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Model Keyana Montigue, representing Dudley Beauty College, gets dolled up by makeup artist Miss Diane. A model waits patiently as a stylist puts the finishing touches on her mile-high pink-and-blond hairdo. Silver contacts take this futuristic look to the next level. Two models from B.R.A.T. Box Salon for Kids in Temple Hill, Md., hang out…

LeBron James went from being one of sports’ most celebrated figures to one of its most hated after he announced his departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers on an overhyped live television program that proved embarrassing for almost everyone involved. Cleveland fans now hate James, who joined the Miami Heat, and James himself has said that…

In their landmark “American Negro Exhibit” for the 1900 Paris Exposition, the leading black intellectual and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, and lawyer and educator Thomas J. Calloway, strategically deployed 363 photographs. The following images are reproduced courtesy of the Daniel Murray Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Image gallery…

¡Bienvenido a Miami! This feel-good song celebrated Miami Big Willie Style in 1998. The catchy tune clearly resonated with Miami lovers near and far — it’s Smith’s biggest worldwide hit to date. Bonus: Check out a pre-fame (and pre-Hitch) Eva Mendes in the video. Captions by Lauren Williams The sunny city doesn’t always inspire greatness.…

Lauren is a former Deputy Editor of The Root. Remember Gina’s (Tisha Campbell) stone-cold attempt to cook a turkey? It wasn’t enough that her parents were meeting Martin’s (Martin Lawrence) wannabe-Eddie Murphy cousin and one-eyed uncle for the first time; she was also a novice in the kitchen. Uh, pass the stuffing? Captions by Erin…

Lauren is a former Deputy Editor of The Root. It wasn’t looking good for Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) when he left his House ethics trial less than an hour after it began Nov. 15 because, he said, he couldn’t afford representation. The outcome: Rangel was found guilty of 11 out of 13 violations. Before the…

Wilkerson: When the migration began in 1915, 90 percent of all African Americans were living in the South. By the end of the Great Migration in 1970, 47 percent — nearly half — were living outside the South. Captions by Joel Dreyfuss Wilkerson: The migration began because Northern industry needed labor during World War I.…

Allen West, a Florida Republican newly elected to the House of Representatives, is a vet of the Iraq War who believes wholeheartedly in the campaign in which he fought. Captions by Lauren Williams Charlie Rangel, a decorated Korean War veteran, has long proposed bringing back the draft, saying in 2006 that President George W. Bush…

Lauren is a former Deputy Editor of The Root. Did someone ask Kanye West to bust out into an a cappella rendition of “Gold Digger” on a recent Delta Airlines flight? It doesn’t matter, because he was giving his fellow passengers a little taste of Kanye, whether they wanted it or not. At least he…

Lauren is a former Deputy Editor of The Root. As a writer and performer in San Francisco in the 1970s, Shange wrote and produced the first production of her choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Captions by Lauren Williams The acclaimed production would travel from San Francisco to…