Verda Welcome was the first Black woman to be elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate. And despite an assassination attempt in 1964, went on to have a groundbreaking political career that lasted decades. (AFRO Archives Photo) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com Verda Welcome was one of the most […]
Author Archives: Sean Yoes
AFRO Baltimore Editor
Posted in!Front Page
Death of ‘Coach Dip’ leaves community reeling
By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com A tragic car accident at Mondawmin Mall earlier this week claimed the life of a beloved youth football coach and left many in the Park Heights community devastated. Garrick Williams Jr., 38, known lovingly as “Coach Dip” grew up playing youth football for the Park Heights Saints of […]
Posted inNEWS
This White man keeps getting away with murder
Sean Yoes By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com During an interview in 1961, the Harlem prophet James Baldwin was asked what it was like to be Black in America. He said: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage, almost all of […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Morgan State’s Winbush contributes to `Judas and the Black Messiah’
Dr. Ray Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University, provided vital research and historical substance for the critically acclaimed new movie, Judas and the Black Messiah, which chronicles the life of the Black Panther, Fred Hampton. (Courtesy photo) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com In 1969, America was in […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Through the eyes of Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks is a motion picture producer, director, author and photojournalist. (AFRO Archive) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Shaft,” perhaps the quintessential Black action movie of the so-called “Blaxploitation” era of Hollywood. Fifty years since its release in 1971, Shaft has reached mythical status for many […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Benjamin O. Davis blazed the military trail
1942: Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of the presidential election, making him the nation’s first Black general in the regular army. (AFRO Archive) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com Black men have been fighting and dying in defense of […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Ava DuVernay, the visionary
Trailblazing filmmaker and storyteller Ava Duvernay. (Photo by
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Jacob Lawrence: Eyes of the Harlem Renaissance
1954: Jacob Lawrence was a public relations specialist, Third Class in the U.S. Coast Guard. He is shown at an exhibit of his paintings at the Museum of Modern Art. (AFRO Archive) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., exhibited the Jacob Lawrence series, Struggle: From the History […]
Posted inBaltimore Community
Ceasefire does it, again
Erricka Bridgeford is the co-founder of Baltimore Ceasefire 365, a city-wide call to action to stop shootings, stabbings and overall murders in Baltimore City. (Courtesy Photo) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com This year is the fourth year of the Baltimore Ceasefire Movement and during the latest Ceasefire weekend (Feb. 5-7), violence was reduced […]
Posted inNEWS
AFRO reporters reveal ongoing racism in documentary
Sean Yoes By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com In the summer of 1963, the idyllic town of Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore became a war zone in Black America’s struggle for civil rights. In the heat of one of those harrowing protests, Gloria Richardson, the charismatic leader of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee or […]
Posted inNEWS
Tyson embodied real Black womanhood
Actress Cicely Tyson arrives at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards outstanding performance nominees reception in West Hollywood, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com “I am not a quitter. I will fight until I drop. It is just a matter of having some faith in the […]
Posted in!Front Page
AFRO Exclusive: Mfume says Capitol attack was ‘lawlessness at its peak’
Rep. Kweisi Mfume (Photo courtesy of Facebook) By Sean Yoes AFRO Senior Reporter syoes@afro.com This week members of the House of Representatives delivered a single Article of Impeachment to the U.S. Senate against Donald John Trump, the disgraced former President of the United States, for his role in inciting an insurrection on the United States […]