Category: Afro Briefs

The ranks of the nation’s voters grew by 100,000 Black voters Easter Sunday, part of a campaign spearheaded by Black clergy across the nation. The Empowerment Movement, a coalition of Black ministers from a range of Black faith groups, was created to advance the power of the African-American community in politics, education and economics using […]

Arson was the cause of a three-alarm fire that raced through Pleasant Zion Baptist Church April 10, Baltimore County Police said. “The case remains very active. Our investigators are pursuing a number of leads. They are taking a look at other arsons that have occurred in the area to see if there might be any […]

Demonstrators in Headland, Ala. gathered April 14 in an effort to draw national attention to the death of an unarmed, mentally ill man who was shot by police during an attempt to subdue him in January. The death Jan. 31 of Patrick Humphrey, a 33-year-old schizophrenic, was the result of unnecessary use of lethal force, […]

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) said April 12 he plans on signing a bill abolishing the death penalty after the state House of Representatives voted 86-63 April 11 to repeal the law. “I’m pleased the House passed the bill, and when it gets to my desk I will sign it,” said Malloy in a statement. […]

It’s a sound that evokes summer, laughter, innocence. But in the case of an ice cream man in Waldorf, Md., the sound pealing from his truck was seemingly an advertisement for drugs, according to the Charles County sheriff’s office.. Alexander Charles Hoskins, 20, was arrested April 10 after a tipster reported that he was peddling […]

Marquis Alexander, a Marine Corps reservist, is set to become Texas A&M University’s first Black and first veteran to be the student commander of its 2,100-member Corps of Cadets. “I’m not going to lie. There is a sense of pride that’s there,” Alexander, 22, told the Associated Press. “I look at it as encouragement to […]

A personal assistant for Whitney Houston repeatedly hung up on hotel staff in the frantic moments following the discovery of Houston’s body in a hotel bathtub, according to just-released tapes of the Feb. 11 911 call for help. The personal assistant is not identified in the tapes released April 12 by the Beverly Hills Police […]

(By telegraph) Tulsa, Okla., June 1 – Every Negro church, business place and home has been destroyed during the riot. A number of prominent citizens have been killed including Dr. Jackson. The city is under martial law. The deaths will exceed 100. Signed J. O. Midnight. Equal Rights League Protests “Wholesale Colored Arrests” in Tulsa […]

Historian C.R. Gibbs will deliver a lecture on the history of emancipation in the nation’s capital and the role of D.C.’s colored regiment during the Civil War at 2 p.m on Saturday, April 14 at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, 1411 W Street S.E. The program will include an invocation from the Rev. Willie […]

Unless overturned by the Supreme Court, 3.8 million African Americans will have access to guaranteed health care under the Affordable Care Act, (ACA) according to estimates by the federal Department of Health and Human Service (HHS). According to new data released by HHS the measure broadens health care access over the next four years to […]

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who successful steered the city through financial woes in his first months in office, is to be awarded the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ 2012 Louis E. Martin Great American Award at it’s annual dinner May 1. The coveted award is named after groundbreaking journalist and Joint center co-founder. […]

In light of the reported confessions of the alleged shooters that left three dead and two wounded in Tulsa, Okla.’s Black community last week, public outcry is now for the death penalty. Tulsa civil rights leaders, along with the city’s community and elected officials, spent Easter weekend trying to head off Black vigilantes as local […]