BLACKS

What lessons can be learned about police militarization after Tyre Nichols’ death?

Journalist Mark Whitaker says that much of what's happening in American race relations today traces back to 1966, the year the Black Panthers were formed. His new book is Saying it Loud.

'The Five' co-hosts breakdown how the Black Lives Matter organization hasn't helped Black Americans despite receiving millions in donations over the past few years.

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld examines the media's coverage of police beating Tyre Nichols to death on 'Gutfeld!'

Good morning, Chicago. Here are some of the top stories you need to know to start your day.

Critics remain concerned by the Chicago Police Department’s impending relaunch of its much-criticized “gang database,” even after the process to revamp it was paused at the behest of the city’s new police oversight committee.

In "Teaching White Supremacy," Donald Yacovone documents how biases were passed on through textbooks and teacher preparation.

Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich joined 'America's Newsroom' on Tuesday to weigh in on key governor's races in Georgia and New York.

In L.A., what we’ve had mostly is people living together but not often acting together.

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld discusses a recent Charles Blow article and gives his take on why everything in America cannot be judged along racial lines on 'Gutfeld!'

The tape of a conversation, which targeted Black people among others, has threatened a longstanding racial coalition in the city.

The tale of how residents of Ottawa, Illinois, helped a fugitive slave escape to freedom marks a transitional phase in the state’s history, experts say, but has been largely forgotten.

White Americans who learned that non-Whites were disproportionately affected were found to express less concern about the virus.

There were two movements in the early 19th century to free Black slaves in the United States, the abolitionist movement and the colonization movement.

Two years after George Floyd’s murder, nearly 8 in 10 Black Americans say there has been little or no improvement in how police treat Black people, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.

Black people are less likely than white people to receive CPR from a bystander after going into cardiac arrest at home or in a public […]

The pandemic drove U.S. life expectancy down again in 2021 even though life-saving vaccines were widely available.

The case dealt with drawing the single-member district lines for the House of Representatives districts in Alabama.

It’s a community on the west side of the state once known as “Black Eden.”

ANN ARBOR, MI - Nearly 100 years ago, Black and white University of Michigan students joined to form the university’s first-ever interracial organization. The spark of the project was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of social work classes at UM, Tolman said. Social work instruction was offered first in 1921 as part of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. While searching for stories of the first social work students, Tolman said he discovered a link to the Negro-Caucasian Club through a white social work master’s program student named Norman Cherry. Trina Shanks, director of community engagement for the School of Social Work, played Ernestine Singleton, a Black student who graduated with a social work degree in 1931.

I ended up upsetting many people and, for that, I strongly apologize.

A volunteer fire company in Pennsylvania has been shut down for 30 days after several firefighters were caught on tape making racist statements about Blacks […]

Surveys show Republicans think whites are the primary targets of racism. That would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous.

Black members of President Joe Biden's Cabinet came together Thursday for a Black History Month event highlighting their roles in the administration, some of which are historic firsts.

The Rockies and Blue Ridge Mountains are two of the top 10 ranges worldwide for holidays as recently ranked by U.K. outdoor clothing and gear outfitter Blacks.

A federal court panel in Chicago on Thursday upheld a Democratic redrawing of the state’s 177 legislative district boundaries, paving the way for next year’s statehouse elections and rejecting challenges from Republicans and Latino and Black advocacy groups that argued it violated voting rights laws.

A Washington Post review of America's largest companies reveals that Black employees represent a strikingly small number of top executives — and that the people tapped to boost inclusion often struggle to do so.

Americans need an honest narrative of their own racial history, but one that all can embrace. Amending the story of the founding document is a great place to start.

Black Americans are anxiously awaiting a verdict and bracing for fallout if the defendants are acquitted in a case seen by many as a test of the justice system’s fairness.

Five years after leaving South Shore, Jason and Jennifer Parks are convinced the decision to move their family to northwest Indiana was the right one. As Chicago continues to struggle to contain violent crime, the Parkses said they appreciate the town of St. John’s slower pace. The four-bedroom home they had built on a wide lot in Lake County provides space, security and the community kinship ...

Asian American Michelle Wu is Boston's first elected mayor who isn't a white man. While many celebrate the milestone, others lament that all the Black candidates failed, in a city long seen as racist.

Asian American Michelle Wu is Boston's first elected mayor who isn't a white man. While many celebrate the milestone, others lament that all the Black candidates failed, in a city long seen as racist.

Incessant efforts by Republicans to suggest otherwise notwithstanding.

"I think discrimination is still pervasive. I think that it's done in a much subtler way," one Black farmer said.

Yes, vaccination rates are lower among Blacks — but they're almost certainly lower still among White Republicans.

She focuses on racism and other ills, but without offering context or recognizing progress.

Polling repeatedly shows more support for vaccination among Black people than Republicans. So why do vaccination rates trail Whites?

He founded the Algebra Project, a math education initiative aimed at rural and inner-city students.

Jack Ruby’s legal proceedings refute several conspiracy theories, Dan Abrams and David Fisher write.

