It’s a practice that’s about as American as apple pie — accusing immigrant and minority communities of engaging in bizarre or disgusting behaviors when it comes to what and how they eat and drink.

Most respondents agreed with arguments against paying for private schools with public funds — but ultimately favored creating the programs.

Houston is observing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, with many services and businesses closing to honor the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

Red velvet cake has become associated with Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States, for several reasons that tie into the cultural, historical, and symbolic aspects of the celebration:

Many Americans are celebrating Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the U.S. learned they were free.

📢 Join the Harmony & Health Study, which aims to reduce sitting time, increase movement, and improve health in Black and African American adults at risk for cancer. 🏃💃 Participants will get to experience yoga-based stretches, guided relaxation, and spirituality. 📞 Call 713-792-9400 or email HarmonyHealth@MDAnderson.org to participate. #MDAnderson #HealthStudy #CancerPrevention #JoinTheStudy

Donald Trump has promised big plans for recruiting voters in Black, Latino and Asian communities.

When President Joe Biden talks to his supporters, he can make the presidential election sound like a high school prom.

Supervisors in San Francisco have formally apologized to African Americans and their descendants for the city’s role in perpetuating racism and discrimination.

For as long as schools have policed hairstyles as part of their dress codes, some students have seen the rules as attempts to deny their cultural and religious identities.

The tradition of Watch Night services in the United States dates back to Dec. 31, 1862, during the Civil War.

When someone is the victim of a crime, should their past or present unrelated circumstances determine how we react to their death? Do we have less empathy for those whose lifestyles don’t look like ours?

While it may not be as severe as in recent years, health officials say COVID-19 cases are increasing daily, but research shows many African Americans refused or delayed getting vaccinated.

The landmark Washington National Cathedral has unveiled new stained-glass windows with a theme of racial justice.

More than 200 people rallied outside San Francisco's City Hall to urge supervisors to act on reparations for Black residents.

Alabama marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of a church that killed four Black girls.

Bystanders who trained their smartphone cameras on an Alabama riverfront dock, as several white boaters pummeled a Black riverboat co-captain, couldn’t have known the footage would elicit a national conversation about racial solidarity.

Vice President Kamala Harris swiped at new standards for teaching Black history in Florida during a trip to Jacksonville on Friday.

Americans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings.

Juneteenth will be honored across the Houston-area on Saturday.

Houston is rich in Black culture and one local influencer is making sure its historic sites built by influential African Americans are not forgotten.

In honor of Juneteenth, here are some options for how you can observe the holiday by making monetary donations to some very historical places in the Houston area that could use your support.

In the spirit of Juneteenth, a holiday that is now celebrated throughout the entire United States, not just Texas, KPRC 2 has curated a playlist that will be perfect for any vibe. Rather you’re throwing something on the grill or sitting at home, this playlist will set the tone for the day. We hope you enjoy!

California’s first-in-the-nation Black reparations task force is nearing the end of its historic work with a hefty list of recommendations for lawmakers to consider turning into action.

Sister 2 Sistah co-founders Rebecca Briscoe and Nakia Cooper are on a mission to bring the love of baseball back to African American households. It is a personal mission, after the two working mothers saw a lack of diversity on the fields and in the stands at Major League Baseball games. KPRC 2's Sofia Ojeda interviews Briscoe and Cooper about their organization's initiative.

California’s historic reparations task force has voted to approve recommendations for possible payments to Black residents and a formal apology for the state’s role in perpetuating discriminatory policies.

A new report from the National Urban League is citing what the civil rights and urban advocacy group says are some of the top threats to democracy for Black Americans.

America’s employers added a solid 236,000 jobs in March, suggesting that the economy remains on solid footing despite the nine interest rate hikes the Federal Reserve has imposed over the past year in its drive to tame inflation.

A team of archaeologists and scientists in Virginia say the graves of three men belonged to one of the nation’s oldest Black churches.

Congressional districts that a federal court panel said were unconstitutional because they dilute representation for Black voters in Alabama are nevertheless being used for the November election after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed them.

Ten months after Hurricane Ida damaged a museum celebrating New Orleans' African American parading culture, the Backstreet Cultural Museum is reopening.

