What should have been a fun-filled holiday weekend for college student Nolan Xavier Wells turned into a massive search for the 18-year-old. A day after the U.S. Parks Service found a body in the water on Horn Island, the Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynd Jr. confirmed DNA tests and dental records match the description of […]
News
Posted inCulture, News, Politics & Policy
‘We’re Not Going Back’: Black Voters March in Alabama Against Redistricting
MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Roy Wilson remembers marching with his family before the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. More than 60 years later, the 77-year-old answered the nationwide call to action this weekend as hundreds mobilized across Selma and Montgomery against the direct attacks on the voting protections he fought for as a teenager. […]
Posted inNews, Politics & Policy
Supreme Court Ruling Threatens Black Voting Power Beyond Louisiana
Louisiana resident Press Robinson wasn’t surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on Wednesday to strike down the state’s new majority-Black district. But he was deeply disappointed. “They’re determined to see to it that we don’t have a voice at all,” Robinson, a participant in the case, said Wednesday, referring to Louisiana political leaders. […]
Posted inNews, Politics & Policy
A Sudden Resignation Leaves Florida’s Blackest Congressional District in Limbo
Constituents of Florida’s heavily Black 20th Congressional District must now navigate a volatile political moment, as U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat who represented the district since 2022, resigned on Tuesday. The surprise announcement came just ahead of a hearing when the House Ethics Committee was scheduled to formally recommend disciplinary action over an investigation […]
Posted inHealth, News, Partner Content
Black Women Most at Risk From Harmful Chemicals in Unregulated Hair Products
This story was originally published on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Elissia Franklin is an analytical chemist with an infectious laugh, a penchant for braided hair extensions and a fierce commitment to reducing health disparities for Black women. Growing […]
Posted inNews
Racist Doll Thrown at Mardi Gras Parade Ignites Citywide Backlash
During what should have been a joyful 7th birthday at a Mardi Gras parade, a young Black girl in New Orleans caught a gift that stopped her family cold. The child was tossed a Black doll with noose-like beads around its neck from a parade float adorning the phrase “crack pipe,” the child’s mother, Shayna […]
Posted inNews
Claudette Colvin, Whose Defiance Helped End Bus Segregation, Dies at 86
Nearly 10 months before Rosa Parks’s famous act of defiance, a 15-year-old Black girl named Claudette Colvin had already refused to surrender her seat on a segregated bus on March 2, 1955. Even as the police arrived, the high school student refused to move, holding her ground. “History had me glued to the seat,” Colvin […]
Posted inNews, Politics & Policy
Chicago’s Black Immigrants Face New Wave of ICE Arrests and Uncertainty
CHICAGO — Olayemi Owoludun was still in high school when Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. He was too young to vote, but not too young to feel its impact. A “terrified” friend who was an immigrant fell off the grid months after Trump’s first inauguration, he recalls. He was worried about his undocumented […]
Posted inNews
Black Student Found Hanging at Delta State. Police Say No Foul Play.
This story has been updated. The death of a Black college student, who was found hanging from a tree on his school’s campus in Mississippi, sparking online speculation of a lynching, has been ruled a suicide, according to the state examiner’s office. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Sept. 17, after […]
Posted inNews, Partner Content
Charlie Kirk Assassination Highlights Rising Political Violence in U.S.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk stunned first the audience at Utah Valley University, where he was shot while speaking Sept. 10, and then the country, as footage of his killing quickly spread. For many Americans, the conservative influencer’s death crystallized a growing fear: The United States is experiencing more and more political violence. Kirk, 31, […]
