay player drafted into the National Football…
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Father’s Day: How an Instagram Photo Didn’t Get the Whole Picture
Father’s Day in the Lewis-Anthony household will probably not be a grand event this year. There’s nothing special planned—their three kids are young enough to be let off the hook for not presenting any special surprise for their dads. But for now this doesn’t bother Kordale Lewis and Kaleb Anthony, who are raising their two…
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There’s No Formula for Being a Great Black Dad
As Father’s Day approaches, I recall that my father, Randall Keith Benjamin Sr., never sat my brothers and me down when we were kids and told us his entire life story. The memories that he shared with us about his childhood were more general summaries than detailed accounts. But he’d offer occasional moments of exposure.…
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Watch: President Obama’s Father’s Day Message
In a Father’s Day message released Saturday, President Barack Obama encouraged men to become more involved in their children’s lives, saying he missed the support of a father while he was growing up. “I know how important it is to have a dad in your life, because I grew up without my father around. I…
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Man Freed by DNA Evidence Faces New Murder Charge
A 53-year-old Chicago man who served about 32 years in prison on a murder and rape conviction before being cleared by DNA evidence in 2012 has been charged with murder in another case, Reuters reports. Andre Davis allegedly told people attending a party at his nephew’s home on Chicago’s South Side in October that he…
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Black TV Dads We Wish Would Adopt Us
To celebrate Father’s Day this year we look back at the black television dads who graced our screens and worked their ways into our hearts. 1. Heathcliff Huxtable, The Cosby Show Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable is perhaps the most revered TV dad. With his humorous life lessons, Cliff made everyone, including the audience, feel like…
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Chicago Steps Up Push to Win Obama Library
Four institutions and one individual in Chicago are making a big push for the city to be the home of Barack Obama’s presidential library, with plans to submit separate bids ahead of Monday’s deadline, Pantagraph reports. The city’s Bronzeville neighborhood, a landmark in the Great Migration, is in competition with the University of Chicago, where…
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Waffle House Customer Shot Dead by Cook, Police Say
A dispute involving unruly costumers at a Georgia restaurant turned deadly early Friday when a cook fired shots, killing a man, WSB-TV 2 reports. Customers reportedly watched in horror as the scene unfolded at 4:30 a.m. at a Waffle House in Fulton County, Ga., the report says. Police told the news station that Adrian Mosley,…
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Black Music Month: Celebrating the Soulful ’70s
What makes the soul, funk and R&B music of the 1970s so unique and powerful? Beyond the fact that it creeps into, nourishes and elevates your mind, body and spirit, it’s the soundtrack of profound change embodying the most prolific and lush period of black cultural expression that we’ve ever experienced. Its beginning was like…