Ten years before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life was almost taken by a woman named Izola Ware Curry. Curry was a 42-year-old mentally ill woman who stabbed Dr. King on September 20, 1958. The disturbed woman used a letter opener to brutally wound Dr. King during his New York book signing […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: BlackAmericaWeb.com is starting a new occasional feature called “Five Minutes with the President.” We’re asking African Americans to tell us what they would ask President Barack Obama if they had five minutes with him in the White House. In this era of fiscal uncertainty, high unemployment, a congressional sequester that is threatening to […]

MEDIA, Pa. (AP) — Rapper Beanie Sigel has been sentenced to six to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to a narcotics possession charge in a Philadelphia suburb. The Delaware County Daily Times says Sigel, whose real name is Dwight Grant, entered the plea Wednesday to a misdemeanor count of illegal possession of Percocet, […]

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man says he didn’t know it was a crime to laugh. Robert Schiavelli of Rockville Centre, on Long Island, was slapped with two summonses for “disturbing the peace.” Police responded to his home on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 after receiving complaints from his next-door neighbor that […]

Kanye West called into New York’s Hot 97 for a rare discussion after landing at No. 7 on MTV’s Hottest MCs in the Game list. No. 1 will be revealed on Thursday (March 7) at 10 p.m. on “MTV Jams.” So far, the list includes Meek Mill, Future and A$AP Rocky at Nos. 10 through […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — “Star Wars” creator George Lucas wants to build a museum dedicated to visual storytelling in San Francisco’s Presidio that would house an art collection he amassed over more than four decades. The filmmaker said he has long sought to showcase his collection of 150 years of populist art, which includes illustrations […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Add cranked-up earphones to the list of health dangers Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s administration wants New Yorkers to avoid. The city Health Department said Wednesday it plans to warn young people that they risk hearing loss from listening to personal music players at high volume. The agency says it hasn’t finalized the […]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers overrode a veto Wednesday and gave the state the most restrictive abortion law in the country — a near-ban on the procedure from the 12th week of pregnancy onward that is certain to end up in court. A day after the Republican-led state Senate voted to override Democratic […]

CHICAGO (AP) — A 50-state study says those with the most gun laws have the fewest gun-related deaths. The research doesn’t prove that the number of laws makes a difference. And some experts say this kind of comparison is hard to do because states are different in so many ways. The authors are from Boston […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans pushed legislation through the House on Wednesday to ease the short-term impact of $85 billion in spending cuts and prevent a government shutdown this month — at the same time previewing a longer-term plan to erase federal deficits without raising taxes. President Barack Obama pursued a different path as the GOP […]

It’s time to man up – I was wrong about Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. First, some background. I wrote a column in 2008 under the title, “Winners and Losers from Election ’08” in which I listed Jesse Jackson, Sr. as one of the biggest losers of that year. Here is what I said: “His past […]

Apparently throwing a tantrum at the tender age of eight can get you almost thrown in jail. St. Louis’ KMOV reports an elementary school student Jmyha Rickman, 8, was handcuffed by her wrists and feet and was taken tot he police station after throwing a tantrum in school. School officials at Lovejoy Elementary School called […]