U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey poses outside the president's office at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file) by Zenitha Prince (NNPA)--African-American poet Natasha Trethewey has been reappointed to another term as Poet Laureate of the United States, “the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans,” according to the Library of Congress. Trethewey, the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University in Atlanta, is also serving a four-year term as the poet laureate of the state of Mississippi.
In this Sept. 20, 1955 file photo, jurors sit in a courtroom in Summer, Miss. for the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam who are charged with the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Louis Till. Acquitted by the all-White jury, the two confessed to the killing of the Black teenager in a 1956 Look magazine article. From left in the front row are Gus Ramsey, James Toole, E.L. Price, J.A. Shaw Jr., Ray Tribble and Ed Devaney. In the second row are Travis Thomas, George Holland, Jim Pennington, Davis Newton, Howard Armstrong and Bishop Matthews. (AP Photo/File) (AP) —Focus on the details, and the cases seem very different. One was killed by virulent White racists, the other by a part- Hispanic neighborhood watchman who insists he faced a vicious attack. One was weighted down and dumped in a river; in the other case, police were called by the shooter himself. Six decades and myriad details separate the deaths of Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin, two Black teenagers felled by violence. Yet in the way America reacted to Martin's death - and the issues that echoed afterward - his case has created a national racial conversation in the much same manner as the saga of Till, infamously murdered in 1955 for flirting with a White woman.
by Alice Thomas-Tisdale On June 25, Janiya Bowens will be 10 years old. Quite a feat for Jackson’s little champion. Since age six, Janiya has struggled to maintain her balance, keep her eyes open, move her limbs, keep her food down, swallow, and lately, smile or utter a single word. Janiya suffers from spinocerebellar ataxias. It is a hereditary defect in a certain gene that makes abnormal proteins. The abnormal proteins hamper the ability of nerve cells, primarily in the cerebellum and spinal cord, to function properly and cause them to degenerate over time. As the disease progresses, coordination problems worsen.
Mississippi mayoral candidate, Marco McMillian (l) and suspect Lawrence Reed(r). (Courtesy Photo) by Holbrook Mohr JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An autopsy report says a man admitted to killing a Mississippi mayoral candidate in February and that the victim died from lack of oxygen, but it doesn't give an exact reason for the death beyond calling it a homicide.
ROLAND MARTIN by Roland Martin (CNN) -- If you listen to the groupthink echo-chamber know-it-alls in Washington, the Republican Party has been decimated,...
LEAD INVESTIGATOR--This image provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine shows Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins' Children's Center in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Johns Hopkins Medicine) by Lauren Neergaard WASHINGTON (AP) — A baby born with the AIDS virus appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who's now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.
RISING STAR SLAIN--This Jan. 20, 2007 photo shows Marco McMillian, 34, a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Miss., who was found dead on the Mississippi River levee Wednesday, between Sherard and Rena Lara, Miss. (AP Photo/The Clarksdale Press Register, Troy Catchings) by Holbrook Mohr Associated Press Writer JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Whatever his prospects for winning the coming mayoral election in his hometown of Clarksdale, Miss., Marco McMillian was considered by many to be a man on the rise. So word spread fast when his SUV was involved in a wreck this week, and he was nowhere to be found.
DETROIT (AP) — The finance chair for the Republican National Committee told a Michigan tea party gathering this summer that Detroit's plummeting population and lack of a mayoral machine to get voters "to stop playing pool and drinking beer in the pool hall" has decreased its influence in elections. Ronald Weiser, Republican National Committee Ron Weiser's comments were secretly videotaped Aug. 9 by a Democrat shadowing a Republican congressional candidate. The Detroit Free Press obtained the video from the Michigan Democratic Party and reported (https://on.freep.com/ZaRArP) on it Sunday.
