During the National Action Network convention Dr. Ben Carson called the shooting of Walter Scott an execution. You know you screwed up when even Mr. "Say bad stuff about black people" questions your actions. Yeah, it could have been the venue or the fact that this shooting is was caught on video but I'll give Carson the benefit of the doubt on this one. Watch Dr. Carson's comments below.
Praying for #WalterScott's family. Heartbreaking & too familiar. We can do better - rebuild trust, reform justice system, respect all lives.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 9, 2015
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott tweeted several messages about the horrific shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston. See his messages below.
After watching the video, the senseless shooting and taking of #WalterScott's life was absolutely unnecessary and avoidable. (1/2)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015My heart aches for the family and our North Charleston community. I will be watching this case closely. (2/2)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015The horrific video that came to light yesterday is deeply troubling. #WalterScott (1/6)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015It is clear the killing of #WalterScott was unnecessary&avoidable; my prayers are with the Scott family as they go through this ordeal (2/6)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015The swift action taken by SLED&relevant authorities upon receiving the video shows the severity of this terrible event. #WalterScott (3/6)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015With several protests planned today, I join community leaders in North Charleston in calling for peace. #WalterScott (4/6)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015I understand the hurt, the frustration and the anger many are feeling today. But violence solves nothing. #WalterScott (5/6)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015We must come together as a community, state, and nation in working to bring our communities together and rebuild trust. #WalterScott (6/6)
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 8, 2015
I'm sure by now that you have all seen the tragic shooting death of Walter Scott by the hands of a South Carolina police officer. That officer, was charged with murder. Just one day later another South Carolina officer from North Augusta has been arrested and charged in the murder of another unarmed black man, Ernest Satterwhite who was parked in his own driveway. George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.com
A white public safety officer in South Carolina who fatally shot a black man after a 2014 car chase has been arrested on a felony charge, the state’s Law Enforcement Division announced Tuesday.
Justin Gregory Craven, a 25-year-old North Augusta public safety officer, was charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle in the February 2014 death of Ernest Satterwhite. If convicted, Craven could go to prison for up to 10 years and face a fine of $1,000.
According to investigators, after Craven attempted to make a traffic stop for a suspected DUI, Satterwhite, 68, led the officer on a car chase from North Augusta to Satterwhite’s home, miles away in Edgefield County. There, investigators say, Craven fired repeatedly through the driver-side door of Satterwhite’s car after Satterwhite had stopped in his driveway.
Read more: White officer now faces felony charge for fatally shooting a black man in his driveway
Residents in Ferguson, Mo. Tuesday elected two black city council members, transforming the political body's racial composition after months of protests over racial profiling and police brutality.
One sitting black member of the council was not up for re-election. When the two new African-American council members take their seats it will be the first time that blacks have controlled half of the council, despite the fact that two-thirds of the city's 21,000 residents are black.
Tuesday voters elected Wesley Bell and Ella Jones, who are both black.
Read more: Ferguson voters make history and increase turnout
A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting and killing an apparently unarmed black man, Walter L. Scott in the back while he ran away.
The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, had said he feared for his life because the man took his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man fled. . If you watch the video closely you can also see the officer pick something up off the ground and drop it near Mr. Scott's body after the shooting. Planting evidence? Maybe. Watch the shocking video below:
High school senior Nik Bostrom has a major decision to make. It's not where to spend spring break or who to take to prom. Bostrom is deciding between the seven Ivy League colleges he's been accepted to.
The Verona teenager has always been a good student and a well-rounded member of his school community, but he said that when he decided to apply to seven of the eight Ivy League schools earlier this year, he didn't think that he would get into any of them.
"I really didn't anticipate getting in," he said. "I didn't expect this to happen. It doesn't seem real; it's a dream."
Bostrom is not only boasting an impressive GPA and taking advanced classes, but also heavily involved in his school's music program and marching band. He was also on the Verona track team until a back injury forced him to step down last year.
Even with the impressive record, Bostrom said he and his family were extremely surprised when he acceptances kept rolling in — Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania all accepted Nick. He didn't apply to the eighth Ivy, Dartmouth.
Read more: N.J. teen accepted to 7 Ivy League schools
Some may believe that I am anti-cop because I post stories like this. I post stories like this not because I'm anti-cop but pro good cop. I'm doing what "good cops" don't do and that's expose the bad behavior of their so called peers. Maybe if cops checked each other, there would be less of these stories to tell. George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com
A Minneapolis cop was caught on camera threatening to break the leg of a teenager, Hamza Jeylani who said he was racially profiled. Watch the video below:
A group of prominent black coaches headlined by Tubby Smith and Shaka Smart are forming an organization to address the dwindling numbers of minority head coaches in college basketball.
