Category: Afro Briefs

A New York weekly newspaper recently featured a political satire that depicted President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as characters from the ‘70s series “Sanford and Son,” according to the Associated Press. The Smithtown Messenger of Long Island, N.Y. and its publisher Phillip Sciarello defended the decision to feature the Obamas as junk dealer […]

Famed R&B singer Lionel Richie is scheduled to speak via satellite at the commencement services of his alma mater Tuskegee University on May 9, the school announced. More than 500 students are set to graduate from the Alabama university. According to the school, it will confer degrees to more Black Ph.D. candidates in the materials […]

On May 9, as mothers around the country are showered with gifts from relatives and friends, America’s must trusted and widely used form of birth control will turn 50. On May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee voted to approve use of the first oral contraceptive. The pill was formally approved […]

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor will receive a doctorate of law from Howard University for her decades of work in the courtroom. Sotomayor will receive the honorary degree at Howard’s 142nd commencement convocation on May 8. Sotomayor, a New York native, made history in 2009 when she became only the third woman […]

Sheila Crump Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), recently expressed her disappointment with the company’s current programming in an interview with The Daily Beast Web site. “Don’t even get me started,” Johnson said. “I don’t watch I suggest to my kids that they don’t watch it…I’m ashamed of it, you want to know the […]

After infecting at least 13 women with the HIV virus, a New York sex offender may be jailed indefinitely, according to The Associated Press. The attorney general’s office said Nushawn Williams should face lifelong imprisonment under a civil law created to shield the public from the most notorious perpetrators. Under a statute, the state can […]

The African Union (AU) and its supporters are denying any role in ongoing fighting in Somalia, with the AU saying it is not circumventing any laws while trying to stamp out a sizeable Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda-linked insurgency in the country. Since the fighting began in 2007, over 21,000 people have been killed and 3 million […]

U.S. District (Maryland) Judge Andre M. Davis was officially sworn in as judge to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 30, completing a journey more than a decade in the making. The seat now held by Davis had been vacant for 10 years since the passing of Judge Francis D. Murnaghan in […]

Illinois state officials are calling for the National Guard to be deployed to Chicago in hopes of quelling ongoing violence there. Illinois State Reps. John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford said they believe the number of murders in the city has gotten so out of hand that military intervention may be the only solution to the […]

Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has found himself in more hot water for refusing to testify in a civil suit brought by a former member of his security detail. Tony Davis, an ex-Detroit police officer, has accused Kilpatrick of wrongful termination after Davis threatened to go public with details about Kilpatrick’s activities, including the “Manoogian […]

The mother of late rapper and actor Tupac Shakur faces charges of felony possession of marijuana in North Carolina. Afeni Shakur, 63, is also charged with maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance and simple possession of a controlled substance, in her hometown of Lumberton, N.C . She is currently out on […]

Three-term Georgia Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond has filed to run for U.S. Senate, and will challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson. Thurmond is one of the most prominent Black Democrats in the state of Georgia, which increasingly votes Republican. Before holding his current profession, in which he is in charge of unemployment benefits for […]