Polling place inside Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School on primary day in Baltimore on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) A recent study has found that polling precincts in Maryland with higher percentages of minority voters had longer wait times during the 2012 presidential election, and that poor resource allocation was to blame. The study, “Election […]
Author Archives: Roberto Alejandro
Special to the AFRO
Posted inAfro Briefs
Mass Shootings on the Rise According to FBI
A recent report released by the FBI has found that mass shootings increased from 2000 to 2013. The report looked at what is known in law enforcement as active shooter events, defined as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” The study counted 160 active […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Study: Blacks Suffer Firearm Fatalities Twice More than Whites
A recent report has found that African Americans were afflicted by firearm-related fatalities (FRFs) at twice the rates of Whites from 2000 to 2010. However, in the seven states that saw FRF rates decline over that same period, the fall was driven by reductions in FRFs among African Americans and Latinos. The report, published in […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Residents Demand Hearings to Find Solutions for Heroin Epidemic in Baltimore
The Matthew A. Henson Neighborhood Association has called for congressional hearings into the high incidence of heroin addiction that has afflicted Baltimore City for decades. Armed with statistics from a number of reporting sources, the neighborhood association is hoping hearings yield constructive solutions to a problem that has had devastating effects on the city and […]
Posted inCommentary
Video of BPD Officer’s Attack of Kollin Truss Raises Questions Concerning the Reliability of Official Accounts
I was recently on a driving tour of Cherry Hill with two community activists, a husband and wife team who work with youth in the isolated Baltimore neighborhood, when a police cruiser began to follow us. We were on our way to meet a long-time resident and organizer and parked the car in front of […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Local Woman Works to Get Parents Directly Involved in their Children’s Educations
Shareki Chaney at the Greater Homewood Community Corporation headquarters. Shareki Chaney spent five years in the foster care system, being taken advantage of by one family who had her serving as a nanny to their biological children, and almost derailing her quest to become the first person in her family to graduate from high school […]
Posted inBaltimore News
AFRO Broadens Reach With Expansion of AFRO: First Edition on WEAA 88.9
As summer flows into autumn, the AFRO is set to broaden its reach with the expansion of its radio program, AFRO: First Edition, on WEAA 88.9. The show, which has run on Sunday nights since 2006 with a pre-recorded format, will now be a live, two-hour program running Monday through Friday, creating a greater space […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Year Up Program Gives Urban Youth a Foothold in Corporate America
(left) Dennis Smith, a student in his second semester with Year Up; and (right) Year Up alumnus Alfons McQuaige. There is a basic premise that underlies the work Year Up, a non-profit that trains and prepares inner city youth for careers in information technologies (IT), does in Baltimore and 11 other cities across the country: […]
Posted inNational News
Study: Few Feel Media Coverage of African-American, Latino Communities is Accurate
While a once theorized “digital divide” that would limit access to news sources for African-Americans and Latinos has not materialized, only a relatively small percentage of Blacks and Latinos believe the way their respective communities are portrayed in the media is accurate. These findings were reported in a study entitled “The Personal News Cycle: A […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Blacks Leave College With Higher Debt than Whites, Affecting Well-Being
(Updated 9/20/2014) Fifty percent of Blacks graduate from college with more than $25,000 in student loan debt, according to new research from Gallup, a figure significantly higher than the percentage of Whites with similar debt after their undergraduate careers, and one that has an outsized impact on the well-being of those who take out the […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Two DMV Area Bands Among 2014 National Heritage Fellows
The Holmes Brothers, from left to right: Sherman Holmes, Wendell Holmes, and Popsy Dixon. (Photo by Stefan Falke) The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has selected two DMV area music groups for the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship. The Holmes Brothers, whose members reside in Maryland and Virginia, and the Singing & Praying Bands of […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Former Police Officer Creates Clothing Line to Support Victims of Traumatic Injuries
Former Baltimore City police officer Teresa Rigby-Menendez, founder of Survivor Wear Inc. Former Baltimore City Police officer Teresa Rigby-Menendez does not remember the day that cut short her law enforcement career. Just over three years on the force, Rigby-Menendez had been assisting a motorist on I-83 when an oncoming vehicle lost control and slammed into […]