Google.org announced a series of racial justice grants it awarded to a number of social justice causes and organizations. Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, was one of the first recipients of Google.org’s new giving cause, receiving a $500,000 grant.
The grant will support Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors, a fellow with the center who is working with the ACLU on a police violence reporting app.
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Howard University’s Showtime Marching Band has gone silent in protest because they say they haven’t received scholarship money from the school’s administration. It started at Saturday’s football game, when the band wore all black as they performed, staging a #SilentShowtime protest. Watch more on this story below:
To be quite honest I don't like Ben Carson, the candidate at all. Like most black conservatives/republicans he has resorted to the old "democratic plantation handbook". This handbook states that a black conservative must ONLY talk about the negatives in the black community and make it seem as if only people like he/she are different (read better) and can help if we blacks would only listen. Now most black conservatives don't actually try to appeal to the black community in a positive way and later wonder why they got 2% of the black vote. Now Ben Carson and his campaign are trying outreach to black voters by running a rap ad on black radio stations.
Now I was immediately put off by it because I think Carson and his people think the only way to reach black voters in a way they can understand is to put the message to music. I find that condescending and would like to know who was in the room when the decision to create this ad campaign was made, because this ad is in my humble opinion is worse than the dumb sh*t that comes out of Carson's mouth. Listen to the ad below. George cook AfricanAmericanRep[orts.com/p>
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, installed Sunday as the first black leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church, urged Episcopalians to evangelize by crossing divides of race, education and wealth.
Curry used the example of his own mother being given Communion at a white Episcopal parish before desegregation, and how that act persuaded his father to join the denomination, and eventually become a priest.
"God has not given up on the world and God is not finished with the Episcopal Church yet," Curry said, during a joyous ceremony in the Washington National Cathedral.
Curry, 62, succeeds Katharine Jefferts Schori, who was the first woman in the job and is ending her nine-year term. He served about 15 years as leader of the Diocese of North Carolina before he was overwhelmingly elected last summer to the top church post. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, and earned degrees from Hobart College in Geneva, New York, and Yale Divinity School.
Read more: U.S. Episcopal Church Installs First Black Leader
A small group of Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted Hillary Clinton's speech during a “African-Americans for Hillary” campaign event in Atlanta this afternoon at Clark Atlanta University. Watch video of the incident below:
Simone Biles came to the World Championships without a rival the last three years. She’ll leave them peerless in gymnastics history.
Biles became the first woman to win three straight World all-around titles, prevailing by 1.083 points over Olympic champion Gabby Douglas in Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday. It’s the largest margin of victory of her three titles.
Douglas, who also struggled on beam, earned silver after taking two years off following her Olympic all-around title. Douglas is the first Olympic women’s all-around champion to come back and earn a Worlds all-around medal since 1981.
“I’ll take it,” said Douglas, who last year roomed with Biles at her first national team camp since the Olympics. “I really wanted to prove everyone that my comeback was real. It wasn’t fake. It wasn’t for the fame.”
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The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at the funeral this weekend for a Florida church drummer shot dead by a plainclothes police officer while waiting by his disabled car.
Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, has delivered eulogies at the funerals of several people whose deaths caught the nation's attention. Sharon Walker from the Carriers of the Glory International Ministries in Tallahassee, Fla. will also deliver a eulogy.
Corey Jones, 31, died around 3:15 a.m. on Oct. 18 while waiting for a tow truck. The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department says officer Nouman Raja got out of his car to investigate what he thought was an abandoned vehicle and was suddenly confronted by "an armed subject" who the officer then shot dead. Authorities say a gun was found on the scene.
Read more: Al Sharpton to deliver eulogy at Corey Jones' funeral
A New York City EMT who tried to save the life of a 7-year-old girl who choked on her lunch says he has been suspended without pay for making an unauthorized stop, according to local media.
Qwasie Reid and a partner were transporting a nursing home patient last Wednesday, local news channel NY1 reported, when they were flagged down in Brooklyn by a man who told them that a student was choking.
Reid told the station he believed a choking girl took priority over the transport, and, against his partner's urging, administered aid to the 7-year-old, who he said had already turned blue. No one at the school was assisting the girl, he said.
Read more: New York City EMT suspended without pay for leaving ambulance to aid choking girl
Richland School District 2 school officials have banned a school resource officer from the district in response to a video taken at Spring Valley High School (South Carolina) showing the officer slamming and dragging a black student from her desk. The student was asked to leave the classroom. When she refused, the officer was called in, according to WIS, a local SC TV Station. The officer, identified as Richland County Sheriff's Deputy Ben Fields, can be heard on cell phone video telling the girl to get up from her desk before the violence ensues. To be fair the officer contends that the female teenager who is probably 100 pounds soaking wet with two bricks in her pocket hit him first. Watch the shocking video below:
wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina
The Florida sheriff investigating a plainclothes police officer's fatal shooting of a black musician asked for federal assistance on Friday to "ensure the highest level of scrutiny and impartiality."
The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, facing public criticism for its handling of prior officer-involved shootings, said in a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had accepted the request in the case of Corey Jones, a 31-year-old drummer who was shot early Sunday.
It said the decision was made "to provide the family of Corey Jones and the community with a thorough and accurate investigation."
Local politicians and activists say the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office has lost the public's trust and that the FBI was already looking into one 2013 incident.
Read more: FBI to help Florida sheriff probe police shooting of black musician
The First Lady and the world's best basketball player inspired young students Wednesday at the University of Akron. Michelle Obama and the LeBron James Family Foundation hosted an event, stressing secondary education. Watch the two speak at the event below.