As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on Black history.

Amid a rise in conservative efforts opposed to teaching the lingering impacts of slavery and racism, the descendants of formerly enslaved people are using the Juneteenth holiday to educate younger generations.

California released an exhaustive report detailing how government laws and policies perpetuated discrimination against African Americans.

The April jobs report provided mixed signals on the economic issue most on the minds of Americans: Chronically high inflation.

A coalition including the four medical schools at the nation's historically Black colleges and universities has announced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of Black Americans registered as organ donors and combating disparities among transplant recipients.

California took a big step this week toward becoming the first U.S. state to make some form of restitution a reality by tackling the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible to receive reparations for the atrocity and injustices of slavery and racism.

Scientists are getting their first peek at the genes of nearly 100,000 Americans in what's considered a uniquely diverse genomic database.

President Joe Biden is signaling an election year shift to the center to help protect fragile Democratic majorities in Congress, even as key voices across his party’s sprawling political coalition threaten revolt.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is drawing criticism for comments he made shortly before the GOP blocked a federal elections bill, when he said that “African American” voters cast ballots at similar rates to “Americans.”.

A trilogy by award-winning children’s author Kwame Alexander that tells the saga of an African family begins this fall with “The Door of No Return.”.

Current and former Black state lawmakers in Detroit have announced a pending lawsuit to block Michigan’s newly drawn congressional and legislative districts, contending they illegally dilute the voting strength of African Americans.

A quilt exhibit at Jackson State University honors dozens of lives lost in the U.S. to racial violence.

Sickle cell disease has many different faces and affects several age groups across the United States and in the greater Houston area.

The doughnut district would be in Bell County, a traditionally red area that has trended blue in recent years as the diverse community around the nation’s biggest military installation grows.

September wasn’t exactly the robust month for hiring that many had expected and hoped for.

The brick foundation of one the oldest Black churches in the United States has been unearthed by archeologists at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation.

In the wake of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s controversial statements on Fox, KPRC 2 is digging further into the claim about Black people and vaccination in the U.S.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has blamed the rise of COVID-19 in Texas on African Americans who are not vaccinated and Democrats.

In Texas, the vaccination rate among Black people is low compared with other racial and ethnic groups, but in terms of raw numbers, the biggest group of the unvaccinated is white people.

Four law enforcement officers have detailed the racism and bigotry on display during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Civil rights pioneer Gloria Richardson has died.

Reparations or compensation to descendants of enslaved Americans has begun for families in a Chicago suburb, becoming the first American city to do so.

On Friday, Fort Bend County Judge KP George will recognize Juneteenth with an inaugural county-level celebration at the Fort Bend County Historic Courthouse in Richmond, Texas.

A first-in-the-nation task force in California to study and recommend reparations for African Americans met for the first time Tuesday.

LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and a slew of networks are among those releasing documentaries based on the tragic backstory of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

President Joe Biden says the conviction of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd “can be a giant step forward” for the nation in the fight against systemic racism.

President Joe Biden says the conviction of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd “can be a giant step forward” for the nation in the fight against systemic racism.

A House panel has advanced a decades-long effort to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves, approving legislation Wednesday night that would create a commission to study the issue.

President Joe Biden’s difficult balancing act on policing was put on vivid display over the course of a few hours as he tries to navigate criminal justice and civil rights.

President Joe Biden’s difficult balancing act on policing was put on vivid display over the course of a few hours Tuesday as he tries to navigate criminal justice and civil rights.

Students at Clemson University who found an unkempt graveyard on campus last year sparked the discovery of more than 600 unmarked graves most likely belonging to enslaved Black people, sharecroppers and convicted laborers.

HOUSTON – Doctors at UT Health School of Dentistry are hopeful an endowment will help them better understand a rare disorder affecting African American patients. The Katy mother of five is helping a group of oral surgeons at UTHealth better look at her DNA to figure out why her tongue enlarged back in 2017. AdA Florida man traveled to the Texas Medical Center last year for surgery after his tongue enlarged while being intubated in a hospital for COVID-19. “Second was long-term intubations.”Melville said of the five patients he has seen with the rare disorder, all of them were Black. Melville said he’s in the process of contacting former Macroglossia patients to have their blood drawn for the lab analysis.

