Author: Jesse J. Holland
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Black Americans aren’t buying Omarosa’s turn against Trump
WASHINGTON — For years, Omarosa Manigault Newman stood at Donald Trump’s side, making her deeply unpopular with African-Americans who see her as a sellout for aligning herself with a president who has hurled one insult after another at black people. Her falling out with Trump and her decision to call him a racist as she…
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NFL’s policy could mean a new playbook on protests this fall
PHILADELPHIA — Now that the NFL is drawing the line against players kneeling during the national anthem, athletes protesting police brutality and racial inequality may need to find a new playbook. The question is whether they intend to escalate their protests in some way. “The owners can try to prevent kneeling, but they open another…
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Trump revives debate on hate groups, then condemns them
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a resolution condemning white supremacists and hate groups, hours after reviving his assertion that there were “bad dudes” among the people who assembled to oppose a white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month. “You know, you have some pretty bad dudes on the other side also,”…
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Deadly rally accelerates removal of Confederate statues
In Gainesville, Florida, workers hired by the Daughters of the Confederacy chipped away at a Confederate soldier’s statue, loaded it quietly on a truck and drove away with little fanfare. In Baltimore, Mayor Catherine Pugh said she’s ready to tear down all of her city’s Confederate statues, and the city council voted to have them…
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New Orleans takes down 1st of 4 Confederate statues
NEW ORLEANS — Workers in New Orleans removed the first of four prominent Confederate monuments Monday morning, becoming the latest Southern institution to sever itself from symbols viewed by many as a representation of racism and white supremacy. The Liberty Place monument, which commemorates whites who tried to topple a biracial post-Civil War government in…
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Ben Carson compares slavery to immigration to America
WASHINGTON — Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Monday compared slavery to immigration in the United States, a view that experts on slavery called inaccurate and a misleading reading of American history. Carson, who was confirmed as HUD secretary last week and is the only black member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, was…
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Trump praises Douglass, other famous African Americans
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump kicked off Black History Month on Wednesday by gathering some of his black aides and supporters at the White House for a “listening” session in which he praised the contributions of slave-turned-abolitionist Frederick Douglass and other African-American icons. “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who has done an amazing…
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New Smithsonian museum chronicling black history opens
WASHINGTON — Centuries of struggles and strife, decades of planning and pain, and years of hoping for a place that African-American history can call home culminated as President Barack Obama officially opened the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama opened the new Smithsonian National Museum of African…
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Court says isolated human genes cannot be patented
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that companies cannot patent parts of naturally-occurring human genes, a decision with the potential to profoundly affect the emerging and lucrative medical and biotechnology industries. The high court’s unanimous judgment reverses three decades of patent awards by government officials. It throws out patents held by Salt Lake City-based…
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Ruling stops coach from joining player-led prayer
WASHINGTON • Coach Marcus Borden used to bow his head and drop to one knee when his football team prayed. But the Supreme Court on Monday ended the practice when it refused to hear the high school coach’s appeal of a school district ban on employees joining a student-led prayer. The decision on the case…