Latest Race and ethnicity News

6 former Mississippi law officers to be sentenced for torture of 2 Black men

Mar. 19, 2024 00:39 AM EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges for torturing two Black men will be sentenced by a federal judge starting Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee will sentence two defendants each day...

Descendant of judge who wrote infamous Dred Scott decision pens a play about where we are now

Mar. 18, 2024 12:51 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Writer and actor Kate Taney Billingsley has been thinking a lot about America's racial history and her family's part in it. One of her ancestors had an outsized role. Billingsley's great-great-great-great uncle was Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who made arguably...

Sculpture park aims to look honestly at slavery, honoring those who endured it

Mar. 18, 2024 11:03 AM EDT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind a serpentine path past art pieces depicting the lives of enslaved people in America and historic exhibits, including two cabins where the enslaved lived, before arriving at a towering monument. Stretching...

Wales' first Black leader is a testament to Britain's political diversity, but racism persists

Mar. 17, 2024 10:06 AM EDT

LONDON (AP) — Vaughan Gething's election as the next leader of Wales marks a milestone: For the first time, none of the U.K.’s four main governments is led by a white man. It’s a striking moment in a country still grappling with racism and the legacy of empire. ...

Wales will get its first Black leader after Vaughan Gething wins a Welsh Labour Party contest

Mar. 16, 2024 16:25 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labour Party leadership contest on Saturday, and is set to become the first Black leader of Wales’ semi-autonomous government. Gething, the son of a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, will be the first Black leader of a government in...

Former Tesla worker settles discrimination case, ending appeals over lowered $3.2 million verdict

Mar. 16, 2024 14:43 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tesla and a Black man who worked at the company's California factory have settled a long-running discrimination case that drew attention to the electric vehicle maker's treatment of minorities. Owen Diaz, who was awarded nearly $3.2 million by a federal jury...

GOP Kentucky House votes to defund diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities

Mar. 15, 2024 19:29 PM EDT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky House voted Friday to choke off funding for diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities following an impassioned debate that had a GOP lawmaker dismissing DEI efforts as a failure and Democrats defending them as pillars of support for students...

Connecticut trooper acquitted in shooting death of Black college student following chase

Mar. 15, 2024 18:24 PM EDT

A white Connecticut state trooper was acquitted of all charges Friday in the death of Mubarak Soulemane, a Black 19-year-old community college student who was shot as he sat behind the wheel of a stopped stolen car holding a kitchen knife and apparently in the throes of a mental health crisis. ...

A judge tosses claims against a former Wisconsin police officer who killed 3 people in five years

Mar. 15, 2024 17:24 PM EDT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed two of three claims against a former Wisconsin police officer who killed three people of color in five years. The families of Antonio Gonzales, Jay Anderson and Alvin Cole filed federal lawsuits in 2021 and 2022 against former...

DeSantis signs bills that he says will keep immigrants living in the US illegally from Florida

Mar. 15, 2024 16:45 PM EDT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills Friday that increase the prison and jail sentences for immigrants who are living in the United States illegally if they are convicted of driving without a license or committing felonies. DeSantis is a frequent critic...