The Black vote, which helped usher in President Barack Obama into the Oval Office in 2008, is under attack. On July 27, a group of experts, civic participation leaders and think tank observers told a packed room at the NAACP Annual Convention in Los Angeles that serious efforts are underway to offset the Black vote […]
Author Archives: Dennis J. Freeman
Special to the AFRO
Posted inNational News
Black Tea Partiers Crash NAACP Convention
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is used to scrutiny. Throughout its 102-year history, the NAACP has faced a firestorm of criticism. Usually, the critique has come from Whites who have felt threatened by the organization’s willingness to combat societal and structural racism. Times have changed. On the third day of […]
Posted inNational News
NAACP President Jealous Calls Out Racist Voting Bills at Convention
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous evoked biblical characters and said faith is what the nation’s oldest civil rights organization has to have in order to follow through on the mission it started 102 years ago. Jealous, speaking July 25 during the NAACP’s national convention at the Los Convention Center in Los Angeles, received a rousing […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Family, Friends, Hip Hop Community Devastated by Murder of Cali Swag District Member M-Bone
Montae Talbert, known by those close to him as M-Bone, was a young man on the threshold of fulfilling his dreams. Talbert had aspirations of becoming a music star and, as the dance member of the hip hop group Cali Swag District, the 22-year-old Talbert was well on his way. The group released the infectious […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Family, Friends, Hip Hop Community Devastated by Murder of Cali Swag District Member M-Bone
Montae Talbert, known by those close to him as M-Bone, was a young man on the threshold of fulfilling his dreams. Talbert had aspirations of becoming a music star and, as the dance member of the hip hop group Cali Swag District, the 22-year-old Talbert was well on his way. The group released the infectious […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
NAACP Image Awards Go Off Smoothly
While Black performers scarcely drew a nod during this years’s entertainment industry’s awards season, the March 4 NAACP Image Awards established that key artists cannot be ignored. After a virtual Whiteout in nearly all of the major awards shows, including the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards, the NAACP eased some of that pain […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The ‘Floetic’ Soul
Natalie “The Floacist” Stewart has largely been missing in action the last couple of years, and that’s been by design. Stewart, who founded the hit-making, neo-soul group Floetry, is back on the scene with a debut solo project called Floetic Soul, which will hit stores Nov.9. The seven-time Grammy nominated Stewart has been kicking it […]
Posted inNational News
Grant’s Family Heartbroken by Verdict
Los Angeles, Calif. — Anger. Rage. Disappointment. Pain. Heartbreak. These were some of the emotions expressed by the family of Oscar Grant after the verdict was read at the criminal trial of Johannes Mehserle, the White Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer charged with shooting and killing the Black man in the wee hours […]
Posted inNational News
Jurors Deliberating in Murder Trial of White Oakland Officer Charged in Black Man’s Death
A Los Angeles County jury is to resume deliberations July 6 in the murder trial of a White, former Oakland, Calif. mass transit officer charged with killing a Black man who was lying facedown on a train platform. An Alameda County judge moved the trial from the Oakland area to Los Angeles due to intense […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Tyler Perry Cleans Up at 41st NAACP Image Awards
Tyler Perry reigned supreme at the 41st NAACP Image Awards on February 26 in Los Angeles, where he was honored for both his small-screen and feature film efforts. The NAACP event, which aired on Fox, drew high-profiled celebrities and dignitaries, including Sandra Bullock, CNN’s Roland Martin, Jill Scott, Cicely Tyson, John Legend and Anika Noni […]