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 […]
Author Archives: AFRO Staff
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 […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Jena 6 Protestor Convicted, Faces Lengthy Prison Sentence
A “Jena 6” activist and relative to one of the youths involved in the famous Louisiana civil rights case was convicted March 31 on three counts of distribution of a controlled substance and potentially faces decades of jail time. According to the Louisiana Justice Institute blog, activist Catrina Wallace appeared in a Louisiana court on […]
Posted inBaltimore Community, Baltimore News
Coppin Dedicates Art Gallery in Memory of Former Photography Professor
Cary Beth Cryor captured stunning images of life at its best and worst. Her passion for photography led her to Morgan State University where she earned a bachelor’s in art education and later to the Pratt Institute of Art in New York where she received a master’s in photography. Cryor also attended the University of […]