National News - Page 125

Gun sales rise among Black people as they look for firearm training and education

By Ryan Young, Dakin Andone and Pamela Kirkland Deborah Roberts grew up in a family of gun owners. But it wasn’t until March this year that the 68-year-old finally pulled the trigger and purchased her own firearm. “I think the rhetoric and how things are stirred up in the country just made me feel like, if not now, then when,” Roberts told CNN Sunday morning at the South River Gun Club in Convington, Georgia, with gun shots ringing nearby. It was Ladies Day at the range, an event put on by the National African American Gun Association’s Atlanta (NAAGA) chapter.

All-Black flight crew commemorates Juneteenth

By Neelam Bohra and Justin Lear Water cannons blasted over United Airlines flight 1258 as it left its gate, celebrating that every person on the flight crew, from pilots to gate agents and ramp staff, was Black. The all-Black crew flew from Houston to Chicago on Saturday morning, commemorating Juneteenth, now a federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery. Before takeoff, a celebration of the crew included a speech from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a saxophone performance from one of the pilots, Sal Crocker, and water cannons on the tarmac. Turner said the flight crew was a symbol for how far

Most major metropolitan areas have become more racially segregated, study shows

By Nicquel Terry Ellis Some of the nation’s largest metropolitan regions have become increasingly segregated in the last 30 years, underscoring racial inequalities that have led to poorer life outcomes in Black and brown neighborhoods, according to a study released Monday by the University of California Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute. The study found that 81% of regions with more than 200,000 residents were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990, despite fair housing laws and policies created to promote integration. Some of the most segregated areas included Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit in the Midwest and New York, northern

Here’s why it will be harder for many Black families to recover from the pandemic downturn

By Tami Luhby Although Kashirah Jackson is back at work, she’s still far from recovering from the economic upheaval the coronavirus pandemic wreaked on her finances. Early last year, the independent hair stylist’s business in Charlotte, North Carolina, was doing well and socking away her earnings for a down payment on a home. But the state lockdown left her unable to see her clients and forced her to deplete her savings so she and her 1-year-old daughter could survive. Now, only about 60% of her customers have returned. And though Jackson is still collecting some unemployment benefits, her income remains down from pre-pandemic times.

3.5 million Black American households have a negative net worth, new study finds

By Chauncey Alcorn An estimated 19% of Black American families, roughly 3.5 million households, have a negative net worth because of a history of discriminatory policies from the government and private industry that has hindered their accumulation of wealth over time, according to a new McKinsey & Company study released Thursday. Just 8% of White households have a negative net worth today by comparison, according to the global management consulting firm’s comprehensive report on the economic state of Black America. An additional 4.3 million Black households have a net worth of less than $10,000, the study’s authors said. The analysis conducted earlier this

‘Grandmother of Juneteenth’ celebrates federal holiday — but there is more work to do. Here’s how you can help

By Ashley Vaughan – Before Juneteenth became an official federal holiday, 94-year-old Opal Lee was on a mission. “I’m not just going to sit and rock, you know?” the determined “Grandmother of Juneteenth” told CNN. “The Lord is going to have to catch me.” Days later, the spirited nonagenarian shouted with delight as she watched Congress pass a bill to make Juneteenth — June 19 — a nationwide holiday commemorating the end of slavery. “I’ve got so many different feelings all gurgling up here — I don’t know what to call them all,” she told CNN affiliate KTVT in Fort Worth, Texas, where she

Sickle cell scientist fights for a cure for herself and others

Amy Chillag Lakiea Bailey has tried to hide the pain and breathlessness she feels from her disease for most of her life. As a child, she missed weeks out of every school year because of sickle cell — a painful, genetic disease that’s believed to impact 100,000 Americans. Patients’ red blood cells are “sickle” shaped and can clump together to impede blood flow to the rest of the body, causing serious problems, including strokes and organ failure. As a studious young woman yearning to be normal, she hid her condition from her professors when she went off to college. But she says

Chicago pastor says residents growing numb to deadly shootings

By Jermont Terry Early Tuesday morning, eight people were shot in one house in the Englewood community, and four of them died. It was the third mass shooting in two weeks in Chicago, and there was yet another one in which five people were shot in West Garfield Park on Tuesday evening. That incident happened in the 3800 block of West Monroe Street. As CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported, there were concerns Tuesday night that Chicago might be becoming numb to this type of violence. According to Chicago Police, shots were fired after a quarrel inside a residence in the

Airline and bank websites go down in another major internet failure

By Charles Riley, Tina Burnside and Alexandra Meeks Airlines, banks, stock exchanges and trading platforms suffered brief website outages early Thursday after a key piece of internet infrastructure failed, sparking the second major interruption of the past 10 days. Virgin Australia said in a statement on Thursday that it had resolved an IT outage caused by a failure at Akamai Technologies, a global content delivery network. “Virgin Australia was one of many organizations to experience an outage with the Akamai content delivery system today and we are working with them to ensure that necessary measures are taken to prevent these

Moderates win the day in close vote over Southern Baptist presidency

By Michael Warren Alabama pastor Ed Litton will be the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention following a narrow election win Tuesday — a victory for the more moderate establishment against a conservative insurgency in an ongoing fight within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The vote comes as the SBC has been grappling with questions about racial reconciliation, gender roles within the clergy and how to handle sex abuse cases. Litton defeated the favored candidate of conservative Southern Baptists, Georgia pastor Mike Stone, in a runoff, receiving support from 52% of the delegates (called “messengers”) to the SBC’s annual meeting

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