In the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, some question America’s preparedness for a nuclear disaster, and whether the U.S. food supply has been affected by the ongoing event. According to an Associated Press poll, 60 percent of Americans are against building nuclear power plants, a 48 percent jump […]
Author Archives: AFRO Staff
Posted inNational News
Rep. Edwards Wants House to Salute 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) wants the House to salute the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, when the civil rights movement and organized labor united in a 64-day protest that turned out to be Rev. Martin Luther King’s last campaign. King was lending his Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s support to the striking sanitation workers when he […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Bronx Residents, N.Y. Officials Fight to Preserve Low-Income Housing
Locals and city leaders in the Bronx are fighting to retain the neighborhood’s affordable housing, which is gradually being swept up by banks aiming to capitalize on the buildings’ foreclosures. According to Blackvoices.com, politicians, local residents and housing advocates rallied outside a decrepit Bronx building on April 7 to jumpstart a battle against New York […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
11-Year-Old Helps Rescue Senior Citizens from Fire
A fifth-grade boy from West Philadelphia is being praised for sharp judgment and calm demeanor after his 911 call alerted fire crews to a blaze that had engulfed a senior facility. Mahlon Graham was walking home from school with his younger sister when he heard a woman scream for help from the assisted-living facility. “I […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
“Fox and Friends” Roast Crayola’s Multicultural Markers
The hosts of “Fox and Friends,” Fox News Channel’s morning show, recently blasted arts and crafts maker Crayola for manufacturing a special brand of markers the company says are ethnically insensitive. The brand’s Multicultural Markers feature many different hues of skin tones, unlike its traditional sets. On April 7, host Brian Kilmeade introduced the story […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Government to Use Social Media to Deliver Terror Alerts
The nation’s new terror alert system will use social media sites among other methods to help dispatch clear, targeted warnings to the public, according to a leaked Department of Homeland Security document. The Associated Press obtained a manuscript summarizing the plan, which replaces the five color-coded terror alert structure created after 9/11. The 19-page document, […]
Posted inSports
Tiger Woods Tied for Third Place at Start of Third Round of Masters
With his eye on the goal of his first major PGA tour victory in more than 17 months, Tiger Woods headed into the third round of the 2011 Masters at Augusta National in Georgia tied for third place. Woods hasn’t performed up to his elite status since last year’s Masters, when he first returned to […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Hispanics, Other Minorities Making Whites a Minority
Hispanics, Asians and other minority groups have the highest population growth among children, according to the 2010 census. Demographics expert William Frey, a senior fellow for the Brookings Institution, said the growth will alter the racial makeup of the nation’s workforce and population at large, possibly making non-Hispanic Whites a minority sooner than anticipated. Frey […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
MLK III & Andy Young Join Forces to Form New Black TV Network
By fall 2011, Black television viewers won’t need cable to watch a station dedicated to broadcasting images of people that look like them; they’ll have Bounce TV. The network, which will target Black audiences between the ages of 25 and 54, will broadcast an array of programming, including movies, live sporting events, documentaries, faith-based programs […]
Posted inHealth
Surgeon for the Civil Rights Movement, David M. French, Dies
David M. French, a surgeon, teacher and civil rights advocate who helped care for the victims of violent opponents to civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s, strengthened access to public health care in the U.S. and two dozen African countries and was one of America’s first Black board-certified surgeons died March 31. A former Howard […]
Posted inNational News
Jury Begins Deliberations in Bonds Perjury Trial
Jurors on April 8 began their deliberations in the Barry Bonds federal perjury trial, the day after both sides made their closing statements. According to reports, the verdict is expected to come down to whether Bonds’ defense was able to discredit the government’s witnesses. “The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until he […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Jackson, Miss. Civil Rights Museum Approved
Mississippi legislators on April 5 approved plans for a new civil rights museum in that state. “I think it’s ironic, and it’s a testament of how far we’ve come that on this particular day we can come together, Democrats and Republicans, black and white, and in a way that pays great honor to the memory […]