In a Feb. 25-March 1, 2021 poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)WASHINGTON – About 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the pandemic. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a two-tiered recovery. The AP-NORC poll found about 30% of African Americans, like Parks, and Hispanics know a relative or close friend who died from the virus, compared with 15% of white people. AdThe poll found two-thirds of Americans say their fellow citizens nationwide haven’t taken the pandemic seriously enough.

People wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus gather at a park in Goyang, South Korea, Wednesday, March 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea is extending its current measures on social distancing for at least another two weeks as it struggles to slow coronavirus infections in the greater capital area. ___WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand has removed remaining coronavirus restrictions on the city of Auckland after containing a small outbreak. ___WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is planning to announce during his prime-time address Thursday night that he’ll deploy 4,000 additional U.S. troops to support coronavirus vaccination efforts. Thursday’s announcement from the Department of Corrections comes a year after suspending visits at prisons because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lung cancer is the nations top cancer killer, causing more than 135,000 deaths each year. Lung cancer is the nation’s top cancer killer, causing more than 135,000 deaths each year. Usually, lung cancer is diagnosed too late for a good chance at survival. But "unfortunately, lowering the age and pack-year requirements alone does not guarantee increased equity in lung cancer screening,” wrote Dr. Yolonda Colson and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital. AdOne recent study found just 14% of people eligible for lung cancer screening under the prior guidelines had actually gotten it.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with labor leaders in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Washington. Biden backs the idea of studying the issue, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, though she stopped short of saying he would sign the bill if it clears Congress. Even with Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House, passing a reparations bill could prove difficult. Most Black Americans favored reparations, 74%, compared with 15% of white Americans. AdRep. Burgess Owens, a first-term Republican from Utah, argued against a reparations commission.

Dr. Rita McGuire, an obstetrician and infection control specialist at Roseland Community Hospital talks Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, with staff members about taking the COVID-19 vaccine. "It’s not something that I trust right now,’’ says Bland, 50, who worries about how quickly the COVID-19 vaccines were developed. Many holdouts come from the mostly Black, working class neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, areas hard hit by the virus yet plagued with vaccine reluctance. She acknowledged "centuries of medical injustice’’ against Black Americans but said COVID-19 vaccines resulted from years of solid research. Many workers ‘’have not forgotten about those studies where they used us as experiments,’’ McGuire said, including the infamous Tuskegee research on Black patients with syphilis.

(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)WASHINGTON – The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 793,000, evidence that job cuts remain high despite a substantial decline in new confirmed viral infections. The job market had shown tentative improvement last summer but then slowed through the fall and in the past two months has essentially stalled. Part of that increase likely reflects the processing of a rush of claims after the extension of two federal aid programs just after Christmas. Biden’s proposal would extend, through August, two federal unemployment benefit programs that are set to expire in mid-March. Unlike the previous expiration of extended unemployment aid, which occurred on Dec. 26, the cut-off would be phased in between March 14 and April 11.

They decided to name the land Emancipation Park. From then on out, the community gathered at Emancipation Park every Juneteenth with festive celebrations that included music, food and dancing. For a while, Emancipation Park was the only park and swimming pool that African Americans could use since Texas was still a segregated state. In 2017, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, the OST/Almeda Redevelopment Corridors, Emancipation Park Conservancy, and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department rededicated Emancipation Park after an extensive renovation process. AdPeople from different walks of life visit Emancipation Park, cherishing all of the amenities and honoring historical information that the park has to offer.

Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan helps unleash the imaginations of children through the power of reading and storytelling, featuring children's books written by Black authors. HOUSTON – Community leaders are playing a role in inspiring children during Black History Month through virtual storytimes. The Children’s Museum of Houston and Fort Bend Children’s Discovery Center have collaborated in this effort by inviting several community leaders, such as Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Independent School District Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan, Fort Bend Independent School District leaders and more, according to a release. The effort will feature children’s books written by Black authors, according to the release. The books will help explain the contributions of African Americans in their struggles for freedom and equality while explaining the nation’s history, the release stated.

