Latest Race and ethnicity News
Jazz, justice and Juneteenth: Wynton Marsalis and Bryan Stevenson join forces to honor Black protest
NEW YORK (AP) — Black music traditions such as jazz are central to celebrations of Juneteenth, says civil rights lawyer and jazz pianist Bryan Stevenson. That’s why he and Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz artist Wynton Marsalis have debuted “Freedom, Justice and Hope,” a live...
Retired AP reporter Hoyt Harwell dies at 93. He covered key events in the American South
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Hoyt Garland Harwell, a longtime reporter for The Associated Press who covered key events in the American South and was a mentor to young reporters, has died. He was 93. Harwell died at home June 12 following a brief illness, according to his obituary. ...
A few midwives seek to uphold Native Hawaiian birth traditions. Would a state law jeopardize them?
HONOLULU (AP) — Ki‘inaniokalani Kahoʻohanohano longed for a deeper connection to her Native Hawaiian ancestors and culture as she prepared to give birth to her first child at home on the north shore of Maui in 2003. But generations of colonialist suppression had eroded many...
San Francisco park where a grandmother was fatally beaten will now have her name
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco park where a grandmother was beaten and then later died from her injuries will now bear her name. Family and friends will gather Saturday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially usher in the newly named Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship...
Opal Lee gets keys to her new Texas home 85 years after a racist mob drove her family from that lot
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Opal Lee, the 97-year-old Texan known for her push to make Juneteenth a national holiday, was given the keys Friday to her new home, which was built on the same tree-lined corner lot in Fort Worth that her family was driven from by a racist mob when she was 12. ...
Victims cited in DOJ report on Phoenix police brutality call on city to implement mandated reforms
PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix residents who have spoken out against police brutality hailed on Friday a scathing U.S. Justice Department report outlining a pattern of excessive force and racial discrimination, saying it lays blame not just at the feet of law enforcement but the leaders of the nation’s...
Louisiana US Rep. Garret Graves won't seek reelection, citing a new congressional map
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican representing Louisiana, said on Friday that he will not run for reelection after a new congressional map dismantled his district, transforming it into the state's second majority-Black district. Up until now, the...
Top US bishop worries Catholic border services for migrants might be imperiled by government action
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Government officials would be infringing on religious freedom if they were to restrict the Catholic Church’s work serving migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, says a top U.S. bishop. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of...
Report finds Colorado was built on $1.7 trillion of land expropriated from tribal nations
A report published this week by a Native American-led nonprofit examines in detail the dispossession of $1.7 trillion worth of Indigenous homelands in Colorado by the state and the U.S. and the more than $546 million the state has reaped in mineral extraction from them. The report,...
Florida A&M, a dubious donor and $237M: The transformative HBCU gift that wasn’t what it seemed
NEW YORK (AP) — It would have been the largest-ever private gift to a historically Black college or university: $237 million — far beyond the recipient’s endowment. The money was promised by a 30-year-old who had recounted his rise from a childhood in foster care to becoming, as he put it,...