The National Association for Coaching Equity and Development is in response to the dissolution of the Black Coaches Association. Ten years after minority coaches held more than 25 percent of the jobs across the country, the percentage dropped to 22 percent last year. And another 12 minority coaches have been fired this season.
As the NCAA's crown jewel — the men's Final Four — descends on Indianapolis this weekend with all four teams coached by white men, Smith, Smart, John Thompson III and a growing list of some of the game's most accomplished coaches say they are answering the call from those who came before them to speak up with authority and address the issues that have bubbled back to the surface.
"There hasn't been a voice for people speaking out and saying, 'Look, what are you all doing administratively? What's this about? Why has this all happened?' And question it," Smith, who won a national title at Kentucky and now coaches at Texas Tech, told The Associated Press.
Smith was one of the charter members of the Black Coaches Association, a once-powerful group headed by trail blazers like John Thompson, George Raveling and John Chaney to kick down the doors that colleges and universities slammed in the faces of minority coaches.
So it pained him to watch the BCA lose its influence in recent years while struggling to come up with funding from the NCAA and other sources. As the BCA started to disappear, so have the opportunities for black coaches across the country.
The new group, the National Association for Coaching Equity and Development, has more than 40 minority coaches on board and aims to replace the now-defunct BCA as the most influential advocate to push schools to give candidates of color more consideration for head coaching jobs. It also wants to better prepare the younger generation of coaches to succeed in those jobs and help athletes gain admission to college and excel when they get there.
Read more: Top college coaches form group to address minority hires
Duke University is condemning the latest apparent act of racism on campus. Students protested throughout the day as authorities investigated who left a noose hung from a tree on campus.
In the Fusion documentary Ferguson: A Report from Occupied Territory, the directors turn to the residents of St. Louis County to tell us what it’s like to be racially profiled and under siege. Watch the full documentary below:
In one of the biggest cheating scandals of its kind in the U.S., 11 former Atlanta public school educators were convicted Wednesday of racketeering for their role in a scheme to inflate students' scores on standardized exams.
The defendants, including teachers, a principal and other administrators, were accused of falsifying test results to collect bonuses or keep their jobs in the 50,000-student Atlanta school system. A 12th defendant, a teacher, was acquitted of all charges by the jury.
The racketeering charges carry up to 20 years in prison. Most of the defendants will be sentenced April 8.
Read more: 11 former Atlanta educators convicted in cheating scandal
NPR's Michel Martin examines how the fear of black men plays out in America. She talks with two African-American men about how that fear affects their lives. Listen to that interview below.
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African-Americans, has broken its fellowship with Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) following its recent vote to approve same-sex marriage.
Read more: 34,000 Black Churches Break Ties With Presbyterian Church USA
The 2015 NSBE Technical Professionals Conference (TPC) was recently hosted in Southern California on March 25–29, 2015, at the Anaheim Marriott and Convention Center as part of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 41st Annual Convention. The annual convention convened over 7,000 participants and this year's convention theme is “Innovation & Excellence: Reimagining Your Future”.
The Technical Professionals Conference packed more than 12 events into the conference including executive roundtables, career panels, industry workshops, networking sessions and premier special events. Conference highlights included the TPC Executive Roundtable series featuring a dynamic lineup of 18 executive leaders covering a variety of global topics and the “Comcast NBCUniversal Experience” a special event powered by Comcast NBCUniversal featuring a showcase of media, technology and creative content. NSBE also partnered with global security company, Northrop Grumman, who hosted two signature luncheons and an executive breakfast featuring fireside chats with several top-level executives from the corporation. Lastly, the conference closed out with an evening extravaganza entitled “Empire Saturday” presented by Fox Networks with custom footage and branded items from the hit television show along with a few special surprises.
“The conference is a chance for NSBE members and industry professionals to network, explore opportunities, gain professional development, support future STEM leaders and learn best practices from successful executives,” Amilcar Aaron, TPC Conference Chair said.
The NSBE Professionals have engaged a strong roster of participating conference partners including Accenture, Campbell Soup Company, Cargill, Caterpillar, Cummins, Dell, Eaton, Electronic Arts, FBI, Georgia-Pacific, IBM, Kelley School of Business, L-3 Communications, Lenovo, Lockheed Martin, Qualcomm, RWJF New Connections, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Gas Co., Starbucks, United Technologies Corporation and US Marines.
