Will Black public school students suffer academically because of a dwindling number of Black teachers? It’s a critical question that is being debated in education circles across America. And it’s got my attention. As more African-Americans students and other pupils of color are packing the nation’s classrooms, public schools are becoming more segregated and minority teachers, who […]
Like many Black Americans, I was filled with anger while watching a graphic video of a white South Carolina police officer shooting an unarmed black man in the back eight times while the man was running away. His crime: A broken taillight. The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, a police officer with the North Charleston, […]
Will the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice get justice? Sadly, I’m not confident that a grand jury will indict Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann, although I do believe there is probable cause to send Loehmann to trial. Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was shot and killed by Loehmann on Nov. 22 died from a “gunshot wound of […]
Yesterday, I received a noteworthy text message from a friend, Gloria McCollum, a formidable attorney from St. Louis who represents The Ethical Society of Police, the largest organization of African-American law enforcement officers in the state of Missouri. McCollum was exasperated – and for good reason. The Ethical Society – and McCollum — were outraged […]
Brace yourselves NFL fans: Ray Rice, who cold-cocked his then-fiancée in a hotel elevator and dragged her on the floor like a sack of potatoes, could return to the field. Rice, 27, the ex-Baltimore Ravens running back, will appeal his indefinite domestic violence ban from the NFL in early November. The hearing for Rice’s appeal […]
The sense of urgency over the Black vote in the upcoming mid-term elections is mounting. Black congressional leaders are feverishly urging black voters to turn out strong on November 4th, saying that Democrats could lose multiple elections across the country and Republicans could take control of the U.S. Senate, if African Americans don’t pack the […]
Black residents in Ferguson, Missouri are hoping for justice in the Michael Brown case but they are also bracing for the worst possible scenario: That a grand jury in St. Louis clears Police Officer Darren Wilson of shooting the unarmed teenager to death on August 9. A flurry of private meetings are taking place in […]
A coalition of prominent African-American women is asking for an emergency meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and urging him to hire Black women to serve on the NFL’s all-white Domestic Violence Advisory Board. Melanie Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and National Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable, […]
The NFL is trying to manage two controversial domestic abuse cases involving high-profile black players by hiring three female domestic violence experts – all white – to advise a league that is 70 percent black. The women are: Lisa Friel, former head of the sex crimes prosecution unit in the New York County District Attorney’s […]
ST. LOUIS — It took a village to bury Michael Brown. It took more than the 600 members of Brown’s family who gathered inside the jam-packed Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church. It took more than the 2,500 black folks who filled the sanctuary. It took more than the hundreds of mourners who stood outside the […]
For U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, America’s top lawyer, father, and self-described social activist, uplifting the nation’s Black boys and young men of color is not just a priority, it’s a principled mission. Sitting at a long desk in a cavernous conference room inside the U.S Department of Justice, Holder, the nation’s first Black U.S. […]
President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder – who are among the most powerful men in America – have become selectively involved in the case of a black teenager, Michael Brown, whose shooting death by a white police officer has become a poignant national symbol for racial justice. When Holder landed in Ferguson, […]
