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Secret Service Agent Claims He Was Targeted While on Duty by Park Police Because Heās Black
A retired former Secret Service agent has filed a federal lawsuit accusing two Park Police officers in the D.C. metro area of stopping him and detaining him because he is black. The Washington Post reports that according to testimony he gave in a deposition, Nathaniel Hicks was on duty and pulled over on the side…
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New Louisiana Law Allows Expert Testimony on the Flaws of Eyewitness Accounts of Crimes
In 1971, when Wilbert Jones was just 19 years old, he was arrested and charged with kidnapping a nurse at gunpoint from the parking lot of a hospital in Baton Rouge, La., and raping her behind a building. As previously reported by The Root, the stateās case against Jones relied heavily on the testimony and…
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Auntie Who? Ava DuVernay Sets Some Boundaries and Sparks Major Debateāand The Root Digs In
So, it seems we owe Ava DuVernay an apology. Last Friday, when we ran her picture (along with buddy and co-producer Oprah Winfrey) above an article titled āAunties Know Best? Data Suggests Single, Childless Women Are the āHappiest Population Subgroup,āā we never dreamed sheād consider it an insult. (After all, it got an overwhelmingly positive…
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Police Officers Get Exposed for Making Racist Social Media Posts, So Cities Decide to Investigate
Police officers and departments across the nation have been accused of having implicit bias against and racist views about black people for a long time. The accusations are not new, but they are often refuted by those accused. We are supposed to believe that law enforcement officers view everyone the same and treat everyone fairly…
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To Protect and Serve or to Terrorize Children? Sacramento Police Department Under Fire Again
In the 14 months that have passed since Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet gunned down 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandparentsā home, the Sacramento Police Department has not managed to stay out of the headlines with negative news stories. Chief Daniel Hahn was purported to be ushering in a new day…
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1st Ever Black Student Body President Elected at Yale University
Yale University was founded in 1701 and is the third-oldest institute of higher learning in the United States. It is one of the nine Colonial Colleges, founded prior to the United States becoming a sovereign nation following the American Revolution. In its 318-year history, the college has never had a black student body presidentāuntil now.…
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Greedy Developers Try to Bully 94-Year-Old Black Woman Out of Her Property in Nashville
We are seeing it more and more in cities across the country: Greedy developers infringing on the lives of black and brown people who have lived in neighborhoods for decades, attempting to push them out in order to raise housing costs and make a profit. In Nashville, Tenn., one determined 94-year-old black woman has said…
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Newly Discovered Photo of Harriet Tubman Now on Display at National Museum of African American History and Culture
A newly discovered photo of Harriet Tubman is now on display for the first time at the Smithsonianās National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The portrait offers a rare glimpse of Tubman, casually posed in a chair wearing what is described as an elegant dress that features an elaborate bodice…
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The Rootās Clapback Mailbag: Some Rules and Reminders for People Who Read The Root
Itās the Friday before a major holiday, and the regular writer of the Clapback Mailbag, Michael Harriot, has decided to take the day off for whatever it is he does when he is not pulling white people by their taint hairs on The Root. Before he took off the other day, he asked me if…
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The Largest Class of Black Women Ever Is Preparing to Graduate From West Point Military Academy
Less than a year after Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams became the first black officer to command the United States Military Academy and two years after Simone Askew became the first black woman to lead the Corps of Cadets, West Point will graduate its largest ever class of black women later this month, when 32…
