Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/12/2021
  

  Louisiana Governor to Decide Posthumous Pardon for Homer Plessy

  Louisiana's Avery C. Alexander Act, named for a longtime state House member, calls for pardoning individuals who were convicted of violating laws establishing segregation or discrimination, but has seldom been invoked to do so. 

• 
• SOURCE: Diverse Education
  11/12/2021
  

  Brown Issues Expanded Report on University's Involvement with Slavery

  Brown University has released an updated and expanded version of its 2006 report on the university's involvement in the slave trade, which points to further work to be done by the university to contribute to reconciliation and justice. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/15/2021
  

  Michael Schuman: Xi's New China is Terrifying

  by Michael Schuman

  A leading China scholar argues that the government's increased restrictions on individuals and companies, from the petty to the consequential, signal a retrenchment of central authority after a period of liberalization. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  11/16/2021
  

  U. of Florida Dean Says He Was Directed to Reject Professor’s Request to Testify Against the State

  by Emma Pettit

  His remarks suggest that the decision to bar professors from testifying against the state may have come from the top of UF. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/16/2021
  

  Ed Bullins, Leading Playwright of the Black Arts Movement, Dies at 86

  “He was able to get the grass roots to come to his plays,” the writer Ishmael Reed said in an interview. “He was a Black playwright who spoke to the values of the urban experience. Some of those people had probably never seen a play before.”

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/17/2021
  

  2 Men Convicted in Malcolm X Assassination to be Exonerated

  The investigation by the Manhattan DA did not identify who prosecutors believe did kill Malcolm X, and it does not affirm what many suspect – that law enforcement agencies conspired to assassinate the leader. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  11/15/2021
  

  The Hate They Censor: Burying Lessons of History

  The editor of the Mississippi Free Press compares today's national wave of book banning to the efforts to control information that established the "Lost Cause" narrative in early 20th century Mississippi. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/17/2021
  

  Justus Rosenberg, Beloved Professor With a Heroic Past, Dies at 100

  Bard literature professor Justus Rosenberg helped artists and intellectuals free Vichy France, fought in the French Resistance, and aided the allied armies' march across Europe before emigrating to the United States and beginning a long academic career. 

• 
• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  11/17/2021
  

  Gosar's Video No Joke; Displays the Violent Impulses in the GOP

  by Jean Guerrero

  Jason Stanley offers context on the normalization of violence through political rhetoric. 

• 
• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  11/15/2021
  

  Doris Derby’s Searing, Intimate Photos of the Civil Rights Movement

  Doris Derby didn’t just chronicle the movement with her camera; she also actively contributed to its causes.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/16/2021
  

  How Much is the NRA to Blame for the Gun Culture?

  Two new books help to shed light on how the NRA, partisan politicians, and the gun industry "took a political base of hunters and nurtured a new, expanded audience of gun guys," and how they made Americans live in their world. 

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  11/12/2021
  

  What's in the Infrastructure Plan for Animals?

  Collisions between wildlife and vehicles are bad for animals and dangerous and costly to people and governments, too. The United States may take steps to catch up with technology to mitigate them. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/12/2021
  

  New Translations Give Indigenous Perspective on Brazilian Colonization

  The Potiguara people split their alliances between the Dutch and Portuguese in 1645; the letters show the consequences of the split and the internal politics of the indigenous nation. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/15/2021
  

  New England Once Hunted and Killed Indigenous People for Money, Say Survivors' Descendants

  "We are part of the team behind the new short documentary Bounty. In New England alone, we’ve uncovered government payments for 375 human scalps, submitted in 94 separate claims and equaling government payments of millions of dollars in today’s money."

• 
• SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
  12/15/2021
  

  Philadelphia DA: Prosecutors Hid Evidence for Years in a 2003 Murder Case

  Prosecutors in Philadelphia are accused of withholding evidence that undermined the credibility of key witnesses in the case, a pattern that critics argue has been widespread.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  11/16/2021
  

  ‘We’re Preparing For a Long Battle.’ Librarians Grapple With Conservatives’ Latest Efforts to Ban Books

  by Olivia B. Waxman

  “We’re seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Executive Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “I’ve worked for ALA for 20 years, and I can’t recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis.”

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/13/2021
  

  Discovering the World's Oldest Figurative Paintings

  The Sulawesi pig is estimated to be 10,000 years older than the Lascaux cave drawings and shows that figurative art didn't originate exclusively in Europe. 

• 
• SOURCE: Popular Information
  11/15/2021
  

  New North Dakota Law Would be Illegal to Discuss Under Terms of That Law

  by Judd Legum

  The law will "deeply undermine the ability of teachers to teach and the right of students to learn," the North Dakota ACLU wrote in a letter of opposition.

• 
• SOURCE: MSNBC
  11/15/2021
  

  Texas Principal Officially Fired in CRT Controversy

  The first Black principal of Colleyville Heritage High School in Grapevine, Texas, has lost his job after months of allegations that he was pushing critical race theory on students. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/14/2021
  

  Is America Willing to Tell the Truth About its History?

  by Tish Harrison Warren

  What does the Christian faith require in terms of honesty and acknowledgment about the nation's history?