The Root

Lee Elder, who made history as the first Black golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament, has died, according to the Washington Post and Yahoo Sports. He was 87.Read more...

Shea Butter Baby singer Ari Lennox was arrested on Monday following an alleged racial profiling incident in Amsterdam.

Any Insecure fan can tell you how important music is to the show. Whether it sets the tone of a love scene or encompasses Issa’s emotions in the moment, the series uses music as another character.Read more...

Black is the new black; that was the message broadcast from the red carpet of 2021 Soul Train Awards, which aired Sunday night on BET. After all, what better color to wear to a ceremony founded upon and in celebration of 50 years of Black excellence? While black wasn’t included in the official dress code for Sunday’s…Read more...

From stunning biopics to action-packed westerns to jump scares, there was something for everyone in 2021. With the world still in lockdown for the first half of the year, streaming was still king, which means audiences got more variety and choice than ever before. With streaming services more likely to grant…Read more...

Jury selection for the Chicago trial of Jussie Smollett is set to begin on Monday.Read more...

Former Florida Rep. Carrie Meek died at age 95 in her Miami home on Sunday. Known for her fiery speeches and trailblazing career, Meek was among the first class of Black Floridians elected to Congress post-Reconstruction.Read more...

Civil Rights attorney Fred Gray, (C), unveils the new street sign bearing his name alongside his wife Carol, (L), and Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, (R), during a ceremony October 26, 2021, in which the City of Montgomery renamed Jeff Davis Avenue Fred D. Gray Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama.Read more...

Over 50 years ago, a tight knit community on the West Coast, once a cultural haven popular with famous Blues musicians, was bulldozed like many other thriving Black communities. Now, the city of Hayward, California is apologizing for displacing nearly 1,400 Black and Latino residents in what was once known as Russell…Read more...

The Houston Rockets are trash.Read more...

The rise of Virgil Abloh was swift, and in many ways surreal—a word the late creative used in reference to more than one collection of the label he founded, Off-White. Also the artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear, the Ghanian-American designer’s death on Sunday at age 41 following an intensely private battle…Read more...

Every Monday, Very Smart Brothas Senior Editor Panama Jackson and Contributing Freelance Writer Shanelle Genai break down the latest episode of season 5 of HBO’s cultural flashpoint show, Insecure. Okay?! Spoilers ahead.

The 2021 Soul Train Awards premiered on Sunday night, taking place at the iconic Apollo Theater in New York.

If you still have Thanksgiving leftovers in your fridge, you’re winning at life. But since I don’t, I might as well get to business.Read more...

How is it already almost December? Weren’t we just taking down decorations in January? For TV schedules December generally means special episodes, reruns and animated classics. If that’s not your thing, we found five choices of TV to look out for in December. Also, we have to ask, who doesn’t like animated holiday…Read more...

The fashion world wept Sunday morning as word spread: Virgil Abloh, founder of luxury streetwear brand Off-White and artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear, had died at age 41 in Chicago.Read more...

In 2016, retired Army captain Larry Jefferson became the first Black Santa Claus at Bloomington Minnesota’s Mall of America. While mall goers went wild with support, the internet was in an uproar against the new hire. NPR reported that negative attacks against Jefferson began spreading just as quickly as the news…Read more...

At the 2004 Unity: Journalists of Color Conference, the late Gwen Ifill famously coined the term “missing white woman’s syndrome.” While participating in the conference’s “Media Coverage of National Security” panel, Ifill commented “if there is a missing white woman, you’re going to cover that every day.”Read more...

200 years ago, the first group of formerly enslaved African Americans resettled in the U.S. Colony of Liberia. While some were eager to begin life anew with greater freedom and independence away from the memory of enslavement, others were unsure about the relocation, as even those with African roots had very little…Read more...

While Black Twitter has long been referred to as a digital space to share cultural critique, break celebrity news, kick shit, and engage in “friendly” debate, one CU Boulder researcher claims that the hub serves an even greater purpose, one with historical roots.Read more...

A pharmaceutical science major at the University of Georgia is the latest headline making crusader for the natural hair movement. Niyah Brown was looking for a way to create a safe and celebratory space for Black hair on the predominately white campus, where you are far less likely to see afros on full display in the…Read more...

Perhaps it’s because we were still stuck at home for the first half of the year, but 2021 was an especially great year of TV. With time to actually watch more than a few favorites, we were able to discover genres we didn’t know we loved, jump back into franchises we’d lost touch with and invest in new international…Read more...

What’s Blacker than Black Friday? The Root’s Blackity-Black list of Cyber Weekend deals from Black-owned and founded businesses, back for another year with fresh discounts and vendors! Settle in, get your browse on and enjoy some great deals along with your leftovers this weekend, whether shopping old favorites or…Read more...

