By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s governor on Wednesday posthumously pardoned Homer Plessy, the Black man whose arrest for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in 1892 to protest racial segregation sparked the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cemented “separate but equal” into law for half a century. The state […]
Author Archives: Janet McConnaughey
Associated Press
Posted inNEWS
AP News: ‘Separate but equal’ Plessy pardon decision goes to governor
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana board on Friday voted to pardon Homer Plessy, whose decision to sit in a “whites-only” railroad car to protest discrimination led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling affirming state segregation laws. The state Board of Pardons’ unanimous decision to clear […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Black Novelist Jesmyn Ward ‘Overjoyed’ by MacArthur Win
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An African-American novelist praised for her raw and powerful depictions of poor African-Americans confronting racial and economic inequalities in the rural South said Wednesday that winning a MacArthur fellowship gives her time and freedom. In this Sept. 19, 2017 photo provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, African-American […]
Posted inAfro Briefs, InstantArticles
New Orleans Mayor: Half-Mile Wide Tornado Damaged 940 Homes
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dwight Powell lost his Lexus to the massive tornado that injured 33 people and destroyed or seriously damaged 940 properties on a half-mile wide rampage through two miles of east New Orleans. Anthony Brown walks through the debris of his neighbors home, whom he helped extricate after she was trapped inside, […]
Posted inSports
Movie Tells of Fight to Integrate Louisiana High School Football
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Catholic school’s fight to integrate Louisiana high school football is just one part of a movie that premieres this weekend at the New Orleans Film Festival. It is also the story of a Black high school coach who was running what’s now known as the West Coast offense a decade […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Ex-NFL Star Darren Sharper Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former NFL star Darren Sharper has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in a case where he was accused of drugging and raping as many as 16 women in four states. In this March 14, 2014, file photo, Darren Sharper appears in Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Former NFL star Darren […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Ex-NFL Star Darren Sharper Awaits Sentence in Multiple State Rape Cases
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former NFL star Darren Sharper has a sentencing hearing in federal court Thursday following an earlier multi-jurisdiction plea deal related to allegations he drugged and raped as many as 16 women in four states. Sentencing was originally slated for June, but Judge Jane Triche Milazzo rejected the 9-year prison sentence prosecutors […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Daughter: Pastor Would Tell Killer “I Forgive You”
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The daughter of a southwest Louisiana pastor who was killed at a revival service says that if her father could talk to his killer, he’d say, “I forgive you and I love you.” Ronald Harris Sr. was a man who picked his five grandchildren up from school every day and took […]