mississippi
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School Says Story That Principal Cut Off Student’s Locs Is ‘Total Fabrication’; Won’t Discipline Staff
After a mother in Jones County, Miss., wrote a viral Facebook post Tuesday claiming that her son’s elementary school principal called him into the office and chopped off his locs, school officials launched an investigation into the matter, reviewing security-camera footage and interviewing administrators, staff and students. The Jones County investigation, which appears to have…
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9-Year-Old Boy Shot and Killed 14-Year-Old Sister Over Video Game, Police Say
A teenage girl was shot and killed by her younger brother over what police believe to have been an argument over video games. According to the Clarion Ledger, 14-year-old Dijonae White, a student at Tupelo Middle School in Mississippi, was identified as the victim. Sheriff Cecil Cantrell said that Dijonae would not give her brother…
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Tracing Your Roots: My Adopted Black Daughter Wants to Know Her Origins
A white mother and black daughter encounter the genealogical “brick wall” so many people face while researching African-American families during slavery. Dear Professor Gates: I have worked very hard to trace back the ancestry of my adopted daughter Rasa Braswell, who is African American. (I am Caucasian.) However, I hit a snag once I got…
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Black Mississippi Cop Fired (and Then Rehired) After Confronting Confederate-Flag Wavers Outside Civil Rights Museum
A black hero Capitol police officer out of Mississippi was fired after confronting some protesters who were waving Confederate and state flags outside the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Less than a day later, he was rehired. According to the Clarion Ledger, officials with the Department of Finance and Administration, who oversee the Capitol Police, confirmed…
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5-Year-Old Mississippi Hero Calls 911, Helps Cops Capture the Grinch to Save Christmas for Us All
TyLon Pittman, who happens to be a 5-year-old hero, loves Christmas. In fact, he loves Christmas so much that he helped the cops capture the nefarious Grinch in order to save Christmas for us all (and Lord knows we need a little extra help this year). But no, seriously, in a story too cute to…
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Trump Spoke at the Opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in What Was Essentially a Photo Op
President Donald Trump has made it pretty clear how he feels about black people. He has refused to condemn white nationalists and routinely calls out black pro football players for protesting police brutality. So why would the hater in chief accept an invitation to speak at the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in…
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Will Mississippi’s New Civil Rights Museum Tell the Truth About the State’s Troublesome Past?
Myrlie Evers-Williams once had a hard time understanding how her husband could still love their home state of Mississippi so deeply. After all, Medgar Evers grew up in the segregated South and, like many African Americans, left America to fight in Europe during World War II, only to return to a state where black veterans…
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Byron McBride Indicted on Capital Murder Charges in Slaying of 6-Year-Old Kingston Frazier
A Mississippi grand jury on Wednesday indicted Byron McBride, 19, on charges of capital murder and possession of a stolen car in the May 18 slaying of 6-year-old Kingston Frazier, WJTV-TV reports. As The Root previously reported, on May 18, Ebony Archie, Kingston’s mother, left her Toyota Camry running with Kingston inside while she briefly…
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Mudbound Is Another Exhausting Tale of Inequality and Racism in America, but at Least It Was Executed Properly
When there’s historical blackness in film, it’s usually displayed through slavery or Jim Crow. There’s never really any in between. But there is a very palpable significance in remembering, reliving and recognizing black history and respecting how far we’ve come (even though 2017 mirrors the past more times than we’re comfortable with). I guess that’s…
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Miss. High School Basketball Player Says He Was Suspended for Not Placing Hand Over Heart During National Anthem
A Mississippi high school basketball player says he was suspended from school for not placing his hand over his heart while the national anthem played at a school event last week. Chase Neal, a 16-year-old junior at Caledonia High School, told The Dispatch that he and some teammates were taking part in a slam-dunk contest…