WASHINGTON, D.C. — Youth advocate Kawana Billy nearly jumped out of her chair listening to the way a white D.C. Council member described Black youth in Washington. To him, they were “dangerous” and “radioactive,” and at one point, he alleged young people carry guns and scare residents. “It’s very interesting how folks are using these […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inClimate Change, Criminal Justice, Economic Development, Environmental Justice, Policing, Politics & Policy
Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ Makes a Black Neighborhood a Testing Lab for AI Policing
This story was published in partnership with Counterstream Media for The AI issue of Peace & Riot. ATLANTA — When he drives through his neighborhood now, Brian Page passes rows of police cars and AI‑powered cameras that track nearly every movement. For most of his life, Page, who goes by “Scapegoat Jones,” felt safest in […]
Posted inGun Violence, Mental Health
Shreveport Mass Shooting of 8 Children Exposes Toll of Domestic Violence
Just over a day after a mass shooting left eight children dead in Shreveport, Louisiana, community members are struggling to process the tragedy. On Sunday morning, Shamar Elkins, a 31-year-old father and military veteran, shot and killed the children and wounded two women, including his wife, in a domestic violence rampage that stretched across multiple […]
Posted inCulture, History, Incarceration
In New Orleans, Black Cowboy Tradition Collides With Prison Rodeo Spectacle
NEW ORLEANS — Outside, along Claiborne Avenue in the Algiers section of New Orleans, Sunday looked familiar. Black children slurped snowballs in the street, adults danced around them, and Black riders eased their horses through the crowds, past corner stores and shotgun houses, hooves clapping against the asphalt. For Black riders like Robert Pollar, who […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics & Policy
Justin Fairfax, Once a Rising Political Star, Kills Wife in Murder-Suicide
ARLINGTON, Virginia — Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who was the second Black American to hold that office in the state, fatally shot his estranged wife, Cerina Fairfax, and then himself at their home, police said. The couple’s two teenage children were at the Annandale home, just outside of Washington, at the time, and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Da’Quain Johnson’s Family Disputes Police Account of Fatal Michigan Shooting
Angelica Johnson is forced to recount the images and sounds of her son, Da’Quain Johnson, being attacked by a police K-9 dog and being shot three times by police last month. “As it was livestreaming, my granddaughter was calling me to tell me that the dog was attacking him, and before I could find out […]
Posted inCourts, Health, History, Science
Henrietta Lacks’ Family Reaches Settlement in Fight Over Her Stolen Cells
A long overdue reckoning for Henrietta Lacks — the Black woman whose cancer cells led to breakthroughs in the field but were harvested without her consent — has been slow but steady in recent years. It took decades for her relatives to learn that her tissue had been used for research and for them to […]
Posted inCourts, Culture, History
S.C. Court Victory Grants Gullah Geechee Temporary Access to Blocked Cemetery
Julia Scott is disappointed. Despite a judge granting her and other Gullah Geechee residents in St. Helena Island, South Carolina, access to the centuries-old Big House Cemetery, they must give the property owners — who put up a gate to block the entrance — written notice first. “It’s a start, but I am not pleased […]
Posted inCourts, Economic Development, Eminent Domain, History, Politics & Policy, Rural Issues
Georgia Is Letting a Railroad Seize Land a Black Family Has Owned For 100 Years
SPARTA, Ga. — In 1850, Andrew Benjamin Tarbutton enslaved 25 people in central Georgia. A year later, he purchased more than a dozen additional people off the docks in Savannah and marched them toward his home, setting the foundation for his family’s generational wealth. Four generations later, a railroad company owned by one of his […]
Posted inClimate Change, Extreme Weather, Public Safety
A Storm Is Coming for the South’s Most Vulnerable Black Communities
For millions in the South, an impending storm could become unforgettable. “I can’t stop watching the forecasts,” said Shemekia Stringer, speaking by phone Thursday afternoon as she moved through near-empty aisles at a Walmart in Southaven, Mississippi, just outside of Memphis, Tennessee. “I’m trying to make sure we’re fully prepared. In my area, the map […]