Civil Rights Movement

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Malcolm X's Daughters File $100M Suit Over Assassination

Civil rights leader's family says DOJ, CIA, FBI, NYPD all knew of 1965 death plot and did nothing

(Newser) - Three of Malcolm X's daughters have filed a $100 million suit against some of the nation's top law enforcement and intelligence agencies, alleging those groups knew of threats against their father's life and did nothing to stop his assassination at age 39. Per the AP , the complaint...

Teacher's Video on Target Item Goes Viral: 'Need to Be Pulled'

Issa Tete says pictures of 3 civil rights icons were mislabeled in Black History Month activity book

(Newser) - It wouldn't be Black History Month without cringeworthy gaffes regarding Black History Month. The latest misstep comes courtesy of an item sold in Target, which has now been pulled off shelves after a customer complaint went viral. NPR reports that Issa Tete, a high school history teacher, decided to...

Emmett Till Takes His Place in Greenwood
City Unveils
Emmett Till
Statue
Oct 22, 2022 3:00 PM CDT

City Unveils Emmett Till Statue

Applause, tears greet tribute to 1955 Mississippi lynching victim

(Newser) - Hundreds of people applauded—and some wiped away tears—as a Mississippi community unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, not far from where white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager over accusations he had flirted with a white woman in a country store. "Change has...

FBI Spied on Aretha Franklin for Years, 270-Page File Shows
FBI Spied on Aretha Franklin
Oct 12, 2022 4:24 PM CDT

FBI Spied on Aretha Franklin

During civil rights movement, agency looked for connections to Black Panthers

(Newser) - Spying on the leaders and organizers of the civil rights movement was a regular FBI practice, but a recently released file shows the extent of the surveillance of Black entertainers, including singer Aretha Franklin. Comedian Dick Gregory and singer Harry Belafonte were being monitored as well, the New York Times...

She Wouldn't Give Up Her Seat. 65 Years Later, a Clean Record

Claudette Colvin, 82, has arrest wiped for making move as a teen that Rosa Parks did months later

(Newser) - Update: A judge in Montgomery, Ala., has finally granted an elderly great-grandmother her wish to have an arrest from her teen years scrubbed from her record. "I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82," Claudette Colvin said Thursday on CBS Mornings . "My record was expunged."...

Activist, Algebra Project Founder Robert Moses Dies
Civil Rights Icon Who
Taught Math, Too, Dies
OBITUARY
Jul 25, 2021 5:54 PM CDT

Civil Rights Icon Who Taught Math, Too, Dies

Robert Parris Moses was 86

(Newser) - Robert Parris Moses, a civil rights activist who was shot at and endured beatings and jail while leading Black voter registration drives in the American South during the 1960s and later helped improve minority education in math, has died. He was 86, per the AP . Moses, who was widely referred...

Files Open to Public on Civil Rights Workers' Slayings

Victims were in Mississippi to look into church fire and register voters

(Newser) - Never-before-seen case files, photographs, and other records documenting the investigation into the infamous slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi are now open to the public for the first time, 57 years after their deaths. The 1964 killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County...

Jimmy Allen Ruth Drove Freedom Riders to Jackson
Jimmy Allen Ruth
Delivered Freedom Riders
obituary
Jun 5, 2021 3:35 PM CDT

Jimmy Allen Ruth Delivered Freedom Riders

Bus driver knew the risk he was taking, family says

(Newser) - Jimmy Allen Ruth had just started driving for Trailways in 1961 when a group of Freedom Riders wanted a bus to take them from Nashville to Jackson, Mississippi. Every driver turned the assignment down but the 23-year-old Ruth, who was white. "He agreed to drive the students and never...

Rosa Parks' Story Wasn't So Simple
Rosa Parks'
Story Wasn't
So Simple
OPINION
Feb 2, 2021 4:52 PM CST

Rosa Parks' Story Wasn't So Simple

Bus arrest was part of a long struggle for civil rights

(Newser) - The Rosa Parks of textbooks—a tired Alabama bus passenger whose small, solitary act of defiance helped ignite the civil rights movement—leaves a lot out. The distorted fable misleads us at a time when the real story could help the nation understand its history and find a way past...

