The Root

From tech to finance to cosmetics, the news is filled with stories of industries that are waking up to the fact that they are lacking in diversity. Today, Black people only represent 5 percent of those working in the field of design. But a new project being led by leaders across fashion, architecture, and industrial…Read more...

Jajuan Henderson was suspected of having a firearm when he was confronted by a group of Trenton police officers. He was shot and paralyzed from the chest down, per a NJ.com report.Read more...

When the need for extensive voting rights protections has been discussed, it’s with foresight that restrictions passed in southern states will adversely impact the outcomes of the 2022 midterms and 2024 general elections. You can’t out-organize against polling place closures or voter ID laws.

Although this shouldn’t have to be newsworthy, you have to give it up to the House of Representatives for continuing to fight for the rights of people of color to wear their natural hair.Read more...

Chris Brown and Drake’s legal teams are responding to a new court filing that claims the two artists violated copyright infringement laws on their 2019 hit “No Guidance.”Read more...

Fresh off the success of instant classic The Harder They Fall, director Jeymes Samuel is sticking with Netflix for his next project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he has signed on to helm the streamer’s adaptation of Boom! Comics’ Irredeemable and Incorruptible.

Looking for a new book to add to your reading list? We strongly recommend Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ ‘The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois.” The National Books Critics Circle honored the novel with a fiction prize, reported the Associated Press.Read more...

If you’re a fan of college basketball and Black excellence you might want to check out the women’s NCAA tournament, where in the Greensboro region of the bracket alone, there are five Black female head coaches. In the tournament overall, there are 12 Black female head coaches, double the number of Black women-led…Read more...

Starz drama BMF has quietly built up a cast of badass female characters. Now, you can add one more to the list, as SNL alum Leslie Jones is set to recur on Season 2 of the mafia series.

After moving to September in 2021, fashion’s Super Bowl aka the 2022 Met Gala, will return to its traditional first Monday in May date at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. According to Vogue, the hosts for this year’s event will be actress/director Regina King, married actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively…Read more...

Don’t call it a comeback!Read more...

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced The Project School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV) initiative, offering mental health resources and campus security enhancements through targeted grants to HBCUs impacted by the many threats which have plagued their campuses since the beginning of the year.Read more...

After nearly two years, it looks like Meghan Markle is finally launching her podcast series on the streaming platform Spotify this summer. This comes after Archwell Audio, the company she owns with her husband Prince Harry, met with Spotify about cutting down on the amount of misinformation they disseminate to their…Read more...

On Wednesday, Gabrielle Union shared her thoughts on Disney’s handling of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which seeks to limit conversations about gender identity and sexual identity in an educational setting.Read more...

When you think about the typical craft beer drinker, a bearded hipster who’s definitely white probably comes to mind. And you wouldn’t be too far off from reality. A study commissioned by the Brewers Association found that although Black drinkers compose 11.2 percent of the US population, they’re only drinking 3.7…Read more...

The family of James R. Williams, a Black man who was fatally shot by an Ohio police officer while firing shots into the air to celebrate the new year, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against an officer and the city of Canton, according to the Associated Press.Read more...

Read more...

For Women’s History Month, GUESS has partnered with Gyrl Wonder, an organization aimed toward helping young Black women reach their career goals and create space for women in business to combat race and gender disparities. GUESS offered Gyrl Wonder a long-term partnership including internship and career opportunities…Read more...

The only thing that might be less likely than Antonio Brown becoming an NFL owner is Colin Kaepernick becoming a starting quarterback in the league again. To be clear, their situations are hardly analogous: the former immolated a glorious career with bizarre behavior; the latter was blackballed by the same league now…Read more...

A tiny, majority-Black town in Tennessee which was poised to benefit from a massive investment from Ford Motor Company has instead been taken over by the state’s comptroller.

The FBI is offering a $10,000 award for tips in the death of Illinois State graduate student Jelani Day, reported NBC News. Day, 25, was found Sept 44. in the Illinois River. The coroner ruled his death as a drowning which his family has since disputed, suspecting foul play was involved.

Now that spring is right around the corner, it’s time to dust off those ceiling fans, organize your closets and tackle all of those awful chores you’ve probably been neglecting all year long. Spring cleaning is a great time to freshen up your space and breathe new life into your home. But if all of that sounds like a…Read more...

When New York City Mayor Eric Adams repealed the city’s indoor vaccination mandate requirements starting on March 7th, many people were confused. The private sector mandate requiring employees to be vaccinated is still left in place. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving can now attend home games at Barclays Arena, but he…Read more...

At this point in her career, Gabrielle Union has nothing to prove, and she doesn’t have time to wait around for others to give her opportunities. That’s why the busy actress/producer shepherds her own projects into existence. For her new Disney+ movie Cheaper by the Dozen, Union spoke with The Root about managing the…Read more...

