Year: 2021

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor In 1921, a White mob entered the Greenwood District and destroyed Tulsa’s Black community. During Memorial Day weekend, the centennial remembrance of the Tulsa Race Massacre was commemorated. The massacre began when White townspeople heard a false rumor that 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a Black shoe shiner, assaulted a…

Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media Next week, after more than a year, California is expected to lift the majority of its COVID-19 related restrictions and reopen its economy at almost-full capacity. But as the state prepares for a long-anticipated comeback, many Black businessowners say enterprises across the state that African Americans own face…

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia Actor Clarence Williams III, who starred as Lincoln Hayes on the countercultural ABC drama, “The Mod Squad” and as superstar Prince’s father in “Purple Rain,” has died. He was 81. Williams’ management team said the celebrated actor died of colon cancer. “RIP Clarence Williams III. He…

By: Lou Yeboah You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your Fathers did, so do you. Therefore, you will fall under the same judgment. [Acts 7:51-53]. As the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so your root will be as rottenness, and your blossom will ascend like dust; because you have…

Bo Tefu | California Black Media Some health advocates are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to treat health inequity in California as a public health crisis – one that is complicated by racism. Their appeal to the governor comes as California state officials propose a $115 million investment in the state’s budget for the next…

By Dwight Brown, NNPA Newswire Film Critic Make up or break up. What will they do? This film’s title points in one direction. However, what’s to come will keep audiences guessing. And as they wonder, they’ll experience the complexities of a relationship that is being tested. It’s often said that film is a director’s medium….

By Rhonda Smith | Special to the Observer OPINION – The COVID-19 pandemic has been crushing to California’s Black community and has starkly exposed long-standing racial injustices and inequities. As the coronavirus rampaged, Black people in California became more likely to contract the virus than White residents, more likely to die from it, and more…

NNPA NEWSWIRE – “Barack and I are so grateful to have had his warmth, charm, and dignity by our side for eight of those years. He was always someone we could count on, without fail, and as time went on, he became an extension of our own family. Congratulations, Buddy, on nearly a half-century of…

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia The United States Senate has confirmed Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The 55 to 44 vote makes Brooks-LaSure the first Black woman to lead CMS in its nearly six-decade history. The agency oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s…

BY BEN CHRISTOPHER For Californians who are insufficiently compelled by civic duty and self-preservation to get vaccinated, Gov. Gavin Newsom is offering another reason to get the jab: cold, hard cash.  Thursday, Newsom announced a $116.5 million “Vax for the Win” program, the largest inoculation lottery program in the country. The money will be split…

Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media Separate from the state conducting an ongoing civil review of the Vallejo Police Department’s (VPD) policies and practices, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced in early May that his office will conduct another investigation into an officer-involved shooting death in the East Bay town. Bonta said the California…

What was Lucille saying to me and others when she stated, “You better be nice to the people on your way up because they will be the same people you meet on the way down?” I learned that when I walk down my own yellow brick road that my road is a marathon not a…

By Michael “Ice-Blue” Harris Method Man has taken his acting career very seriously ever since landing his first major role on HBO’s “OZ” in 2001 and has built up quite a resume over the years with roles in such shows as “The Wire,” “Luke Cage” and most recently Starz’s “Power Book II: Ghost.” The Wu-Tang…

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent More than a half-century after the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many of America’s youth are still in the dark about the life and legacy of the nation’s foremost civil rights leader. Brainly, the world’s largest online learning platform, recently surveyed more than 1,700…

By Marnita Coleman, Special to the AFRO My parents were raised in the same county in North Carolina but met in Baltimore in the late 1950s. We became an urban family of seven with deep roots to our kinfolk in the south. My grandparents were farmers and sharecroppers who birthed 24 children collectively. During summer…

By: Lou Yeboah God will not mourn, nor have mercy, on those who reject, ignore, and mock His Word and His warnings. [Ezekiel 7:9]. “The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and…