Mom Walked Her Daughter to School—and Into History

Lucille Bridges, 'a Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,' dies at 86

(Newser) - Lucille Bridges, the mother of civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, who walked with her then-6-year-old daughter past crowds screaming racist slurs as she became the first Black student at her all-white New Orleans elementary school, has died at the age of 86, per the AP . "Today our country lost...

Governor Apologizes to Woman Who Survived '63 Church Bomb

Ivey agrees to talks on compensation over attack at Birmingham church

(Newser) - The governor of Alabama has extended an apology and a promise to meet with attorneys of a survivor of the Ku Klux Klan's 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham. Sarah Collins Rudolph, who was blinded in one eye in the attack, is seeking compensation from the state; her...

Fellow Icons Honor CT Vivian for His Courage and Humility

Civil rights pioneer was 'a giant for justice,' Oprah Winfrey says

(Newser) - The nation paid its final respects Thursday to the Rev. CT Vivian, a pioneer of the civil rights movement who helped end segregation across the South and left an abiding imprint on US history. Vivian, a close ally of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was mourned by civil rights...

Remembering John Lewis: 'We Have Lost a Giant'

Tributes pour in from Obama, MLK Jr.'s family, and more

(Newser) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered flags at the US Capitol to be flown at half-staff in honor of Rep. John Lewis, who died Friday at the age of 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Tributes and statements are now pouring in for the civil rights legend and longtime...

'Titan of Civil Rights Movement' John Lewis Dead at 80
The 'Conscience of
Congress' Has Died 
OBITUARY
Jul 18, 2020 5:28 AM CDT

The 'Conscience of Congress' Has Died

Congressman John Lewis, a giant in the civil rights movement, is gone at age 80 after cancer battle

(Newser) - John Lewis, the son of Alabama sharecroppers who became a giant in the civil rights movement, was arrested dozens of times in his fight for racial and social justice, and served 33 years in Congress, has died at the age of 80. The AP reports that Lewis' death was confirmed...

Adviser to MLK Helped Make Civil Rights Movement Heard
Leader Took Punch for Justice
obituary
Jul 17, 2020 4:35 PM CDT

Leader Took Punch for Justice

Sheriff slugged CT Vivian, an adviser to Martin Luther King, while news cameras rolled

(Newser) - The Rev. CT Vivian, an early adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who organized pivotal civil rights campaigns and spent decades advocating for justice and equality, died Friday at age 95. Vivian, who died of natural causes at home in Atlanta, began staging sit-ins against segregation in Peoria,...

Killer of 4 Little Girls at Church Dies

Survivor hopes Klansman convicted in 1963 Birmingham attack repented

(Newser) - The last of the three Ku Klux Klan members convicted in the church bombing that killed four black girls in 1963 has died in an Alabama prison. Addie Mae Collins, Cythnia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11, were killed by the explosion as they were changing...

A Civil Rights Icon, Dead at 98
A Civil Rights
Icon, Dead
at 98
OBITUARY
Mar 28, 2020 6:00 AM CDT

A Civil Rights Icon, Dead at 98

Joseph Lowery was an aide to MLK Jr. and considered the 'dean' of civil rights movement

(Newser) - A civil rights icon who was an aide to Martin Luther King Jr., conducted the benediction prayer at Barack Obama's 2009 presidential inauguration, and led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for two decades has died. Relatives of the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery say the 98-year-old died at home in...

NPR Gets Assailant in 1965 Selma Attack to Admit Role

William Portwood admits taking part in assault that left minister James Reeb dead

(Newser) - An eyewitness to an unsolved 1965 murder that galvanized the civil rights movement admits she lied on the witness stand and to the FBI about the killing of Boston minister James Reeb in Selma, Ala. At the time, Frances Bowden said she could not identify the assailants. But as part...

Larger-Than-Life Senator Is Dead at 97
Larger-Than-Life
Senator Is Dead at 97
obituary
Apr 6, 2019 4:10 PM CDT

Larger-Than-Life Senator Is Dead at 97

Ernest F. 'Fritz' Hollings was a moderate in explosive times

(Newser) - Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the US Senate, has died, the AP reports. He was 97. A spokesman said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early...

Racist Symbol Used in New Zealand Shows Up in Tennessee

Hashtag-like symbol painted near burned building at the Highlander Center

(Newser) - You may not be familiar with the Highlander Education and Research Center, but you certainly know the names attached to it: The prominent social justice organization hosted the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks decades ago; on Friday, its main office was completely burned in a fire...

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