“This conference would simply not be possible without the support of these local, national and global companies,” Aaron said. “We truly value our partner relationships and really appreciate their commitment to recruiting diverse talent, sharing their expertise and supporting the NSBE mission.”
About NSBE: The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is owned and managed by its members. With more than 30,000 members around the world, NSBE is one of the largest student-governed organizations based in the United States. NSBE’s mission is "to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community." The organization is dedicated to the academic and professional success of African-American engineering students and professionals. NSBE is governed by an executive board of college students and engineering professionals and is operated by a professional staff at its World Headquarters, located in Alexandria, Va.
[ SOURCE] About 20 prominent black women arrived at the ornate office suites of McConnell Thursday morning, asking to meet with him—even if for only a few minutes in the hallway—over the delay in confirming Attorney General-designate Loretta Lynch. They were told McConnell was too busy. The women did meet with McConnell's chief of staff for about 20 minutes.
The group that arrived at his door included Williams-Skinner; attorney Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights; Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Sheila Tyson, a city councilwoman from Birmingham, Ala.; and Marcia Dyson, CEO of the Women's Global Initiative.
They asserted that the treatment of Lynch was a double standard rarely if ever applied to any other nominee for attorney general. Lynch, a career prosecutor who earned a degree from Harvard Law in 1984, has already been confirmed by the Senate twice before. If confirmed currently, Lynch would be the first African-American female attorney general of the 82 individuals who have been confirmed over 225 years.
Lynch has now waited longer for confirmation than any other attorney general nominee in 31 years, and longer than the last five nominees combined. The average wait time for an attorney general nominee is 18 days. Lynch, who has nominated by President Barack Obama Nov. 8, has now waited 138 days.
Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. was released from a federal prison camp in Alabama early Thursday, 3/26/2015. He says he hopes for a second chance although he can't hold public office again.
In a written interview at Variety.com Gale Anne Hurd, the executive producer of The Walking Dead discussed the deaths of black characters. She had a very interesting answer. I don't know if it will make some fans happy but it seems like an honest answer.
Here's the interview excerpt:
VARIETY: There’s been some controversy this season over the deaths of three significant black male characters (Lawrence Gilliard Jr. as Bob, Chad L. Coleman as Tyreese and Tyler James Williams as Noah). Was there any debate about that in the writers room or after the reaction on social media?
GALE ANN HURD: We have to go with the story. It’s really important to cast the best actors. Two of those characters were white in the comics. They could’ve been any ethnicity. Our casting calls are completely open and we always go with the best actor. Would African American actors want to be told, “We’re not casting you, because in the storyline we’re going to kill you off?” That’s how we have to look at it. We want the best actor and then we have to stick to the storyline that was crafted months before we even cast the roles.
So, do you like that answer?
The beleaguered Morris Brown College is in the process of emerging from three years of bankruptcy and $30 million of debt, according to Anne Aaronson, the Philadelphia-based lawyer with Dilworth Paxson LLP, who has represented the historically black Atlanta college in bankruptcy court.
"The court confirmed the college's plan of reorganization on Wednesday," Aaronson told Creative Loafing via email today. "We anticipate an order being entered shortly. Afterwards we will begin making distributions and file a notice of effective date, signaling the school's emergence from the chapter 11 process."
Once completed, this will bring an end an arduous process that involved proposed and rejected land deals before one was finally struck last year. Morris Brown sold 26 acres of property and buildings for approximately $14.7 million to the city's economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, and Friendship Baptist Church, one of two historic black churches sold to the city and demolished for the construction of the future Atlanta Falcons stadium.
Read more: Morris Brown College emerging from bankruptcy
African-American swimmers took the top three finishes in a single event at the Women's Division 1 NCAA Championship this weekend, a feat recognized by the national governing body of swimming in the United States with a celebratory tweet.
History @NCAA Swim Championships 100 free as @simone_manuel @LiaNeal @nathindss became first African-Americans to earn 1-2-3 #sportforall
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) March 22, 2015Freshman phenom Simone Manuel of Stanford set an NCAA, American, U.S. Open, Championship and Pool record when she clocked a time of 46.09 in the women's 100 yard freestyle.
Manuel's Stanford teammate Lia Neal came in second place with a time of 47.13. (Fans may recall that Neal won a bronze medal in the 4x100 free relay at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.)
The University of Florida's Natalie Hinds swam a time of 47.24. Hinds reset her own-school record in the event during competition.