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron waits to receive his COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Aaron and others received their vaccinations in an effort to highlight the importance of getting vaccinated for Black Americans who might be hesitant to do so. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)ATLANTA – Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, former U.N. Ambassador and civil rights leader Andrew Young and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan got vaccinated against COVID-19 in Georgia on Tuesday, hoping to send a message to Black Americans that the shots are safe. Getting vaccinated “makes me feel wonderful," Aaron told The Associated Press.

(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)NEW YORK – The Episcopal Diocese of Texas acknowledges that its first bishop in 1859 was a slaveholder. Some major denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, have not embraced reparations as official policy. The Episcopal Church has been the most active major denomination thus far, and others, including the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, are urging congregations to consider similar steps. This will include scholarships for students attending seminaries or historically Black colleges and assistance for historic Black churches. But Dietsche expects some funds will help congregations launch their own reparations initiatives, particularly if their churches had historical involvement in slavery.

WASHINGTON – A lone senator from Utah has singlehandedly blocked the bipartisan approval of two new national museums to honor American Latinos and women, arguing that “last thing we need is to further divide an already divided nation.”Republican Sen. Mike Lee objected Thursday to the creation of the two proposed Smithsonian museums, stalling two projects that have been in the making for decades and enjoy broad bipartisan support. Senate approval would have sent the legislation approving the Latino museum to President Donald Trump for his signature. The Senate was attempting to pass the measures by voice vote, which requires every senator's consent. Lee said he sees an exception for museums dedicated to American Indians and African Americans that already sit on the National Mall. “We have been systematically excluded, not because this senator said so but because the Smithsonian itself said so,” Menendez said.

FILE - This Nov. 29, 2011, file photo shows the signature of president Abraham Lincoln on a rare, restored copy of the 13th Amendment that ended slavery, in Chicago. As ratified, the original amendment has permitted exploitation of labor by convicted felons for over 155 years since the abolition of slavery. Constitutional amendments are rare and require approval by two-thirds of the House and Senate, as well as ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures. In Merkley’s Oregon, voters in 2002 approved the elimination of constitutional language that prohibited Black Americans from living in the state unless they were enslaved. The prevalence of prison labor has been largely accepted as a means for promoting rehabilitation, teaching trade skills and reducing idleness among prisoners.

CONROE – It has been over a century since an African American cemetery has been lost in Conroe. Over the past several years, The Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project has been working to clean up, restore and preserve the cemetery. It was simply known as the Conroe Cemetery, No-Name Cemetery or the Community Cemetery, among the older African Americans in Conroe. John Meredith, the treasure for the Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project, says they’ve discovered 38 marked graves and 111 unknown graves so far. To learn more about The Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project, visit here.

FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2020, file photo, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens during the vice presidential debate at Kingsbury Hall on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. They will be sworn in as president and vice president on Jan. 20. Harris' mother raised her daughters with the understanding the world would see them as Black women, Harris has said, and that is how she describes herself today. She attended Howard University, one of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s first sorority created by and for Black women. Her victory could usher more Black women and people of color into politics.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison speaks at a campaign rally on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)COLUMBIA, S.C. – In the battle for control of the U.S. Senate this year, the Deep South is fielding more Black candidates than it has since Reconstruction. Mike Espy and Adrian Perkins, meanwhile, are launching spirited bids for the Senate in Mississippi and Louisiana, respectively. The Senate currently has three Black members: Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina and Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California. “The more competitive races are, and Black candidates win those competitive races, it diminishes this worry that Black candidates can’t win,” Abrams recently told The Associated Press. In Mississippi, Espy is trying for a second time to become the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction with his challenge to Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Voters have been ushered to the polls by fleets of minivans, with bicycle parades and on horseback in Indian Country. Often unable to knock on doors or chat in person because of virus concerns, advocates have had to adapt. A recent video on social media showed voters in Philadelphia dancing joyfully as they waited, alongside members of the Resistance Revival Chorus. Some voters are wary of catching the virus by voting in person, but they're also concerned about the mail-in option. Like Gehman in New Mexico, Radha Pyati in Philadelphia has devoted untold hours to writing letters as part of Vote Forward.

