After being accepted into several ivy league schools, all of the Wade quadruplets have decided they will attend Yale University in the fall. Aaron, Nigel, Nick and Zachary Wade announced their decision during the Today Show Monday. Watch their announcement below.
As family and friends mourned the death of a 15-year-old boy shot in the head by a police officer in a Dallas suburb over the weekend, the police chief said Monday that new evidence showed the killing did not unfold the way the authorities had originally claimed.
The Police Department in Balch Springs, Tex., said Sunday that the officer, whose name has not been released, fired on a car carrying the teenager, Jordan Edwards, a freshman at Mesquite High School in Balch Springs, because the car was reversing down a street toward the officer in an “aggressive manner.”
But Jonathan Haber, the police chief, told reporters at a news conference on Monday afternoon that video showed the opposite. He said the officer fired when the car was “moving forward as the officers approached,” according to The Associated Press. The Dallas County medical examiner’s report ruled the death a homicide caused by a “rifle wound” to the head.
Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the Edwards family, praised the police chief for his willingness to admit the department’s mistake and called the new account “a big deal.”
Read more: Police Account Changes in Killing of Texas 15-Year-Old
Here's another example of Omarosa's and the Trump administrations tone deafness to the black community. They don't seem to get that the onus is in them to earn the trust and respect of the community through THEIR actions and not the other way around. Refusing to enforce consent decrees, cuts to education and HBCUs, attacks on healthcare (ACA), Jeff Sessions appointment as Attorney General, talking about making stop and frisk the law of the land, not doing anything about discriminatory voter ID laws, and cutting environmental protections don't give the impression that the Trump administration wants to work with African Americans. George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.
President Donald Trump's liaison to the black community, the former "Apprentice" star Omarosa Manigault, says African-American activists aren't trying hard enough to work with the new administration.
The White House aide delivered the pointed message in an interview with The Associated Press in advance of an appearance Thursday at the annual convention of an activist organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"We're here waiting, willing to work with the community," Manigault said when asked about Trump's moves to slash programs that benefit minorities. "This president wants to engage. It's not a one-way street."
She was more measured Thursday afternoon as she faced hundreds of black activists, who, like African-American voters across the nation last fall, overwhelmingly opposed Trump's presidency.
Several participants refused to utter the president's name in convention sessions, referring to the 45th president only by the number 45. Trump got just 8 percent of the African-American vote last November, according to exit polls.
"I'm ready," Manigault told the crowd as some murmured their disapproval. "I know what I came into, and I ain't never scared."
She insisted she's spent her first 100 days in Washington fighting for the black community. She noted that Trump has met personally with the Congressional Black Caucus and the presidents of historically black colleges and universities.
Manigault called on black leaders to help the struggling institutions as well.
"As I fight for you from the White House, I need you to fight on the outside," she said from the podium of a Manhattan hotel ballroom.
Read more: Trump Aide: Blacks not trying hard enough to work with Trump
Former Attorney General Eric Holder says it’s “shameful” Republicans are seeking to implement photo ID laws and other measures that make it more difficult to vote.
Holder, who is leading a national redistricting reform effort, accused Republicans of trying to suppress potential voters who are less likely to support them. He made the remarks during the National Action Network’s annual convention in New York City on Wednesday.
“Some Republicans have declared, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, change the rules.’ Make it more difficult for those least likely to support Republican candidates to vote,” he said. “This is done with the knowledge that by simply depressing the votes of certain groups, not even winning the majority vote of these groups, elections can in fact be effective.”
“The attempts in certain states to make even registration more difficult are shameful,” he added.
Holder went on to cite a 2014 study by the Government Accountability Office showing that voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee reduced turnout among young and African-American voters.
“If one were to try to find vote fraud or a rigged election system, that is exactly where it is,” he said.
Read more: Eric Holder Rips Republicans For Trying To Make It More Difficult To Vote
Fox News anchor Kelly Wright is the latest on-air personality to sue the network. This afternoon, Wright joined a racial-discrimination case filed last month in Bronx Supreme Court against Fox News, its parent company 21st Century Fox, general counsel Dianne Brandi, and former comptroller Judith Slater. Watch Wright explain why he joined the lawsuit below.
