Trump denies offer to address the NAACP

NOTE: It should be important to note that both John McCain(2008) and Mitt Romney(2012) made time to attend the NAACP Convention. AfricanAmericanReports.com.

The NAACP says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has declined an invitation to address the group's upcoming convention, flouting established precedent and highlighting anew the GOP standard-bearer's struggle to attract support from nonwhite voters.

NAACP president Cornell William Brooks told CNN Tuesday that Trump had declined the group's invitation to speak at the Cincinnati gathering, scheduled from Saturday through Wednesday. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is slated to speak there next Monday, which is also opening day of the Republican National Convention across the state in Cleveland.

Brooks said the Trump campaign cited scheduling conflicts with the GOP convention, where Trump will formally accept the party's nomination. Brooks argued Trump should have made the time amid the racially charged fallout of videotaped killings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, followed by the killings of five Dallas police officers by a black sniper.

"We represent an occasion for those running for president to speak to the nation's most critical issues at a critical hour in this country," Brooks said on CNN. "You can't run for president and not talk about police misconduct and police brutality. You can't run for president and not talk about the nation's civil rights agenda."

He called the gathering an opportunity for Clinton and Trump to give civil rights leaders "a window into not only their policies, but into their heart and character as a candidate."

[SOURCE]

Black Yale worker destroys stained-glass window depicting slaves

Corey Menafee, who is black with two children and an undergraduate degree in mass communications, was working at the college as a dishwasher. Saying he knew he shouldn't have smashed the window, Menafee explained he was tired of looking at the "racist, very degrading" image. He told reporters, "It's 2016, I shouldn't have to come to work and see things like that."

The window was inside Calhoun College, named for former Vice President John C. Calhoun, an ardent defender of slavery during the 19th century. The college's name has been the subject of protests by students who want it changed. Yale has already said it planned to remove several images related to Calhoun and slavery from school grounds.

The 38-year-old was in court Tuesday facing a felony charge of criminal mischief and a misdemeanor reckless endangerment charge.

Yale University has asked the state not to pursue criminal charges against a former worker who destroyed a stained-glass window depicting slaves in a cotton field.

Yale University has acknowledged that it decided to remove several stained-glass windows at Calhoun College. The windows are to be "conserved for future study and possible contextual exhibition."

Yale says it artist specializing in stained glass will be commissioned to design new windows, with input from the Yale community, including students, on what they should depict.

President Obama Speaks at a Memorial Service in Dallas

Today, President Obama addressed the families of the fallen and the Dallas community to honor the five police officers who died in the line of service last Thursday. Watch his remarks:

New Black Panther Party says to carry arms at GOP Convention

The New Black Panther Party, a "black power" movement, will carry firearms for self-defense during demonstrations in Cleveland ahead of next week's Republican convention if allowed under Ohio law, the group's chairman said.

The plan by the group could add to security headaches for the Ohio city after last week's killing of five police officers in Dallas by a U.S. army veteran who had been drawn to black separatist ideology, including on Facebook, before hatching his plan to target white police officers.

Several other groups, including some supporters of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have said they will carry weapons in Cleveland, leading to concerns about rival groups being armed in close proximity.

"If it is an open state to carry, we will exercise our second amendment rights because there are other groups threatening to be there that are threatening to do harm to us," Hashim Nzinga, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, told Reuters in an interview.

"If that state allows us to bear arms, the Panthers and the others who can legally bear arms will bear arms."

Read more: New Black Panther Party says to carry arms in Cleveland if legal

Rep. Keith Ellison: Arrest the Officer Who Killed Philando Castile

Rep. Keith Ellison has joined the call for the arrest of the officer who killed Philando Castile during an interview with Democracy Now. Watch that interview segment below.