Here we go again with another incredibly racist school incident. A white high school student has been charged with a hate crime after someone caught a video of him whipping a Black student with his belt, reported The Associated Press. The student was also reported to have thrown cotton balls at him.Read more...

The Supreme Court is set to hear a pair of cases challenging affirmative action initiatives regarding college admissions. The anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) have two lawsuits pending against Harvard College and UNC. They claim both colleges discriminate against Asian American…Read more...

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner received bad news from a Moscow court today, as her arrest has been extended to May 19, from CNN via Russian state news agency TASS. “The court granted the request of the investigation and extended the period of detention of the US citizen Griner until May…Read more...

The year-and-a-half my children spent learning from home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic gave me a whole new appreciation for their teachers. And while I was terrified to send them back when their schools reopened, I knew that teaching was not my ministry and that our entire household could benefit from a…Read more...

The legal teams for Jay-Z and Damon Dash, former business partners, are looking to resolve an ongoing legal dispute from last summer when Hov sued Dash for trying to auction off a Reasonable Doubt NFT, according to iHeart.

Jussie Smollett is officially a free man.Read more...

Founders of Boston non-profit Violence in Boston have been accused of using monetary donations to pay for personal expenses including rent, shopping, vacations and car rentals, reported The Boston Globe. Per a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, the couple made false statements on…Read more...

The organizer of the Southern Heritage Classic is suing Jackson State University for trying to quit the annual football game two years before its contract with the event is up.

Another day, another Kanye is out of control story. This time the rapper went too far in his criticism of The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, using racial slurs to attack the comedian after he did a segment calling out Kanye’s repeated harassment of ex-wife Kim Kardashian. According to TMZ, a Meta spokesperson said Kanye’s…Read more...

Read more...

Historically Black colleges and universities around the United States have been operating under a continuous cycle of hate. Since January of 2022, 36 HBCUs have been targets of bomb threats. On the first day of Black History Month alone, 18 HBCUs had to suspend operations and go on lockdown. Thankfully, there were no…Read more...

After a two-month delay due to the Omicron variant COVID-19 surge, the 64th Annual Grammy Awards are set to take place Sunday, April 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and the first batch of performers has been announced. Per a press release provided to The Root, Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, K-Pop superstars…Read more...

The Biden Administration has a Black woman as its latest official Cabinet member, who’s serving in a critical role.Read more...

A woman in Ohio was charged with two felonies after she allegedly sent racist death threats to two Black Michigan lawmakers, according to the Detroit Free Press.Read more...

The Black-owned newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was founded on this day in 1827. That same year, slavery was abolished. Then, the free Black men of New York City including executive editors Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm founded Freedom’s Journal to counter racist reports in the press and fight for Black…Read more...

The Republican-controlled Georgia state House passed another elections bill targeted squarely at restricting Black voters in the critical swing state.

One of HBO’s most underrated series is returning for Season 3. According to Entertainment Weekly, the hilarious A Black Lady Sketch Show is set to premiere its third season April 8 at 11/10c p.m. Creator/star Robin Thede is back with co-stars Gabrielle Dennis, Ashley Nicole Black and Skye Townsend.Read more...

The life and legacy of civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson will be coming to a small screen near us soon.Read more...

Former Real Housewives of Atlanta star Cynthia Bailey is sharing her personal story about her experience with uterine fibroids to help educate other women on the condition that she struggled with for 14 years.Read more...

Rental prices in New York City have increased 33% between January 2021 and January 2022. Some residents have even stated their rent increases have jumped 70% between leases. Downtown Brooklyn, SoHo, Tribeca, and Battery Park City are reported to have surpassed record-high costs. With the New York State eviction …Read more...

Fan favorite Taraji P. Henson has lined up her next role. Per Deadline, she will star in the feature adaptation of Alessandro Camon’s play Time Alone. Camon will direct, with Henson producing through her TPH Entertainment.Read more...

Young Dolph, the well-known Memphis rapper born Adolph Thorton Jr.,who was killed at 36-years-old, was shot 22 times outside of a South Memphis cookie store, according to an autopsy report from The West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center, reported Fox 13 Memphis.Read more...

Mark Miles of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police is filing a lawsuit against officers who sent him racist and abusive messages, reported The Daily Record. The suit claims the officers spoke in a group chat about triggering a “race war” with mentions toward far-right extremist groups.

Though Jonathan Majors may have mastered the #YeehawAgenda in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall, and most certainly proved a hostile threat as He Who Remains on Disney+’s Loki, his next upcoming role might give him the spook of his life.Read more...

Yolanda Williams didn’t plan on having children. She grew up in a family with limited resources where alcoholism and violence were a regular part of her upbringing. These experiences left her with many painful memories that she didn’t want to pass on to the next generation. So when she got pregnant at age 36, Williams…Read more...

Last week, Congress passed an enormous spending bill that included $1.5 trillion to keep the government running and $13.6 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine. While this measure would avoid a government shutdown for the fiscal year, there’s a crucial piece of funding that was left out entirely.Read more...