President Barack Obama has selected Jeh C. Johnson, who supervised 10,000 civilian and military lawyers at the Department of Defense, as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He also recently named Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to serve as the chief judge. She is the first African American […]
Author Archives: Avis Thomas-Lester
AFRO Executive Editor
Posted inAfro Briefs
Obama Taps Black Former Pentagon Senior Attorney to Head Homeland Security
President Barack Obama has selected Jeh Johnson, a graduate of Morehouse and Columbia Law School, as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. If confirmed, Johnson, who retired from government to go into private practice, would come to the position with substantial experience, officials said. He served as the Department of Defense’s top lawyer, supervising […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., PBS Unveil Latest Black History Docu-series
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., the most recent partnership between Gates and PBS, was unveiled Oct. 9 at a dinner reception and short screening at the National Press Club in Northwest Washington. The six-part, six-hour series, set to air beginning Oct. 22, finds Gates, a Harvard scholar, delving […]
Posted inBaltimore News
BG&E Fined for Hiring Discrimination
BGE, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation which provides more than 1.8 million Baltimore and Central Maryland customers with electricity and gas, signed an agreement with the federal government on Sept. 25 which acknowledges that the company failed to take the necessary steps to ensure diversity in a pool of employees hired in entry level positions […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Activist Doc Cheatham Announces Run for State Delegate
Longtime Baltimore activist Marvin “Doc” Cheatham announced at a community event Sept. 24 that he is vying for one of three seats in the Maryland House of Delegates in Baltimore’s District 40. The event, held at the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity House on Presbury Street, drew more than 100 people. The featured speaker for the […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Activists Demand Justice, Jobs as Freedom Movement Continues
They came to Washington D.C. from points all around the country, traveling by plane, train and automobile. Others came by bus, much the same way they, their parents and neighbors came 50 years ago. One goal, organizers said, was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the greatest demonstration […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Growing Up Under a Lover’s Spell
If Michael Jackson had married me, none of this would have happened. That was the plan, from way back in elementary school. I was going to graduate, become a world-famous model and actress, and marry Michael Jackson. There were several scenarios as to how this would happen, most of them dreamed up as I lay […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Louis vs. Schmeling II: More Than a Fight
James “Winky” Camphor , of Baltimore is 86, but he remembers the fight like it happened yesterday. It was June 22, 1938 and more than 70,000 fight fans crowded into Yankee Stadium to witness a contest that was much more than a boxing bout. It was a grudge match—Black against White, African American versus Aryan, […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Chief Judge Robert Bell Retires
Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell is ready to go. After almost four decades on the bench, he is set to retire in June when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. And he’s fine with that. As his days on the bench tick down, he is looking back at his […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Assaulted Man Still Comatose after Two Months
Steven Pearson hasn’t spoken for two months. He also hasn’t worked, kissed his wife, hugged his brother, called his mother or played pool with his friends. Since mid-December, Pearson, 57, of Pikesville, has spent his days lying on his back—first in a hospital and later in a nursing home—breathing through a tube inserted into his […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
150th Anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation Marked by Rare Exhibit
One-hundred and fifty years ago, on New Year’s Day, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln, freeing enslaved people in states that were at war with the Union. To commemorate the anniversary, the National Archives is offering the public a rare opportunity to view the document. From Dec. 30-Jan. 1, the proclamation […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Protestors Challenge Synthetic Pot Sales
A group of people opposed to the sale of synthetic marijuana, including Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), took their fight to the streets when they converged on a Northeast Washington gas station Dec. 4 to urge the owner to stop selling the substance. The activists said they identified the Exxon station, located on Benning Road […]