Lisa McNair never knew her sister, Denise. But Denise’s story has always been with her. Sixty years ago, on Sept. 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted some 15 sticks of dynamite under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which was a nucleus of the Civil Rights Movement. […]
Jacksonville shooting
Posted inCulture, History
Racist Policies, Racist Attack: Jacksonville Deplores Lack of Black History Education
JACKSONVILLE — Just after 6 p.m. Monday, chants rang out from James Weldon Johnson Park. Black fists waved in the air as cheers and claps mobilized the crowd that had gathered downtown for a rally against white supremacy. “Black lives matter!” they yelled from underneath trees that provided little shade from Florida’s summer heat. It had […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Jacksonville Tragedy at Dollar General Highlights a Big Problem with Dollar Stores
Before killing three Black people at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, a white gunman first stopped at a Family Dollar down the road, according to authorities. He left minutes after a security vehicle pulled up and parked in front of the store. That and other information has led Florida authorities to believe […]
Posted inEducation, HBCUs
Here’s Your Overdue History Lesson on Edward Waters University
A white gunman on Saturday killed three Black people at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida — after he’d been chased from the campus of nearby Edward Waters University. But the historically Black school is much more than a stop on the way to the site of a murderous rampage: Edward Waters looms large in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
‘We Can’t Live Our Lives in Fear’
JACKSONVILLE — Darlene Neal was at a Saturday luncheon to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington when she heard the police sirens and saw rescue teams swirling past. Then, her phone started buzzing, again and again. “Ms. Darlene,” one of her messages said, “it’s near you.” Three Black people were killed after a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Victims Identified in Racist Shooting at Jacksonville Dollar General
Three Black people were killed in a racist attack at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday afternoon, authorities said, shortly after security officers turned away the gunman at a nearby HBCU campus, where he was seen putting on an armored vest. Authorities identified the victims as Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph “AJ” […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Racist Attack That Roiled Black Jacksonville Decades Before the Dollar General Shooting
The city of Jacksonville, Florida, is reeling from the racist killing of three Black people at a Dollar General on Saturday, after a white gunman targeted a historically Black neighborhood with weapons emblazoned with swastikas, authorities said. This weekend was already a notorious one for Black Jacksonville, falling on the 63rd anniversary of one of […]