The damage was monumental. In only a few hours, the First Mt. Olive Baptist Church was no more, displacing hundreds of members. Now, five years after their former church on Saratoga Avenue burned to the ground, First Mt. Olive members are commemorating not only their past trial by fire, but also their rebirth, with the […]
Author Archives: Alexis Taylor
AFRO Staff Writer
Posted inBaltimore News
Supporters of Slain Teen Say Criminal Charges Facing Off-Duty Cop Too Moderate
Demonstrators gathered at the Baltimore County Court Building complex on July 2 to protest charges filed in the strangulation death of Christopher Brown, 17, who was killed June 13 in an altercation with an off-duty police officer. Prosecutors announced June 27 that they had charged James David Laboard, 32, a nine-year veteran of the Baltimore […]
Posted inD.C. Community, Washington D.C. News
Clinton’s Mothership Lands at Smithsonian Festival
George Clinton landed the mothership right on the National Mall June 27 as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s annual two-week celebration. The crowd danced until exhaustion as the P-Funk crew rocked an audience of mixed cultures and race with funk for the first time in the festival’s 45-year history. True to form, Clinton had […]
Posted inNational News
First Black Marines Honored with Congressional Gold Medal
They went to war in World War II, only to return home to face discrimination from the country they were willing to die to protect. They are not as well known as their illustrious counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen, who integrated the Army Air Corps the same year they became the first African Americans to wear […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Breast Cancer Support Group Shows Survivors A New Way to Live
For seven years the women of the Living and Loving Life Breast Cancer Support Group have been a shining example of what it means to not only survive, but thrive. Providing a lifeline for members, the group meets every fourth Thursday of the month to confide in each other about not only fears, but future […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Baltimore County Officer Indicted in Teen’s Death
A grand jury on June 27 indicted a Baltimore County police officer in the choking death of a 17 year-old. The indictment came two weeks after a rock-throwing incident involving the teen and the off-duty officer near Randallstown, authorities said. James Laboard faces manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Christopher Brown. Laboard, […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Adidas Cancels Sale of Shoe with Ankle Bracelets
(June 21, 2012) German athletic apparel maker Adidas agreed June 18 to cancel plans to release shoes with plastic ankle shackles after drawing a considerable amount of criticism from civil rights leaders, consumers, and pro basketball league officials and players this week. According to the Adidas Originals Facebook page, where the first images of the […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Singer Bobby Brown Marries Manager Alicia Etheredge
June 21, 2012) Singer Bobby Brown remarried June 18, just four months after the death of ex-wife Whitney Houston, who accidently drowned in a Beverly Hills, Calif. hotel bathtub. Brown and his new wife, Alicia Etheredge, who also is his manager, were wed in Hawaii with New Edition colleagues, family and friends in attendance, according […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Lack of a Second Language Dims Job Prospects, Language Educators Say
Shameeka Smalling is part of a small minority within the African American community. She can speak two languages fluently and is part of that tiny group of Blacks who believe in riding the bilingual train all the way to the bank. “I’ve gotten every job I’ve had since college because I am bilingual,” said Smalling, […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Drawing Nooses, Burning Cross, Racist Expletives Not a Hate Crime, Baltimore County Police Say
Three male students suspended from Eastern Technical High School in Essex for placing racial epithets and a derogatory drawing on a whiteboard in a 10th grade Spanish class during the last week of school will not be investigated for committing a hate crime, Baltimore County police said this week. The drawing depicted three nooses, a […]
Posted inNational News
Southern Baptist Convention Elects First African American President
The Southern Baptist Convention elected Rev. Fred Luter, Jr. on June 19 to serve as the first African American president for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The election by a unanimous vote of the 56-year-old Luter to succeed current president Bryant Wright marked a stunning break from the Southern Baptist Convention’s 167-year history, according to […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
HBCU “Equality Lawsuit” Far From Over
Both sides locked in a battle over proper funding for Maryland’s historical black institutions (HBI) have retreated to their corners to regroup and prepare for the next phase of the case. Lawyers for the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc., the plaintiff, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), the defendant, […]