MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The legacy of the “Scottsboro Boys” is secure: The nine black teens were wrongly convicted more than 80 years ago in one of America’s most infamous racial tragedies. Alabama is now moving to repair its own legacy, and correct past injustices, with a bill to allow posthumous pardons for the group. […]
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Confederate battle flag hung inside the old North Carolina State Capitol last week to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War is being taken down after civil rights leaders raised concerns. The decision was announced Friday evening, hours after the Associated Press published a story about the flag, which officials […]
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Confederate battle flag hung inside the old North Carolina State Capitol to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War is raising concern with civil rights leaders. State Historic Sites Director Keith Hardison says the flag raised last week inside the House chamber is part of a historical display replicating how […]
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont newspaper defended itself Saturday against accusations of racism over a poster it published in support of a local sports team that read “fry Rice” in type associated with Chinese calligraphy, saying it meant no offense and simply wanted to play on words. The back-page poster, printed in Thursday’s editions, […]
COOPERTOWN, Tenn. (AP) — A police chief hired to rebuild a tiny Tennessee department dismantled by scandal is using a lie-detector test to keep racists off his force. Coopertown Police Chief Shane Sullivan took over the department in November, becoming the 11th chief in as many years. He was hired on the heels of a […]
OBERLIN, Ohio (AP) — Scrawls of racially offensive graffiti and, more recently, a report of someone wearing what looked like a Ku Klux Klan-type hooded robe on campus have shaken students at historically liberal Oberlin College, one of the nation’s first universities to admit blacks. A day after the school canceled classes and students marched […]
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — FIFA’s new anti-racism chief Jeffrey Webb believes soccer has failed to support abused players and needs tougher sanctions. FIFA President Sepp Blatter appointed Webb, the CONCACAF president, this week to head a task force on racism after a number of abuse cases among players and fans. “We’ve been talking for a […]
Bulging eyes. Swollen lips. Bare feet. Clownish facial expressions. Many of us assumed that such hurtful racial images died in the 1960s with Jim Crow. But this week Bloomberg’s Businessweek magazine revived some of that racist iconography when it published a cover featuring Blacks as greedy, bug-eyed opportunists. Now, many politicians, pundits and Black leaders […]
A New York assemblyman who at first defended his decision to sport blackface, an Afro wig and a basketball jersey to a costume party apologized Monday, saying he didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind wore the getup at his own party in his home to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, for […]
Jamelle Young is outraged after her five-year-old son was asked to act out a slave auction in his kindergarten class. Young found out about the “auction” after her son told her one day after school that “he didn’t want to get on the table at the auction block.” Reportedly, the black students acted like the […]
ATLANTA (AP) — In recent years, Emory University made a point to acknowledge how the school was once led by slave owners, but an essay by the school president has renewed debate about racial sensitivity on campus. Emory President James Wagner recently wrote about the three-fifths compromise on slavery in 1787 to talk about the […]
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A North Dakota high school principal says appropriate action is being taken after three students briefly donned Ku Klux Klan-style white robes and hoods Friday night during a state hockey semifinal game. The photo caused an uproar on Twitter when it was posted by 19-year-old Shane Schuster, who was seated […]