But amid the camaraderie younger Black immigrants like her feel with African Americans, they also see a generational divide in their communities. But these have largely been over tactics, said David Canton, a professor of African American history at the University of Florida. During some of their chats, older immigrants tell him they came to America to work and provide a better life for their children, not to protest about race. In fact, one of the co-founders of the original network of Black Lives Matter was Opal Tometi, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. "We are all one community across the diaspora, whether you are a Black American, raised on the African continent or you’re from elsewhere.”

(AP Photo/Russ Bynum)RIO RANCHO, N.M. – A group of U.S. Black scholars, activists and writers has launched a new project they say will combat misleading information online around voting, reparations and immigration, supporters announced Friday. The newly formed National Black Cultural Information Trust seeks to counter fake social media accounts and Twitter trolls that often discourage Black voters from participating in elections or seek to turn Black voters against other communities of color. The effort isn't meant to silence groups that are behind any hashtag but counter “bad actors” who are using the hashtags to disseminate false information, Aiwuyor said. The founders also took issue with the National Black Cultural Information Trust on Twitter after the announcement that the project would monitor the #ADOS hashtag for xenophobic comments and false information. But also to measure the plunder of the ADOS community from 1619 to today.”Members of the National Black Cultural Information Trust plan to monitor social media posts and flag those spreading misleading and fake stories.

Norton shows "Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights" by Gretchen Sorin. Norton via AP)ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A new film examines the history of African Americans driving on the road from the Great Depression to the height of the Civil Rights movement. “Driving While Black,” which airs this week on most PBS stations in the U.S., shows how the automobile liberated African Americans to move around the country while still navigating segregation and violence. The free movement opened the window to migration across the land and away from Jim Crow, ushering in the modern Civil Rights Movement. The new HBO dramatic series, “Lovecraft Country,” centers around a young African American veteran who travels across the segregated 1950s U.S. in search of his missing father.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – JPMorgan Chase said Thursday it will extend billions in loans to Black and Latino homebuyers and small business owners in an expanded effort toward fixing what the bank calls “systemic racism” in the country’s economic system. “Systemic racism is a tragic part of America’s history,” said JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in a statement. Citigroup announced last month it is committing $1 billion toward closing “the racial wealth gap” in the United States, including $550 million toward homeownership programs for racial minorities. He noted that there’s a 30% gap between Black and white homeownership, amounting to about 4.5 million households. JPMorgan was one of 27 major New York-based companies that joined a program to recruit 100,000 workers from the city's low-income, predominately Black, Latino and Asian communities over the next 10 years.

Get the 411 about ‘5th Ward: The Series,’ a drama set and filmed in Houston | HOUSTON LIFE | KPRC 2Published: September 30, 2020, 3:51 pmThe Urban Movie Channel's "5th Ward: The Series" is a show based on fictional characters living in Houston’s Fifth Ward -- which is one of the city's 6 historic wards. Greg Carter -- who created, wrote and produced the show -- and veteran actor Reginald T. Dorsey, shared details about this production that just wrapped its second season and was filmed in Houston.

Harris will speak about what's at stake for Black Americans in November and urge voters to register and make a plan to vote. National Black Voter Day was created this year as a collaborative effort by the National Urban League, BET and a number of civil rights organizations. Black Americans have also been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, suffering high rates of deaths and unemployment from its economic fallout. Biden’s campaign, along with several other organizations marking the first National Black Voter Day, are channeling resources behind that effort. But Brown said the final days will be key toward connecting with some Black voters who feel Biden needs to do more to earn their vote.

FILE - This Dec. 12, 2017 file photo shows the rebuilt house of the civil rights activist Rosa Parks in Berlin, Germany. In 2018, Brown University announced it would feature the house as part of a planned exhibition on the civil rights movement organized by its Center for Slavery and Justice. Earlier this year, Mendoza approached the Naples-based Morra Greco Foundation, where he had worked for a year in the 1990s. But now, “instead of being rejected by the walls of the royal palace, it’s embraced and protected by these walls,” he said. “Potentially thanks to the showing of the house in this way, America will allow the house to have a home.”___Winfield reported from Rome.