Unlike many fans, Anthony Mackie — AKA the Falcon in Marvel's Captain America and Avengers movies — isn't concerned whether or not the studio hires an African American director to take charge of its first black superhero movie, 2018's Black Panther.
"I don’t think it’s important at all," the actor told The Daily Beast during a promotional appearance for his current project, Our Brand is Crisis. "As a director your job is to tell a story," he continued. "You know, they didn’t get a horse to direct Seabiscuit!"
Read more: Anthony Mackie Doesn't Care If 'Black Panther' Director Is Black
Amid sexual abuse allegations former NBA star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson announced he will not be seeking a third term in office next year.
In a statement posted to his Twitter account late Tuesday night, he said he was "humbled" by the opportunity to serve and "he wouldn't change a single moment" of his time in office.
"After much thought and soul-searching I have decided not to run for a third term as Mayor. It was an incredibly difficult choice, but one that I feel confident about. As I'm sure there will be much speculation on this, let me proactively say that I am not leaving for another specific job or position. While there are many intriguing opportunities out there (and I'm excited to explore them) I honestly don't know what's next for me."
n recent weeks, Johnson has faced increased scrutiny stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct that took place nearly two decades ago. Last month, Deadspin published articles featuring a woman who alleges that when she was 16, the basketball star sexually abused her, then signed a draft agreement to pay her a six-figure sum in hush money.
The Sacramento Bee reports:
"Johnson said resurfaced allegations of sexual misconduct against him had nothing to do with this decision, saying he has 'never made a life decision' based on those allegations.
" 'When it was time to run in the first place (in 2008), I would have never run if those allegations were something that concerned me,' he said.
"Johnson added he has no immediate plans to seek higher office after his term ends next year and indicated he will remain in Sacramento."
According to the Sacramento Bee, the allegations were first reported in 2008 by the paper, which said the accuser and Johnson "signed a draft settlement agreement worth $230,000."
Read more: Sacramento Mayor Won't Seek Re-Election Amid Sexual Abuse Allegations
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Wednesday dismissed the idea restrictive anti-voter fraud requirements could be racist, echoing the position of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – a champion of such measures who has called accusations of racism a personal insult.
“I’ve made it my personal project, every time I visit a country outside the U.S. to ask what do they do to ensure the integrity of voting? There’s not one single country anywhere – first world, second world, it doesn’t matter – that doesn’t have official requirements for voting,” Carson said.
“My question to those people who say we’re racist because we apply those standards: Are all the other countries of the world racist? I don’t think so. Voting is an important thing. Obviously, you want to make sure that it’s done by the appropriate people.”
Read more: Ben Carson, GOP presidential candidate, dismisses idea anti-voter fraud measures racist
In an era when every moment is tweeted and politicized, Bernie Sanders elected not to capitalize on a meaningful meeting with the mother of Sandra Bland.
The chance encounter reportedly took place at East Street Café, a Thai restaurant at Union Station in Washington, D.C., five days before the first Democratic presidential debate.
The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner, a pastor at St. John’s Church in downtown Houston, wrote in her blog about noticing the Vermont senator at another table while she was eating dinner with Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter became a face of the Black Lives Matter campaign following her death in police custody in July.
The pastor said she approached Sanders and asked if he would like to meet Reed-Veal and told him their group had asked if he would take a picture with them.
“He did not impose upon Ms. Geneva to ask for a picture of his own. He did not use the moment as an opportunity to promote his campaign,” she wrote. “He took no record; he made no statement. He did not try to turn it into a publicity stunt.”,/p>
Bonner, who is a Black Lives Matter activist, said she was impressed by everyone’s sincerity during the serendipitous moment.
The Democratic presidential candidate told Reed-Veal that the death of her daughter was inexcusable and promised he would continue to “say her name.” At the debate on Oct. 13 in Las Vegas, Sanders stayed true to his word when answering a question submitted by a law student through Facebook: “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?”
Read more: Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother
Kierna Mayo, editor-in-chief of EBONY, sits down with Don Lemon to talk about the controversial Cosby cover, and why we have to have this discussion now. Watch that interview below.
Planning is underway to place a Liberty Bell replica atop Stone Mountain near Atlanta as a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that recalls a famous line from his "I Have a Dream" speech, officials say.
The planned tribute to the late civil rights activist would broaden the story told by the Georgia state park, long home to a giant carving of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, said Bill Stephens, chief executive of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.
"Two years ago, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's speech, a small group of Georgia's civil rights leaders met atop the mountain to ring a bell," Stephens said in an email to journalists. "This began thought and discussions which evolved into the present concept of a Freedom Bell."
Read more: Monument to Honor Martin Luther King Jr. Planned for Georgia's Stone Mountain
A Cleveland truck driver the Cuyahoga County prosecutor labeled a "serial killer" was indicted Tuesday on murder and other charges in the deaths of three people this year and one in 1997.
Robert Rembert Jr., 45, faces 25 felony charges of aggravated murder, rape, aggravated robbery and gross abuse of a corpse.
He is charged in the 1997 death of Rena Payne, and the deaths of Kimberley Hall, his cousin Jerry Rembert and Morgan Nietzel, all of whom died this year.
The indictment brings the total of deaths linked to Rembert to five. He was convicted of manslaughter in a 1997 killing.
Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a news release that Rembert is a "serial killer" and that Rembert's activities as a trucker are still being investigated.
Read more: Cleveland 'serial killer' indicted in deaths of four people
