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Tulsa Massacre Survivors Appeal Dismissed Reparations Case

By Claretta Bellamy A group of descendants and survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre filed an appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday, requesting it to pick up a case that a lower court dismissed last month. The group is calling for reparations for the century-old attack on the city’s prosperous Black neighborhood, nicknamed “Black Wall Street.” Lawyers representing the Tulsa survivors announced the appeal in a news conference Monday in front of the Oklahoma Judicial Center in Oklahoma City, stating that the lower court wrongly dismissed the case last month. “We stand on the shoulders of so many,” said Damario Solomon-Simmons,

Court: Mississippi Can’t Bar Ex-Felons From Voting

A divided federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Mississippi cannot strip the right to vote from thousands of convicts after they complete their sentences, calling that a “cruel and unusual punishment” that disproportionately affected Black people. A 2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals faulted a provision of Mississippi’s state constitution that mandates lifetime disenfranchisement for people convicted of a set of crimes including murder, rape and theft. Siding with a group of convicts who sued in 2018 to regain their right to vote, U.S. Circuit Judge James Dennis wrote that the state’s policy violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth

Tennessee Expelled Reps Win Back Seats in Elections

By Adam Edelman The two Democratic state representatives in Tennessee who were expelled by Republicans in April for protesting in support of gun safety on the chamber floor won elections Thursday night for their old seats, The Associated Press projected. Justin Jones won his election for his state House seat in Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson won his race in Memphis, according to AP projections. Jones defeated Republican Laura Nelson, while Pearson won his race against independent candidate Jeff Johnston. Both lawmakers had been reinstated by local government officials shortly after their expulsion in April, but they still had to run for their old seats

Novo Nordisk Pushes Medicare to Cover Obesity Drugs

By Rachana Pradhan Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has turned to influential Black Americans in pursuit of what would be a lucrative victory: having Medicare cover a new class of weight loss drugs, including the company’s highly sought Wegovy, which can cost patients more than $1,000 a month. During a conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last fall — a jampacked gathering featuring prominent Black lawmakers and President Joe Biden — Novo Nordisk sponsored a panel discussion on obesity for which it selected the moderator and panelists, company spokesperson Nicole Ferreira said. The foundation is a nonprofit affiliated with the Congressional Black

Disinformation Targets Voters of Color Ahead of 2024

Leading up to the 2020 election, Facebook ads targeting Latino and Asian American voters described Joe Biden as a communist. A local station claimed a Black Lives Matter co-founder practiced witchcraft. Doctored images showed dogs urinating on Donald Trump campaign posters. None of these claims was true, but they scorched through social media sites that advocates say have fueled election misinformation in communities of color. As the 2024 election approaches, community organizations are preparing for what they expect to be a worsening onslaught of disinformation targeting communities of color and immigrant communities. They say the tailored campaigns challenge assumptions of what kinds of voters are

Alpha Phi Alpha Moves 2025 Convention from Florida

The oldest historically Black collegiate fraternity in the U.S. says it is relocating a planned convention in two years from Florida because of what it described as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration’s “harmful, racist and insensitive” policies towards African Americans. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity said this week that it would move its 2025 convention from Orlando to another location that is yet undecided. The convention draws between 4,000 and 6,000 people and has an economic impact of $4.6 million, the fraternity said. The decision comes after the NAACP and other civil rights organizations this spring issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning that recently passed laws and

Rep. Donalds Urges Fix to Florida’s Black History Standards

By Zoë Richards Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., on Wednesday called on the state Education Department to “correct” its new standards for teaching Black history after it suggested that slaves benefited from skills used in forced labor. “The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate,” Donalds tweeted. “That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn’t the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.” The comments echoed remarks Donalds made in an interview with WINK-TV of Fort Myers, when he suggested the standards need “some adjustments.”

VP Kamala Harris Slams Florida’s New Black History Standards

By Zoë Richards Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday rebuked the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for how Black history will be taught in schools, calling it an effort by extremist leaders to spread propaganda. Speaking in Jacksonville, Harris said the recently approved curriculum, which suggests some slaves reaped benefits from the skills they acquired during forced labor, was based on a policy intent on misleading children. “They want to replace history with lies,” Harris said. “These extremist, so-called leaders should model what we know to be the correct and right approach if we really are invested in the well being of our children.

DOJ Launches Probe Into Memphis Police After Nichols’ Death

By Adrian Sainz The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday it is investigating how Memphis Police Department officers use force and conduct arrests, nearly seven months after the violent beating of Tyre Nichols by five officers after a traffic stop strengthened nationwide calls for police reform. The in-depth federal probe adds more scrutiny to a city dealing with the aftermath of Nichols’ killing and answers long-standing calls for such an investigation from critics of the way police treat minorities. Federal authorities will look collectively at the Memphis Police Department’s “pattern or practice” of force and stops, searches and arrests, and whether it

Reparations? I’ll Take Boone Hall Plantation, Thank You

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By Wayne Washington I’ll take my reparation payment in the form of Boone Hall Plantation, please. Boone Hall is a sprawling plantation located in Charleston County, South Carolina. Today, it offers tours so the curious can get a glimpse of what it was like during antebellum days when Black people were enslaved and white people got richer than Midas from their free labor. The place is so scenic Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got married there. Not sure how they didn’t know about the beatings and rapes that likely took place there during slavery, but they’ve since said they’re very, very

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