National News - Page 55

Families of men who died in custody at a Houston jail demand Justice Department probe of the facility

By Amy Simonson Families of three men who died last month in custody at Houston’s Harris County Jail are calling on the US Justice Department to investigate what their attorneys call an “extraordinary number” of deaths and “a pervasive pattern and culture of death” at the facility. “No one should receive a phone call, no one, telling them that their loved one is deceased and (get) no answers,” said Octavia Wagner, the older sister of the late Jacoby Pillow, whose relatives joined those of Kevin Smith Jr. and Smith’s uncle – who also died at the jail – at a news conference

State Rep. Justin J. Pearson Told By GOP To “Explore A Different Career” After Wearing Dashiki On House Floor

By Candace Mcduffie The Tennessee House GOP didn’t hide their disdain for freshman Democratic state representative Justin J. Pearson after he wore a Dashiki on the House Floor. Their advice to him: get in line, or leave his position. Pearson, who was a Root 100 honoree in 2022, wore the traditional West African garb in the chamber last week as he was being sworn into the Tennessee General Assembly. Apparently, the GOP couldn’t wait to comment on his attire and shortly thereafter Pearson tweeted about it: “We literally just got on the State House floor and already a white supremacist has attacked my wearing of my Dashiki.

College Board says it erred in not quickly pushing back on ‘slander’ by Florida over AP history course

By Curtis Bunn The College Board said it made an error in not “immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander” of its African American Studies course after the department deemed that the advanced high school course “lacks educational value.” “Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field,” the company said in an extensive statement released Sunday to “clear the air and set the record straight.” It called attacks “on Black scholars repulsive” and said “they must stop.” This controversy began on Jan. 12, when the Florida Department of

Oldest schoolhouse for Black children in the country moved to Virginia museum

A building believed to be the oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children in the U.S. was hoisted onto a flatbed truck and moved a half-mile Friday to Colonial Williamsburg, a Virginia museum that continues to expand its emphasis on African American history. The original structure, built 25 years before the American Revolution, stood near the college campus of William & Mary. The pinewood building held as many as 30 students at a time, some of them free Black children studying alongside those who were enslaved. Hundreds of people lined the streets to celebrate its slow-speed trip into the heart of

COVID-19 made pulse oximeters ubiquitous. Engineers are fixing their racial bias

By Anil Oza During the COVID-19 pandemic, one measurement became more important than almost any other — blood oxygen saturation. It was the one concrete number that doctors could use to judge how severe a case of COVID-19 was and know whether to admit people into the hospital and provide them with supplemental oxygen. But pulse oximeters, the device most commonly used to measure blood oxygen levels, don’t work as well for patients of color. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this has led to people not getting care, not getting timely care, or even being sent home or

College Board unveils official framework for new AP African American studies course

By Nicole Chavez  The College Board released Wednesday the official framework of a new Advanced Placement course on African American Studies that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier denounced for imposing a “political agenda.” In recent months, the multidisciplinary course has been praised by academics and historians, all while becoming a target for lawmakers aiming to restrict how topics like racism and history are being taught in public schools. DeSantis had objected to some of the topics and authors that were initially part of the course; those topics – Black queer studies and Black feminism – are not in the official course

Permission Slip for Students to Learn Black National Anthem Receives Mixed Reactions from Parents

By Kalyn Womack Elementary school students in Florida were sent home with permission slips to learn the lyrics to James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” according to ClickOrlando. The slip opened some conversation not only about the drama surrounding Florida’s anti-critical race theory legislation but also about why CRT regulations have been narrowly tailored to exile Black history. A Marion County Schools spokesperson said students in grades 3-5 would be participating in learning the song to recite in a performance for Black History Month, says the report. The activity was labeled as an extra-curricular acitivty allowing students to “participate in presenting historical facts regarding African-Americans and/or singing the Black

What’s really behind Florida’s attack on African American Studies

By Leslie Kay Jones As a student growing up in Florida, I vividly recall my International Baccalaureate English teacher inviting students to read “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in their best voice impressions of a formerly enslaved Black woman. She smirked as they giggled out phrases like “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world” and peeked at me, one of the few Black students, for a response. When we read Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” my classmates offered to buy me for cowrie shells. None of these experiences were considered “teaching kids to hate each other.” Hate, it seems, only

Black families are changing the educational landscape through communal home-schooling

By Char Adams On Martin Luther King Day in 2016, Tralandra Stewart asked her three children a simple question. She wanted to know what they had learned in elementary school in Cypress, Texas, about the civil rights pioneer. “They said, ‘I don’t know. I think he was a man who made a speech,’” she recalled them saying. “They couldn’t give me any information.” At that point, Stewart, a public school secretary, had already noticed gaps in her children’s education. The idea of home-schooling them — despite not even knowing where to start — was something the family had been considering.

Omega Psi Phi revokes membership of 3 officers involved in Tyre Nichols’ death

By Curtis Bunn David Allen Brown plans to leave Las Vegas after attending an Adele concert as part of his daughter’s 25th birthday next week, catch a midnight flight to Chicago, where he will hop on another plane to Richmond, Virginia, to attend the funeral of a friend and fellow Omega Psi Phi brother. “That’s what Omega taught me,” said Brown, who was initiated into the fraternity 40 years ago at Norfolk State University’s Pi Gamma chapter. “Brotherhood. Manhood. Respect. Not what you’ve heard about and seen from the tragedy in Memphis.” Three of the five officers who were arrested

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