Newark NJ native Shakur Stevenson wins pro boxing debut

U.S. Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson won his professional debut, beating Edgar Brito by technical unanimous decision in the sixth round Saturday at the StubHub Center. Check out some of the action below.

Republican Florida state senator who used a racial slur resigns

Those who run the Republican Part in Florida think that they are slick. They released this story on a Friday in the hope that not many would notice but some of us were paying attention! George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.Com

Frank Artiles, a Florida state senator who used a racial slur and vulgar language in a conversation with two African-American colleagues resigned Friday, saying the incident is causing a distraction to the legislative process.

Republican Sen. Frank Artiles submitted a resignation letter to Republican Senate President Joe Negron and issued a separate statement.

"I clearly made comments that were hurtful, unacceptable and inappropriate. The American people and Floridians want their leaders to be accountable and responsible, and by resigning my elected office I believe I am demonstrating those qualities they desire and deserve," Artiles said in the statement released by a publicist.

Negron said the resignation was the right thing to do, and he dropped an investigation into the incident.

"All of us are accountable for our actions and our comments, so I think it's an appropriate resignation," Negron said.

The Florida Legislative Black Caucus filed a complaint about the incident on Wednesday and asked that Artiles be removed from office.

The matter began Monday night during a private conversation with Sens. Audrey Gibson and Perry Thurston at the Governors Club, a members-only establishment near the Capitol. Artiles used vulgarities in talking with Gibson, including one particularly offensive to women. Sen. Perry Thurston intervened and Artiles, a Cuban-American from the Miami area, used a variation of the "n-word" and used a vulgarity to describe Negron, according to the complaint filed Wednesday by Thurston.

Read more: Florida state senator who used a racial slur resigns

Tuskegee Airman Buford A. Johnson dead at 89

Buford A. Johnson, a Tuskegee Airman who served as a mechanic and crew chief in the Army Air Corps and U.S. Air Force and spent his retirement years introducing new generations to the history of the World War II African-American fighter corps, has died.

Johnson, of Highland, died Saturday, April 15. He was 89 and a retired master sergeant after an Air Force career that included World War II and the Korean War, according to his family obituary.

Johnson served from 1945 to 1966, starting with the famed 99th Fighter Squadron formed for African-American service members in Tuskegee, Ala.

Johnson was with the 99th from 1946 to 1948, the year President Harry S Truman issued an executive order desegregating the armed forces.

[SOURCE: http://www.pe.com]

Atoning for Slavery Ties, Georgetown University Renames Buildings

On Tuesday, April 18, with a Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope, Georgetown University performed more penance for its 1838 sale of slaves, owned by the Maryland Jesuits, that directly benefited the fledging college financially.

There were mea culpas offered during a moving liturgy in Gaston Hall in the school's landmark Healy Building and at dedications in the Quadrangle, where newly renamed buildings stand near Dahlgren Chapel.

The two buildings, which once bore the names of the 19th-century Jesuit priests who managed the deal that sent 272 slaves from Maryland to Louisiana, were dedicated in the names of former slaves: Isaac Hawkins, whose name is shown at the top of the bill of sale, and Anne Marie Becraft, a freed African American woman who founded a school for Catholic black girls in Georgetown.

At the Gaston Hall ceremony, attended by descendants of the slaves sold off by the university, Georgetown's president, John DeGioia, said the school — like others on the East Coast — participated in America's "original sin," slavery. "We offer this apology for the descendants and your ancestors humbly and without expectations, and we trust ourselves to God and the Spirit and the grace He freely offers to find ways to work together and build together," DeGioia said.

Rev. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, said, “Today the Society of Jesus, which helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say: We have greatly sinned, in our thoughts and in our words, in what we have done and in what we have failed to do.” He added: "We betrayed the very name of Jesus for whom our least society is named."

“Penance is very important,” said Sandra Green Thomas, president of the GU272 Descendants Association. “Penance is required when you have violated God’s law.”

The university selected the day because it was a few days after D.C. Emancipation Day, which commemorates the freeing of slaves in the District of Columbia by President Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862.
[SOURCE: Georgetowner]

DEATH OF APPEALS COURT JUDGE SUSPICIOUS, POLICE SAY

Police are calling the death of Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam suspicious because there is no clear indication of suicide or criminality.

"We're looking it at as a suspicious death at this point. We haven't found any clear indications of criminality, but at this point we can't say for sure. We're hoping if anyone could shed any light into the hours before her disappearance, it would help us establish what happened," said Stephen Davis, NYPD Spokesman.

The Medical Examiner is still planning to perform an autopsy on Abdus-Salaam, after the body of the 65-year-old Court of Appeals judge washed up on the shore of the Hudson River.

Police say Abdus-Salaam was last seen around 7 p.m. Monday, then spoke last Tuesday morning with her assistant by phone. Detectives are now looking for any possible surveillance video in her Harlem neighborhood, for any clues to how and why she ended up in the Hudson.

[SOURCE: abc7ny.com]