Black Farmers Receive Long-Awaited Justice By Zenitha Prince “At last,” read the title of the AFRO story on Congress’ approval of legislation that would release the funds for a settlement owed to the nation’s Black farmers. The two words were a sigh of relief from an embattled people in whom lay a tightly coiled mixture […]
Author Archives: AFRO Staff
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Billy Taylor–Musician, Jazz Icon, Dies
Dr. Billy Taylor, an American Jazz icon, composer and educator, died in Manhattan on Dec. 28. He was 89. The influential musician, who also promoted the genre as a broadcaster for National Public Radio and CBS Sunday Morning, died of heart failure, according to his daughter. Taylor composed more than 350 songs during his six-decade-long […]
Posted inLiving for the Weekend
Living For the Weekend
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, ‘WOO HOO what a ride!’” – Anonymous People are raving about the star-studded Christmas […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment’s Best (and Worst) Moments of 2010
2010’s top winners Black celebrities ruled the entertainment world this year with their big wins, controversies and blunders. Some of 2010’s biggest winners were singers and rappers who’re turning their careers into multi-million dollar empires. Beyoncé and Jay-Z have set the blueprint for entertainers-turned-business moguls with their growing influence. In November, Jay-Z released his first […]
Posted inNational News
Miss. Gov. Barbour Suspends Life Sentences of Scott Sisters Jailed for $11 Robbery
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Dec. 29 suspended the life sentences of two sisters jailed for an armed robbery that netted just $11—but the release of one sister will require her to donate a kidney to the other. “To date, the sisters have served 16 years of their sentences and are eligible for parole in […]
Posted inSports
Fox News Host: Vick Should Have Been Executed
President Obama on Dec. 28 congratulated Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving Pro Bowl quarterback Michael Vick a second chance following his prison stint for involvement in a dogfighting ring. But in response to the president’s comment, one conservative believes Vick instead should have been executed. On the Fox News Channel’s “Great American Panel,” […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Pay Freeze for Federal Employees Extended
A two-year pay freeze signed into law for federal employees on the General Schedule pay scale has now been extended to hundreds of thousands of civil servants who are paid under a different pay scale. In an executive order signed into law by President Obama last week, employees covered by what is called the administratively […]
Posted inNational News
Rangel Calls on Supporters to Contribute to His Legal Trust Fund
Facing a mountain of lawyer bills and the possibility of a fresh round of ethics charges, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is asking supporters to contribute to his new legal trust fund. The Harlem Democrat was censured by the House Dec. 3 for ethics violations including failure to pay taxes on a Dominican Republic home and […]
Posted inNational News
2010 Year in Review
This was a banner year for the media—news was prodigious, often fast-breaking and meaty enough to make even the most abstemious news observer sit up and dig in. JOBS. JOBS. JOBS. Unemployment continued to cast a dark shadow over the African-American community in 2010. Though national joblessness dipped, Black unemployment hovered at 16 percent. And […]
Posted inD.C. Community, Washington D.C. News
Journalists’ Roundtable Christmas Party
Isabel Wilkerson discusses her critically acclaimed book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Dec. 18, at a holiday party of for the Journalists Roundtable at the Washington, D.C. home of Paul and Anita Delaney. Delaney, a former New York Times senior editor, is the winner of the 2010 Lifetime […]
Posted inD.C. Community, Washington D.C. News
Students from Bowie State to Study Abroad in Ethiopia
The Bowie State University College of Business is instituting the first study abroad program to Ethiopia by a University System of Maryland Institution in January 2011, according to a press release issued by the Prince George’s County school. The trip will incorporate visits to private business firms, government agencies, the headquarters of the African Union […]
Posted inD.C. Community, Washington D.C. News
Montgomery County Domestic Partner Benefits Law Effective Jan. 1
Beginning Jan. 1, the Equal Benefits Law, also known as the Domestic Partner Benefits Law, becomes effective in Montgomery County. Under the Equal Benefits Law, county contractors or subcontractors who are employers must provide the same benefits to an employee with a domestic partner as those provided to an employee with a spouse. Benefits may […]