By Stacy M Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Nat’l Correspondent The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned comedian Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction. The state Supreme Court ruled that Cosby’s deal with former prosecutor Bruce Castor should have been honored. In a phone call with Cosby attorney Jennifer Bonjean, she states, “I am thrilled! I haven’t ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Natl Correspondent Black Lives Matter. George Floyd’s life mattered. A mixed-race jury in Minneapolis returned a guilty verdict against former police officer Derek Chauvin on Tuesday, April 20, potentially sending the ex-cop to prison for the rest of his life. The panel, which included six Whites and six ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent The Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and a titan of the U.S. Congress, Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD-7), died early Thursday morning on October 17. He was 68. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the congressman’s wife and chair of the Maryland Democratic Committee, said Cummings died at ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent Atatiana Jefferson, a 2014 Xavier University biology graduate who worked in the pharmaceutical industry and was contemplating becoming a doctor, lived a life of purpose that mattered to all of those who gathered for a vigil on Sunday, Oct. 13, outside of her single-story, purple-painted home in Fort ...

By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Newswire On October 11, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Eric Dreiband to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). The vote was 50-47. The reaction from the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders was negative. Several groups sounded the alarm as Dreiband’s nomination moved ...

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent Before she left her position earlier this year as commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, Mignon Clyburn vigorously fought to keep Obama-era broadband and Internet protections and net neutrality laws. Clyburn surmised that, if left unchecked, companies would exploit consumers and siphon every dollar they could. Last week, ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Bill Cosby arrived at the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania courthouse in a black SUV surrounded by his publicists and attorneys. He left in a prison van, escorted by sheriff’s deputies. His lawyers immediately filed a notice of appeal. Judge Steven T. O’Neill sentenced the fallen comic to as many as ...

By Cash Michaels NNPA Newswire Charlottesville, Va.—To say that Charlottesville, Va. held its collective breath on August 12th – the first anniversary of the deadly “Unite the Right” white supremacist violence a year ago that tragically took the life of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old white anti-racist protestor, is an understatement. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, and ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire If President Donald Trump’s last Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is any indication, his latest pick in Brett Kavanaugh will do the civil rights community no favors, National Urban League President Marc Morial said following the announcement of the president’s high court nominee. Morial wasn’t alone, as many others joined in ...

By Julianne Malveaux Faith and prayer have been the backbone of the African American community since we came upon these shores. We have counted on our faith leaders (the roll call would include Revs. Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, James Walker Hood, Martin Luther King, Jr., Wyatt Tee Walker, Jesse L. Jackson, William Barber, Vashti McKenzie, ...