Nathan Harris has a lot to be thankful for this year. His debut novel, The Sweetness of Water, was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and subsequent instant New York Times bestseller, as well as landing on Barack Obama’s Summer 2021 reading list. All of the above may make for great press, but as further validation of the…Read more...

If 2020 was the darkest timeline, 2021 was the weirdest. On television, everywhere we looked there were new trends and shocking announcements. Yes, there were the usual cancellations and deaths, but some of those weren’t exactly surprises.Read more...

With major studios more committed to streaming, more big releases are available to watch at home, on your couch, in your favorite sweatpants. From animated family fare to high concept awards contenders to huge franchises, there’s no end of choices for streaming in December. Here are five movies we think you’ll enjoy.Read more...

Sterling K. Brown’s Hulu limited series Washington Black has found its lead. Ernest Kingsley Jr. will play the title role opposite Brown, per Deadline.Read more...

In another episode of cops killing Black people, a grand jury indicted six deputies in Fulton County with felony murder for the 2018 death of Antonio May, who was an inmate at Fulton County Jail at the time of his death. According to the court document, he was repeatedly beaten and shocked with a taser.Read more...

A jury has awarded over $26 million in damages to the plaintiffs in a federal civil suit brought against the organizers of the violent Unite the Right rally that happened back in 2017.Read more...

It seems compelling documentaries and docuseries continue to be the name of the game for various streamers like Netflix and Hulu.Read more...

Black Friday is just days away—and as we’ve already warned you, this is not the year to procrastinate on purchases! By now, you’ve hopefully stretched, hydrated and have your list ready for the biggest shopping day of the year (closely followed by Cyber Monday )—because it’s already in motion!Read more...

Can you hear that? It’s a collective sigh of relief. “Guilty.” Let’s just say it. “Thank God, this was not another Kyle Rittenhouse.”Read more...

In a world of Grammy-nominated artists, there can only be one winner. Just ask the Recording Academy.Read more...

In this episode of “Shoot, You Better Than Me,” let’s talk about the residential saint posing as a substitute teacher at Fort Worth’s Castleberry High School in Texas.

Bad news certainly travels fast. And while it’s easy to get drowned out by all of the impending doom going on in the world, former NBA star Stephen Jackson has made it his mission to be a beacon of light amidst the chaos by giving back to his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas.Read more...

At this point, it’s no shock when someone spends a lifetime in prison before being exonerated of the crimes that sent them there. We know that the criminal justice system is rife with false convictions and the racism, inequities and shoddy policing practices that lead to them.

It appears “cancel culture” has had no effect on Dave Chappelle.

After months of waiting, President Joe Biden will finally nominate one of the most experienced Black women in government to one of the most important posts in his administration.Read more...

Billionaire spaceman Jeff Bezos donated $100 million of his multibillion dollar empire to the Obama Foundation in honor of late civil rights giant Congressman John Lewis. The donation included one stipulation: the naming of the plaza in front of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.Read more...

Back in June, I told y’all about the then-upcoming sports documentary The Queen of Basketball, which chronicles the life and times of one of basketball’s unheralded heroines, Lusia “Lucy” Harris. And if you have no godly idea who she is, you aren’t alone—which is kind of the point of the film. But since I’m a kind and…Read more...

“Gift Black This Holiday,” urges the The Fifteen Percent Pledge, which has changed the way major retailers respond to Black-owned businesses by compelling them to allocate at least 15 percent of their product offerings to Black-owned brands and vendors, to reflect our demographics in the United States. Created by…Read more...

Videos of Ocean City, Maryland police officers beating and tasing Black teenagers for vaping on the boardwalk sparked outrage this past summer.Read more...

Will Marc Wilson, a Black man, be able to claim self-defense in the killing of a 17-year-old teenage girl, Haley Hutcheson, in Statesboro, Georgia?

If you thought beating the Golden State Warriors this season—who last I checked have the best offense in the league, the stingiest defense in the league, and an NBA-best 15-2 record—was already nearly an impossible feat, things are about to get infinitely worse for the rest of the NBA with the imminent return of one…Read more...

Wendy Williams’ brother Tommy is speaking out against rumors that his sister, veteran radio legend and talk show icon Wendy Williams is currently suffering from dementia.Read more...

The long wait is over for fans of HBO’s ground-breaking drama Euphoria, as the show is set to return Sunday, Jan. 9, per TVLine.Read more...

Does anyone remember Victor Page?

On a recent episode of Victoria Secret’s VS Voices podcast, tennis superstar Naomi Osaka expressed her frustrations with the discriminatory behavior that women face in pro sports.Read more...

This is embarrassing coming from my home state. But not shocking. The University System of Georgia’s governing board has decided to keep the names of people who were slave owners and supported segregation on 75 buildings of public colleges and universities across the state.Read more...