All results / Stories / Free Press wire reports
More than gold
Gymnast Simone Biles stuns the world, her teammates and her competitors by withdrawing from Olympic team and individual all-around competition to focus on her mental health
Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles was expected to again helped lead the American team to gold medal glory at the Tokyo Olympics just as she had at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Instead, the reigning queen of the sport help draw attention to the stresses that top athletes face Tuesday after she voluntarily withdrew from further competition, citing concerns about her mental fitness to continue.
‘They tried to ban one. We’re coming back with a hundred’
Hundreds of pastors both rallied and prayed last week outside the trial of three white men charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. They gathered in response to a defense lawyer’s bid to keep Black ministers out of the courtroom.
Former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek of Florida being remembered
Former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, who died Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021, is being remembered as a trailblazer, a descendant of a slave who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction.
Bobby Brown maintains constant bedside vigil over Bobbi Kristina
ATLANTA The daughter of late pop star Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown was placed in a coma to stop brain swelling after she was found facedown and unresponsive in a bathtub in her Georgia home last weekend, family friend and gospel singer Kim Burrell told “Access Hollywood.”
Johnson named interim president of national NAACP
The national NAACP announced a new interim leader, along with a nationwide listening tour that will allow the organization’s leaders to talk to local members and figure out the future direction of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.
‘The Final Five’ are golden
Team dominates competition, wins Olympic gold in Rio
There were a few wobbles here and there, even for Simone Biles, but those imperfections could not stop the United States from blowing away the opposition to capture the Olympic women’s team title with a record margin Tuesday.
Nonprofits to provide eye screenings, eyeglasses to RPS students
Students at Redd Elementary School in Richmond are the first to benefit from a new effort to ensure every city student who needs glasses has them.
David N. Dinkins, NYC’s first Black mayor, dies at 93
Few American leaders have faced the battery of urban ills that confronted David N. Dinkins when he became New York’s first Black mayor in 1990.
Trump impeachment trial opens with GOP Senate majority rejecting Dems' attempts to bring in new witnesses
The U.S. Senate plunged into opening arguments Wednesday in President Trump’s impeachment trial, with Democratic House managers detailing the case that the president abused his power and should be removed from office.
Families decry ‘two systems of justice’ at D.C. march
Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously laid out a vision for harmony between white and Black people 57 years ago, his son issued a sobering reminder about the persistence of police brutality and racist violence targeting Black Americans.
Toni Morrison, who transformed American literature to win Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, dies at 88
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in “Beloved,” “Song of Solomon” and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88.
Melvin E. Banks, whose publishing company revolutionized Bible study by incorporating positive images of Black people, dies at 86
Melvin E. Banks, whose company portraying positive images of African-Americans in the biblical experience has grown from its start in the basement of his Chicago home into the largest independent Black Christian publishing house in the United States, died Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. He was 86.
Attorney general: Hate crimes tear at the fabric of our communities
Hate crimes tear at the fabric of American communities and represent a stain on the country’s soul, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a mosque and Muslim community center on Monday.
Trump’s views on Islam ‘continue to evolve’
President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week has begun to soften his attitudes about Islam, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday after a two-day summit in which the president was treated to extraordinary Arab hospitality. “I think the president’s views — like, we hope, the American people’s views — are going to continue to evolve,” Mr. Tillerson said on the flight from Riyadh to Tel Aviv.
Beyonce drops new surprise single on Juneteenth; sales to benefit Black businesses
Beyoncé did not let Juneteenth pass without dropping one of her signature surprises — a new single called “Black Parade.”
Restaurateur, model B. Smith dies at 70 from early onset Alzheimer’s
Barbara “B.” Smith, one of the nation’s top African-American models who went on to open restaurants, launch a successful home products line and write cookbooks, has died at her Long Island home at age 70 after battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Holy Week underway; Passover begins Friday
Christians around the world are marking Holy Week, the solemn time retracing the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday.
Florida votes to replace Confederate statue in Congress with one of Mary McLeod Bethune
Florida could soon help diversify the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall by replacing a Confederate general’s likeness with the hall’s first statue honoring an African-American woman.
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove dies at 49
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, a prolific player who provided his jazz sound to records across a vast range of styles and won two Grammys, has died at age 49.
Arthur Mitchell, creator of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, dies at 84
Arthur Mitchell, who broke barriers for African-Americans in the 1950s as a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet and who would go on to become a driving force in the creation of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, has died. He was 84.