Critical race theorists look at how the history of racism and discrimination in the United States still has an impact on the status of Blacks today.

A new history cuts against the conventional narrative of the country’s origins.

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is approaching 600,000, with the virus taking advantage of inequalities across the country.

Carol Anderson says the Second Amendment was designed to ensure slave owners could quickly crush any rebellion or resistance from those they'd enslaved. Her new book is The Second.

Ariel Investments CEO John Rogers, TIAA CEO Thasunda Duckett, and former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault reflect on what the Tulsa events a century ago has meant to them.

"How to crop an image is a decision best made by people," Twitter's director of software engineering said in a blog post.

Part of what maintains systemic racism are the implicit biases that most, if not all, of us have.

Giving the Charlotte mayor and city council large pay hikes sends a terrible message to stressed citizens. (Letters to the Editor)

Members of the Black community in Knoxville, Tennessee, are calling for reforms to dispel longstanding disparities between Blacks and whites.

A majority of American workers say CEOs should be speaking out on political and social issues. The bosses don't all agree.

While the science supports the agency’s new guidelines, experts say easing mask restrictions may imply that everyone has equal access to vaccines.

While the science supports the agency’s new guidelines, experts say easing mask restrictions may imply that everyone has equal access to vaccines.

Across America, people of color are exposed to more air pollution than whites from industry, vehicles, construction and many other sources, a new study has found.

"Uncle Tim" trended on Twitter Wednesday night as left-wing users flooded the site with the racial slur on Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C, following his rebuttal to President Biden's address to Congress.

Evanston historian Dino Robinson said Mia Neal's late grandfather likely lived at the Emerson Street YMCA, a hub for Evanston's Black community.

Welcome to The Spin, the Chicago Tribune's politics newsletter.

On Tuesday, Albion College issued a statement in response to racist graffiti found in its buildings.

DETROIT – Love Only is a nonprofit that has been working to feed the homeless for over a decade. The ones behind the organization have started a life goal to help those who are less fortunate especially in the African American community. “It makes me happy to feed people. My mom kind of showed me that and it made her really happy to do it and it makes me happy,” said Love Only founder, Ivory Graves. Graves has been working to feed the homeless for 13 years and is widely known as Tree.

The book looks at American history and the treatment of Blacks and finds what she calls an enduring, unseen and unmentioned caste system. Wilkersons book and an acclaimed biography of Malcolm X are among this years nominees for awards presented by the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project. Winners of the Lukas Book Prize and Lynton history prize receive $10,000 each. The project awards two works in progress, each worth $25,000. Ad“The Dead are Arising,” which won the National Book Award last fall, is a finalist for the Lynton prize.

“I’m inspired when I see the number of young Blacks and Whites who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Rev. DeLashea Strawder, director of Detroit’s Mosaic Youth Theater, believes there has been progress. “There’s nothing wrong with that -- nothing wrong with good, strong, healthy debate.”“Of course, we’re not going to always agree, and that’s OK,” Strawder said. “My dream would be for everybody to be just equal,” said Makiah Quinn, a Mosaic Youth Theater member. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”Anthony had much more to say.

“As the labor market tightened more in certain areas and in certain fields we would see more robust income growth for those groups," Ohio State economist Trevon Logan said in an email. “Also, higher concentration in urban areas with larger job growth and increases in minimum wage can also play a role in income gains." While income growth has been comparatively flat in a vast majority of U.S. counties, it has been concentrated in a handful of communities, said William Spriggs, an economist at Howard University. Blacks are over-represented in public employment, which experienced anemic income growth,” Logan said. Asian Americans make up almost 6% of the U.S. population.

NEW YORK – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar revealed he had prostate cancer in a magazine article he wrote about health risks faced by Blacks. Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's career scoring leader, provided no other details about that illness in the piece he wrote for WebMD that first appeared Wednesday. A publicist for Abdul-Jabbar said this is the first time he has spoken publicly about the prostate cancer. In his article, titled “Black Lives Matter,” Abdul-Jabbar writes that Blacks are at higher risk for heart problems and cancer, and said he also had heart bypass surgery. He said he's been able to get better care than many Blacks, in part because of his celebrity and also because two sons work in the health care profession.

Addressing racial disparities in the U.S. coronavirus crisis cannot be an afterthought, a top adviser to President-elect Joe Biden on the COVID-19 pandemic response said Tuesday. “We cannot get this pandemic under control if we do not address head-on the issues of inequity in our country," she said. The virus in the U.S. has killed more than 268,000 and caused more than 13.5 million confirmed infections. Gathering that information became easier last week when the federal government recognized Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election, she said. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.

DETROIT – The Nasdaq stock exchange is seeking U.S. authority to require more diversity in the boardrooms of Nasdaq-listed companies, or for those companies to explain why they can not. The proposal filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, if approved, would require all companies listed on the exchange to publicly disclose consistent, transparent diversity statistics about their board of directors. It would require most Nasdaq-listed companies to have, or explain why they don’t have, at least two diverse directors. This includes having one board member who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ. Foreign companies and smaller reporting companies would have additional flexibility.

