In 1955, the mother of Emmett Till wrote to President Dwight D. Eisenhower pleading for justice for her 14-year-old son, whose murder galvanized the civil rights movement. In a telegram sent to the White House, she asked that he personally see to it that “justice is meted out to all persons involved in the beastly…
After an overhaul to Florida’s African American history standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s firebrand governor campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, is facing a barrage of criticism this week from politicians, educators and historians, who called the state’s guidelines a sanitized version of history. For instance, the standards say that middle schoolers should be…
Louisville’s interim police chief, Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, will continue permanently in her role and take over a department that has been in turmoil since the 2020 police killing of Breonna Taylor and was excoriated this year in a scathing U.S. Department of Justice report. Ms. Gwinn-Villaroel, 49, will be the first Black woman to serve permanently…
For the Whiteheads, an African American family living in the city of Baltimore, race is discussed at the dinner table. In the car on the way to work and school and games. In the backyard while the sons practice sports. So when the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities, effectively ending…
A judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday ordered members of the Proud Boys to pay over $1 million to a historic Black church after it sued the far-right group for destruction of property in a December 2020 episode in which the group’s members tore down the church’s large Black Lives Matter sign. The lawsuit, filed…
The Supreme Court, in a surprise decision, ruled on Thursday that Alabama had diluted the power of Black voters by drawing a congressional voting map with a single district in which they made up a majority. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion in the 5-to-4 ruling. He was joined by Justice…
This article is also a weekly newsletter. Sign up for Race/Related here. Ten years ago, I lived in Washington, D.C., and would watch cranes dotting the landscape all across the northern banks of the Anacostia River. I was recently back in the city, and now the cranes have been replaced with high-rises. Gleaming riverside walkways…
This article is also a weekly newsletter. Sign up for Race/Related here. “It’s almost paranoia, a paranoia that there’s no safe place,” said Thomas Mayes, a 70-year-old pastor from Aurora, Colorado, reacting to police brutality against Black people. When police officers injure or kill someone, the psychological effects can stretch beyond those who are directly…
The News South Carolina Democrats elected Christale Spain, the former executive director of the state Democratic Party, as state party chair at their convention on Saturday. She ran with the backing of the party’s top brass, including Representative James E. Clyburn, and will be the first Black woman to lead the state party. Why It…
President Biden began his re-election campaign this week vowing to “finish the job” he started in 2021. No one wants him to do that more than Black voters. Long the most loyal Democratic constituency, Black voters resurrected Mr. Biden’s struggling presidential campaign in South Carolina and sent him to the White House with his party…