Originally published by The 19th, your trusted source for contextualizing LGBTQ+ news. Sign up for our daily newsletter. Since its release last year, Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” has been celebrated as a love letter to Black queer dance culture.For an hour and two minutes, the album offers listeners a chance at freedom of expression, a brief respite […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge in Trump’s Jan. 6 Trial Is No Stranger to Tackling Tough Cases
The judge presiding over the case in which former President Donald Trump has been criminally charged in his alleged efforts to block the results of the 2020 presidential election doesn’t shy away from challenges. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan is no stranger when it comes to handing down tough sentences related to the violent […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Public Safety
Carlee Russell May Have Lied, But These Black Women and Girls Are Still Missing
The case of Carlethia “Carlee” Russell has taken an even more unsettling turn as she apologized through her attorney and admitted that she was not kidnapped in a hoax that flooded social media and dominated national news. Police poked holes through her story last week and couldn’t verify her initial account of seeing an unaccompanied […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Juvenile Justice
Dozens of Black Children Are Enduring Dangerous Heat Behind Bars
Days after an emergency filing was made to remove juveniles from the Louisiana State Penitentiary because of potentially deadly heat conditions, the judge assigned to the case conducted a surprise visit to the facility. Although the judge’s findings have not been revealed yet, last week’s emergency federal court filing argued that dozens of mostly Black […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
What the Road to Redemption Looks Like for Incarcerated People
A weekend visit to family on Long Island, New York, turned into Kenneth Hogan’s last days of freedom. At 20 years old, Hogan was a father of two and his mother’s main support system. Hogan says he sold drugs in Albany, New York, to financially survive and yet he aspired to break his family’s generational […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
What to Do If You Witness Possible Police Misconduct
Disturbing cellphone and police body camera footage of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy tackling a Black woman to the ground as she filmed the arrest of a man raises questions about how bystanders can protect themselves while documenting possible police misconduct. In police body camera footage released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
A Broken Justice System Is Only Deepening the Grief of Sinzae Reed’s Family
Megan Reed was in the middle of cooking dinner when she was startled by someone repeatedly banging on the front door of her Columbus, Ohio, apartment. A neighbor alerted her that her youngest son, Sinzae Reed, was shot. Reed rushed out of their second-floor apartment in the Wedgewood Village Apartments complex with food still cooking […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Mississippi Police Department Faces a $400M Federal Lawsuit for Shooting Man in Jaw
A Mississippi man who barely survived being shot in the mouth while six white Rankin County police officers held him and his friend during an alleged drug raid has filed a $400 million federal lawsuit. Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie T. Parker, 35, both Black, say their civil rights were violated on Jan. 24 […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
The Thwarted Promise of Black Women Prosecutors
When Kimberly M. Foxx was sworn in as the first Black woman in Illinois to lead the Cook County attorney’s office in 2016, she also joined the “Sisters Circle” with 20 other Black female prosecutors. Over Foxx’s two terms, she has seen the support group’s numbers fluctuate – yet members’ concerns remain the same. “In […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Shooting of Black Teen Is a Symptom of Kansas City’s Racist History
Alvin Brooks remembers growing up as the only Black kid in an all white, but poor white, Leeds-Dunbar neighborhood during the 1940s in Kansas City, Missouri. Although he made friends, he was reminded that in other parts of the city he was not welcome. Sometimes the streetcar’s white motorman charged him a nickel to board […]