A drug company said Friday that a medicine it sells to tamp down inflammation has helped prevent the need for breathing machines in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the first large study that primarily enrolled Hispanics and Blacks. The drug, given through an IV, tamps down a protein called interleukin-6 that’s often found in excess in COVID-19 patients. About 12% given the drug needed a breathing machine or died within 28 days versus about 19% of patients given a placebo. This is the third time this week that companies have announced positive results from studies testing COVID treatments via press releases. On Monday, Eli Lilly reported benefits from a study testing its anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib when combined with the antiviral drug remdesivir.

DETROIT The Detroit Police Department takes a different approach when it comes to policing, or serving the community as some prefer to call it. What Detroit Neighborhood Police Officers thinkIn fact, the Detroit Police Department works to bring positive changes across the city and prevent what happened in Minnesota from happening here through neighborhood policing. Shank, along with Neighborhood Police Officers (NPOs) David Vazquez, Alexis Kellogg, Dan Robinson and more make up that unit across the city. Do these Detroit neighborhood officers think people fear the police? Every day is a chance to show the community who Detroit police officers really are.

Amid the national reckoning on racism, the memorial to the first Black regiment of the Union Army, the Civil War unit popularized in the movie "Glory, is facing scrutiny. White commander out front; Black soldiers in the background. Its the first thing you see.Amid the national reckoning on racism, the Shaw memorial is the latest and, perhaps, one of the more curious to receive scrutiny. Unlike other felled monuments, the work by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens isnt a paean to the Confederacy. Saint-Gaudens spent 14 years creating a richly detailed bas relief, using Black men of different ages as models for his realistic soldiers.

Arrest data released by the California Department of Justice show there were 1,181 felony marijuana arrests in California in 2019, down 27% from 2018, of 1,617 arrests and the lowest number since 1954. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)LOS ANGELES The number of felony marijuana arrests in California continued to decline in 2019 in the age of legalization, but another trend remained unchanged: those arrests fell disproportionately on Hispanics and Blacks, state data showed. According to a breakdown of demographic data, Hispanics accounted for nearly 42% of those arrests, followed by Blacks, at 22%, with whites at 21%. Misdemeanor marijuana arrests were down slightly in 2019: They numbered 3,769, versus 3,835 in 2018, NORML said. The number of felony arrests last year marked the lowest figure since 1954, NORML said.

WASHINGTON Confederate Army symbols within the military, including prominent Army bases named for rebel generals, are divisive and can be offensive to Blacks in uniform, the nation's top officer said Thursday. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that some see it differently. The House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for the budget year starting Oct. 1 include provisions for changing the names of 10 Army bases named for Confederate generals. President Donald Trump says he would veto the defense bill if the version that reaches his desk includes a requirement to change the names. The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars.

ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. – The attorneys for both families involved in a viral confrontation are speaking out about what happened Wednesday. The gun drawn altercation between Jillian and Eric Wuestenberg; and Takelia Hill and her daughters went viral, leading to felony charges. They saw this,” said Chris Quinn, the Hill family attorney. He served his country very well,” said Terry Johnson, the Wuestenberg family attorney. Quinn believes Jillian Wuestenberg should have deescalated the argument with the 15-year-old girl and Johnson believes charges should be filed against Hill.

In this photo taken Tuesday, June 23, 2020, people gather at the J.C. Nichols fountain in Kansas City, Mo. The Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation is considering removing Nichols' name from a fountain and an adjacent parkway near the upscale Country Club Plaza, which Nichols developed. The J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain is the best known and most photographed fountain in the “City of Fountains” and adorns most tourism and marketing promotions for Kansas City. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas supports removing the name, saying in a statement: “No person accelerated white flight, redlining, and racial division in the Kansas City area more than J.C. Kansas City is one of the largest cities in the country with no street named for King after a debate erupted last year when officials renamed a major thoroughfare for him.

(Emily Hamer/Wisconsin State Journal via AP File)MADISON, Wis. In this college town that considers itself a bastion of progressive politics and inclusion, race relations are really a tale of two cities. Madison is a wonderful place, but it is a tale of two cities, said former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, who is Black. Heg was an Norwegian immigrant who became an anti-slavery activist and a colonel in the 15th Wisconsin Regiment. The Forward statue represented Wisconsin at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He called toppling the statues a setback for the Black rights movement but said there's no denying racial inequities in Madison.

BRANDON TOWNSHIP, Mich. Brandon Township trustee, Bob Marshall, made controversial remarks on the Black Lives Matter movement Saturday in a Facebook post. In over twenty years of living in this community of Brandon Township, I have NEVER had the occasion to be disappointed in the people here, until two weeks ago. While driving past Brandon High School on M-15, I saw a Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstration, Marshall wrote in the Facebook post. In the post Marshall asserts it is not true that Blacks are disproportionately killed by white police officers. He described Black Lives Matter as a hate group that seeks to target police officers for harm and death.Black Lives Matter has gained momentum across the country and world in the wake of George Floyds death.