All results / Stories / Free Press wire reports
State executioner who turned against the death penalty dies at 67
For 17 years, Jerry Bronson Givens carried out death sentences as Virginia’s chief executioner. The Richmond native then spent the rest of his life crusading against the death penalty.
Meghan and Harry welcome second child, Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, welcomed their second child Friday, June 4, with the birth of a healthy girl, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
11 U.S. mayors commit to reparations as national example
Eleven U.S. mayors — from Los Angeles to tiny Tullahassee, Okla., — have pledged to pay reparations for slavery to a small group of Black residents in their cities, saying their aim is to set an example for the federal government on how a nationwide program could work.
Barrier-breaking golfer Lee Elder being honored by the Masters with scholarship
In a year marked by racial injustice, Augusta National announced Monday it would honor Lee Elder with two scholar- ships in his name at Paine College and an honorary tee shot next year for the first Black player in the Masters.
’A mass loss of control’: Answers sought in deadly Houston concert
When rapper Travis Scott’s sold-out concert in Houston became a deadly scene of panic and danger in the surging crowd, Edgar Acosta began worrying about his son, who wasn’t answering his phone.
Hip-hop classic Biz Markie succumbs at 57
Biz Markie, a hip-hop staple known for his beatboxing prowess, turntable mastery and the 1989 classic “Just a Friend,” died Friday, July 16, 2021, with his wife by his side.
Jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, 85, dies
Ornette Coleman, a self-taught alto saxophone player who polarized the jazz world with his unconventional “free jazz” before coming to be regarded as an avant garde genius, died Thursday, June 11, 2015, in New York, according to his publicist. He was 85.
Prosperity preachers to pray at Trump inaugural
Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, who hosted President-elect Donald Trump with his Detroit congregation in September, is among the religious leaders chosen to offer prayers at the new president’s swearing-in next week in Washington. The inaugural committee announced that prosperity gospel preachers Bishop Jackson, who leads Great Faith Ministries International, and Pastor Paula White, a friend of the president-elect, will join four others selected to participate in the inauguration on Friday, Jan. 20.
Emmy Awards filled with color, politics
Diversity ruled at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, where a record 21 nominees of color were up for the annual awards for television and cable shows in contrast to this year’s all-white Oscars acting lineup. Several took home Emmys, many for the first time.
Rosa Parks’ home displayed in Italy amid racial justice backdrop
The rundown, paint-chipped Detroit house where civil rights icon Rosa Parks took refuge after her historic bus boycott is going on display in Italy in a setting that couldn’t be more incongruous: The imposing central courtyard of the Royal Palace in Naples.
NASA names D.C. headquarters for engineer Mary W. Jackson of ‘Hidden Figures’ fame
The early African-American women at NASA will not be hidden anymore.
Golf club apologizes for calling cops on black women members
A golf club in Pennsylvania has apologized for calling police on a group of black women after the co-owner and his father said they were playing too slowly and refused requests to leave the course.
Chadwick Boseman in ‘Marshall’ is bulletproof
Thurgood Marshall, a titan of 20th century law and a civil rights pioneer, has until now largely eluded Hollywood’s notice. Despite its title, “Marshall,’’ too, is wary of taking on the Supreme Court justice in full, sticking to a minor case from Mr. Marshall’s early career as counsel for the NAACP. That makes, for better and worse, a sometimes slight, sometimes serious courtroom drama, shot through with bright certainty in the coming triumphs for Mr. Marshall and the civil rights movement. It’s a superhero-style origin story: Thurgood, pre- “Brown v. Board of Education,’’ pre-black robe.
Motown songwriter, producer Lamont Dozier dead at 81
Lamont Dozier, the middle name of the celebrated Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Heat Wave” and dozens of other hits and helped make Motown an essential record company of the 1960s and beyond, has died at age 81.
Biles makes history in return to competition at U.S. Classic
Time on her hands and a world-class gym at her disposal after the 2020 Olympics were postponed, Simone Biles started experimenting almost as a way to stave off the monotony of training.
After video backlash, NCAA addresses inequities at women’s and men’s tournaments
The NCAA’s inequities in women’s sports are showing. And the NCAA officially, embarrassed mightily on social media, moved quickly to try to clean up the problems.
Inside Met Gala, where there’s always someone more famous
U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe had just gotten her beverage at the bar at the edge of the room. She looked back at the throbbing crowd of celebrities packed into the center of the airy Petrie Court, where the Met Gala was holding its cocktail reception.
Murder trial of three white men in the death of jogger Ahmaud Abery refocuses national spotlight
The glare of the national spotlight is focused on this small city of 16,000 on the Georgia coast that is the now epicenter of the sensational racial profiling trial of three white men accused of murder in the slaying of an unarmed Black jogger, Ahmaud M. Arbery, who was running in their neighborhood.
50th anniversary: Obama to call for restoration of 1965 Voting Rights Act
With the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, congressional Democrats are commemorating the landmark law with events across the country — from the steps of the U.S. Capitol to the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama.
Obama picks D.C. jurist
President nominates Judge Merrick Garland for U.S. Supreme Court amid GOP pushback
President Obama nominated veteran appellate court Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, setting up a potentially ferocious political showdown with Senate Republicans who have vowed to block any Obama nominee.
