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June
14
1864
Congress passed the Enrollment Act, authorizing equal pay for black soldiers.
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By Barry Cooper Tiger Woods, who won the Memorial Tournament on June 3 in Dublin, Ohio, is the favorite in this year’s U.S. Open, which begins today at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Woods, the 2008 U.S. Open winner, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson will tee off at 7:33 a.m. (PDT) for the first round of the 2012 U.S. Open.
Mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs has closed Justin's, his Atlanta restaurant, after 14 years in business. Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group, a privately held New York-based company, announced that it closed Justin's to pursue other business ventures in music, television, fashion
Vice President Joe Biden will address members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) during the organization's 37th annual national convention and career fair in New Orleans. Biden will speak to attendees on Wednesday, June 20
James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, has named Natasha Trethewey the Library's Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2012 through 2013. Trethewey, the nation's 19th Poet Laureate, will take up her duties this
By Barry Cooper CNN contributor Roland Martin says he learned a lot from his month-long suspension from the network in January. Arguably the most visible African-American journalist in television, Martin was suspended by CNN after making what the network considered insensitive
By Frederick H. Lowe Thapelo Institute, a Chicago-based organization that educates African-American men about health issues, will host a panel discussion on Saturday about prostate
by Frederick H. Lowe The U.S. Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it has sued the state of Florida and the Florida Secretary of State charging violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by purging voters from the state's voter registration rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
U.S. Rep. John L. Lewis, D-Georgia, is among the individuals scheduled to speak at the 26th Annual Conference of 100 Black Men of American Inc. in Atlanta. The conference began Wednesday, June 13, and will end Sunday
Study: 59 percent of black boys and 43 percent of black girls are suspended or expelled by Frederick H. Lowe Trayvon Martin had been suspended from school for 10 days
The Seminole County, Fla., Sheriff's Department on Tuesday arrested Shellie Zimmerman, wife of George Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death
By Barry Cooper How tough is the job market for African-American journalists? Media blogger Richard Prince writes that it is so tough that some black journalists are moving overseas to the Middle East to work. Prince reported recently that Bradley C. Bennett, a former assistant city editor for the Miami Herald, is now a city editor at the National, an English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi. Bennett told Prince, “I would encourage more black journalists who are seeing fewer opportunities in America to spread their wings a little and try for a job in the Middle East or the Far East, where newspapers are generally thriving. “The best part of moving (to Abu Dhabi) is that my twin daughters, who were born in South Florida and now attend a school of predominantly Emirati citizens, now speak Arabic and Spanish, as well as English.” The National is aggressively recruiting journalists from the U.S. Two recent job postings on the Journalism Jobs website showed openings for a business editor with a salary of up to $100,000, and for a sports production editor with a salary of up to $75,000. No one can say for sure how many American-born blacks are working in the Middle East or Far East. Without a doubt, many black journalists in the United States are being forced to become more creative about their job searches if they want to stay in journalism, especially newspapers. The daily newspaper industry has cratered in America, with the size of some newsroom staffs shrinking by more than 50 percent over the past 10 years as the Internet has threatened to put traditional newspapers out of business. Nonstop layoffs have hit black journalists hard, especially those with lots of experience. As newspapers have cut back, many have shed their most veteran and highest-paid writers and editors. Letting such talent go has helped the papers significantly reduce payroll as competition from the Internet eats away at profits. In May, the Times-Picayune in New Orleans announced the once unthinkable: It said it would reduce its print schedule to just three days a week and significantly reduce the size of its staff. If the move works, more newspapers are likely to follow, leading to even more layoffs that will affect all journalists, including blacks who may well have to give working in the Middle East at least a passing thought.
by Frederick H. Lowe Brian Banks, who was exonerated for a crime he didn't commit after serving five years in prison, recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno before the largest television audience ever to see and hear from
General Motors has paid victims who charged that the automobile manufacturer produced parts for vehicles employed by South Africa's former apartheid government to raid homes and to track down and assassinate apartheid opponents.
The United States will host this week the 11th annual U.S.-Sub-Saharan African Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum, which will focus on a region with one of the world's fastest rates of economic growth. The conference, which will be held on Thursday, June 14 and on Friday, June 15, in Washington, D.C., is mandated by the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich., co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, wrote in a June 7 e-mail message to supporters that he faces a difficult fight to remain in Congress because of re-districting “The Republicans have gerrymandered my Michigan district in an effort to target me and the principles I represent,” Conyers wrote. “On August 7—less than two short months from now
by Frederick H. Lowe The United States Naval Academy recently honored the late Lieutenant Commander Wesley A. Brown, the academy's first African-American graduate. “He [Brown] showed us one person can make a difference,” said Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, during a ceremony on
June 14 through June 20 June 14 1864 ----- Congress passed the Enrollment Act, authorizing equal pay for black soldiers. African-American soldiers formed 166 regiments and fought in more than 500 battles during the Civil War