As part of their ongoing national campaign to abolish the death penalty, NAACP officials met with Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in Annapolis Dec. 13 to discuss the future of capital punishment in the state. NAACP President and CEO Todd Jealous expressed confidence that the governor would throw his weight behind their effort to repeal the […]
Author Archives: Zenitha Prince
Special to the AFRO
Posted inAfro Briefs
MLK Quote to be Removed, Not Replaced
A controversial quote on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. will be removed and not replaced, the Department of the Interior said Dec. 11. Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement that, after consultation with “a range of stakeholders,” the department decided against its original plan to replace the quote. Under […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Dump Trump Drive Gains Momentum
Millionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump, already considered by many Republicans to be more burden than asset, has become a target of opposition for his role as an icon for Macy’s Department Store. A campaign orchestrated by the same forces that targeted conservative activist Glenn Beck is urging the store to dump the Trump line […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
International Action to Stem Global Warming Stalls
Twelve years after the industrialized nations agreed, under the United Nation-sanctioned Kyoto Protocol, to reduce man-made emissions that threatened to destabilize the planet’s climate, greenhouse gas emissions and global warming continue to grow apace, exposing the Earth, especially the poor, to potential calamity, according to environmental scientists and policy-watchers. “I wish I could be more […]
Posted inNational News
Black Lawmakers Set for Key Capitol Hill Leadership Positions
Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be serving in key leadership positions in the 113th Congress, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Dec. 5. The news comes in stark contrast to the announced Republican leadership appointments in which neither women nor minorities played substantial roles. “About half of our are women or […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Film Slated for Sundance Profiling Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas Accuser
UPDATED 12/8/12–A documentary film is being released about Anita Hill, a woman whose testimony rocked the Senate confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination in 1991. The life and times of Hill, the African-American attorney who accused Thomas of inappropriate sexual advances when he was her supervisor at a federal agency, will be chronicled […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
JET Showcases Male Same-Sex Wedding
In a historic move, JET Magazine, a leading bi-weekly Black publication, featured a male couple in its wedding section for the first time. In the “JET Love” section of the Dec. 10 issue, the magazine tells the love story of Ravi Perry and Paris Prince, who married at their Worcester, Mass., home in August. Perry, […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Deportation of Obama Uncle to Be Reconsidered
Onyango Obama, uncle of President Barack Obama, has been granted a new deportation hearing, more than 20 years after being ordered to leave the United States. The 68-year-old Kenyan native who lives in the Boston, Mass. area moved to the U.S. as a teenager in the early 1960s to live with a host family and […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
CBC Opposes GOP Cuts
The Congressional Black Caucus drew its line in the sand in the first week of December regarding any plan to avert the end-of-year “fiscal cliff” that threatens to tilt the U.S. economy into an abyss. The Capitol Hill lawmakers on Dec. 3 issued a set of principles that will guide their decision on any deal […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
D.C. Lawmakers Set to Decriminalize Some Gun Possession Offenses
A bill that would decriminalize some weapons charges in the District of Columbia will likely pass when the D.C. Council votes on it in early December, according to the legislation’s sponsor. At-Large Councilman Phil Mendelson (D) said he is not aware of any opposition among councilmembers to the Administrative Disposition for Weapons Offenses Amendment Act […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Obama Takes Fiscal Cliff Solution to the People
President Barack Obama is back in campaign mode—after four years of frustrating negotiations with an often-truculent Congress, the president is taking another tack, championing his cause directly to the American people. In an appearance at a Hatsfield, Pa. toy factory on Nov. 30, the president’s signature campaign song, U2’s “City of Blinding Lights” echoed through […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Black Business Icon Reginald Lewis to be Remembered in Baltimore Birthday Celebration
“Keep going, no matter what,” was the mantra of the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis. On Dec. 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., students of the Paul Laurence Dunbar and Reginald F. Lewis High Schools will share essays, music, and dance inspired by that theme, as part of a celebration of what […]