Beyonce Knowles announced today that she will be giving away four scholarships via a posting on her website:
FORMATION SCHOLARS
To add to the celebration of the one-year anniversary of LEMONADE, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter announces the establishment of Formation Scholars awards for the 2017-2018 academic year, to encourage and support young women who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious and confident.
Four scholarships will be awarded, one per college, to female incoming, current or graduate students pursuing studies in creative arts, music, literature or African-American studies. The schools selected for participation are Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design and Spelman College. All details and application deadlines are available directly from the colleges.
New Orleans is the nation’s largest and most complete experiment in charter schools. After Hurricane Katrina, the State of Louisiana took control of public schools in New Orleans and launched a nearly complete transformation of a public school system into a system of charter schools.
The birthing of the charter system occurred in 2005 when the community was displaced by Katrina. Control of the public school system was taken away from a board which had an elected majority of African American officials and was given to the white majority board of the state system
The first casualty of the abrupt change was the termination of the South’s largest local union and the firing of over 7000 most African American female teachers. Attorney Willie Zanders told the NAACP of the years of struggle for those teachers which, though initially successful, ended in bitter defeat years later. The city’s veteran black educators were replaced by younger, less qualified white teachers from Teach for America and Teach NOLA.
The change to charters reduced the percentage of black teachers from 74 percent to 51 percent. There are now fewer experienced teachers, fewer accredited teachers, fewer local teachers, and more teachers who are likely to leave than before Katrina. Five charter schools have tried to unionize with United Teachers of New Orleans. Though two schools cooperated, two other charters have said they are exempt from NLRB – a position rejected by the National Labor Relations Board. One of those charter schools shut out the public in 2016 by meeting privately and online over how to respond to unionization efforts.
New Orleans now spends more on administration and less on teaching than they did before Katrina. One charter school executive, who oversees one K-12 school on three campuses, was paid $262,000 in 2014. At least 62 other charter execs made more than $100,000. This compares with the salary of $138,915 for the superintendent of all the public schools in Baton Rouge.
Read more: Everything Wrong with Charter Schools on Display in New Orleans
Shaun Stokes, 11, was last seen around 6:00 p.m. in the 7000 block of Leghorn Street.
Shaun is described as a black male, four-feet eight-inches tall and weighing approximately 75 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a blue plaid shirt, tan pants, and white Nike sneakers.
Shaun is known to frequent the 2100 block of Dodge Avenue and the 400 block of Mall Boulevard. He also has family in Rincon, Georgia.
Anyone with information on his location should call 912-651-6675SCMPD or 912-652-6500
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.
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
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.
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.
During a protest where people marched asking that President Trump release his tax returns, Rep. Maxine Waters vowed to fight everyday until Trump was impeached. Watch her comments below.
The Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled a Jackie Robinson Statue at the Left Field Reserve Plaza the first in Dodger Stadium history on the 70th anniversary of Robinson breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier on April 15, 1947 prior to a Major League baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, April 15, 2017 in Los Angeles. Take a look at a few photos of that statue below.
Video shows Demetrius Hollins, 21, was kicked in the head by a Georgia officer during a traffic stop. He told NBC Nightly News on Friday that he also had an earlier encounter with one of the officers.
Hi all, this George Cook of African American Reports. Baseball season has started and it's time for that annual conversation about the lack of black kids playing baseball and the decrease of black players in the Majors. Check out my thoughts below.
On March 30 in Washington DC, Milk River PAC hosted a dialog on the Impact of Women in Politics that featured Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and political commentator Ana Navarro.
The goal of Milk River PAC is to inspire more African American women to run for Congress. Along with The Collective, Democracy in Color, and Higher Heights, Milk River PAC is another effort focused on galvanizing support behind people of color running for office.
Milk River PAC and Higher Heights are specifically focused on Black women. Black women were number one of any group on America in voting percentage for the 2008 election cycle. But exactly how to create political power at at time when Republicans control Congress and the White House was one of many challenges.
The piece of the puzzle that has yet to be perfected is the money. But with the growing influence and power base of Black women in politics may soon fix that problem.
The specific goal of Higher Heights is to “identify, educate, and engage Black women across the socio-economic spectrum to elect Black women, influence elections and move public policy.”
As these political organizations grow stronger the money is soon to follow.
