BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — As 21st century activists seek to topple monuments to the 19th century Confederate rebellion, some White Southerners are again advocating for what the Confederates tried and failed to do: secede from the Union. It’s not an easy argument to win, and it’s not clear how much support the idea has: The […]
Author Archives: Jay Reeves
Associated Press
Posted inNational News
Descendants of ‘Tuskegee Syphilis Study’ Emerging from Shadows
TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — Decades later, it’s still hard to grasp what the federal government did to hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama — even if you’re among their descendants, lighting candles in their memory. In this 1950’s photo released by the National Archives, men included in a syphilis study pose for a photo […]
Posted inNational News
Trump Still Holds Unfavorable Rating Among Blacks
When Quinnipiac University polling director Tim Malloy saw President Donald Trump’s recent pre-Joint Address-before-Congress approval ratings, his initial reaction in the analysis was that they are “… sinking like a rock.” “He gets slammed on honesty, empathy, level headedness and the ability to unite,” notes Malloy. “And two of his strong points, leadership and intelligence, […]
Posted inInstantArticles, National News
Ku Klux Klan: “We’re Not White Supremacists…” Who are They Lying to Now ?
PELHAM, N.C. (AP) — White supremacy is a label that’s too hot to handle even for groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Standing on a muddy dirt road in the dead of night near the North Carolina-Virginia border, masked Ku Klux Klan members claimed Donald Trump’s election as president proves Whites are taking back America […]
Posted inNational News
Final Suspect in 1965 Civil Rights Slaying Dies in Alabama
The last of three men tried and acquitted in an infamous civil rights slaying in Alabama has died. Namon O’Neal Hoggle of Selma, Alabama, died Tuesday, according to an obituary released by the funeral handling arrangements for the family. He was 81. A service was scheduled for Thursday. FILE – In a Dec. 9, 1965 […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Parole Denied Former Alabama KKK Killer of 4 Little Black Girls in 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s parole board decided Wednesday against freeing a one-time Ku Klux Klansman convicted in a church bombing that killed four Black girls more than 50 years ago. This undated file photo shows Alabama inmate Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., a one-time Ku Klux Klansman convicted in the 1963 church bombing that killed […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Former Ala. KKK Member Convicted of 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing Killing 4 Little Black Girls—Up for Parole
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. was a young Ku Klux Klansman with a reputation for hating blacks in 1963, when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four black girls during the civil rights movement. This undated file photo shows Alabama inmate Thomas Edwin Blanton […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Protester’s 1971 Death Still Echoes in 2 Families
BUTLER, Ala. (AP) — Carrie Johnson and Gladden Smith are bound together by a single, deadly moment — a moment for which she says she has forgiven him, a moment he says he never intended but cannot change. Although Johnson and Smith lived in the same rural county for years, they have never spoken about […]
Posted inNational News
Feds Monitoring Sorority and Fraternity Segregation at Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. attorney in Birmingham says her office is monitoring allegations of racial discrimination and segregation within the sorority and fraternity system at the University of Alabama. U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance tells The Associated Press her staff is looking at federal laws and talking with “a lot” of people in Tuscaloosa. […]
Posted inNational News
The Last Living Bomber of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church
(BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – The last surviving Klansman convicted in a church bombing that killed four Black girls 50 years ago spends nearly all his time in a one-person prison cell, apparently too wary of other inmates to venture out. Thomas E. Blanton Jr., one of three men convicted in the bombing, is allowed to have […]
Posted inNational News
Court Blocks Alabama Student Citizenship Checks
(August 20, 2012) BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that part of Alabama’s tough immigration law that ordered public schools to check the citizenship status of new students is unconstitutional. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the provision wrongly singles out children who are in the country illegally. […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Uzbek Man in Ala. Pleads Guilty in Terrorist Plot to Kill Obama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man from Uzbekistan pleaded guilty Friday to plotting with an Islamic terror organization in his home country to kill President Barack Obama with an automatic rifle he bought from an undercover federal agent in Alabama. Ulugbek Kodirov entered the plea during a hearing in Birmingham before U.S. District Judge Abdul […]