As Trump faces pressure to expand his appeal beyond his loyal supporters, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senates sole Black Republican, and former U.N. Scrambling to find a message that sticks, Trumps team tried out multiple themes and tactics over the course of the night. The opening night of the four-day convention reflected the rising urgency fueling Trumps push to reshape a presidential contest that he is losing, at least for now, with Election Day just 10 weeks away. In a tweet Monday night, Biden told supporters to stay focused.The emphasis on diversity at Trump's convention was an acknowledgement that he must expand his coalition beyond his largely white base. The fact that the Republicans gathered at all stood in contrast to the Democrats, who held an all-virtual convention last week.

DETROIT Joe Biden's Democratic presidential campaign has launched a new national ad focused on Black Americans, urging them to stand up to President Donald Trump the way their ancestors stood up to "violent racists of a generation ago." The one-minute ad, which was shared exclusively with The Associated Press before its digital and television release on Thursday, is meant to drum up support among Black Americans, a key constituency for Biden, ahead of November's general election. The ad, titled Better America, also takes a direct swipe at Trump, without mentioning the Republican president by name. The ad is part of the Biden campaign's planned $280 million digital and television ad buy that was announced Wednesday and will run through the fall. A campaign spokesman said in a statement that the ad is the start of a series of content aimed at Black voters.

It was in that room that Taney, the nation's fifth chief justice, announced the Dred Scott decision, sometimes called the worst decision in the court's history. Lynne M. Jackson, Scott's great-great-granddaughter, says if it were up to her, she'd leave Taney's bust where it is. In Congress, Taney's bust was controversial from the start. "And an emancipated country will fasten upon him the stigma which he deserves.Funding for a Taney bust wasn't approved until almost a decade later. The first, John Marshall, is the only person to serve as chief justice longer than Taney and a revered figure in the law.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Voters will get another chance to strip the words and Providence Plantations" from Rhode Island's formal name after lawmakers approved a joint resolution to put the question on the November ballot. Although the word plantations in Rhode Islands name does not specifically refer to a place where slaves labored, it elicits such imagery, say sponsors of the bill approved Thursday. Rhode Island was incorporated as The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations when it ratified the Constitution in 1790, but the name dates to pre-Revolutionary times. Gina Raimondo last month signed an executive order to remove the phrase and Providence Plantations from some official documents and executive agency websites. The ballot question would make the change official in the states constitution if approved by a simple majority of voters.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump bristled Tuesday at a reporter's question about police killing African Americans and defended the right to display the Confederate flag as he continued to play into racial divisions in a pair of interviews. In one interview, Trump seemed taken aback when asked why African Americans are still dying at the hands of police. So are white people," Trump told CBS's Catherine Herridge. In the interview, Trump also defended the use of the Confederate flag, despite saying in 2015 that he believed the flag belongs in a museum. My attitude is freedom of speech," Trump responded.

Twenty-five percent of the Republican president's senior staff are nonwhite, compared to 36% of Bidens senior staff. Along with adding more people of color to his campaign, Biden has promised an administration that looks like America if he is elected on Nov. 3. His campaign declined to discuss minority representation on the campaign staff. The Biden campaign said LGBTQ staff and staff of color hold such positions as senior advisers, deputy campaign managers, national coalitions director, chief financial officer, chief operating officer and national press secretary, among others. Trumps campaign defined its senior staff as senior leaders who meet regularly to make decisions.

HOUSTON In Houston, Hispanics are leading the numbers of coronavirus cases where the patients race is known. There are 10.5K Hispanics in Harris County and Houston who have COVID-19 and 4.7k African Americans with the illness. As the number of COVID-19 patients continues to tick upwards, experts say its clear the virus is taking a toll on minorities. One reason for the disparity, Milam said, minorities have a higher incidence of other health conditions. African Americans have a higher prevalence of diabetes, higher prevalence of high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease all of those are risk factors for COVID-19, Milam elaborated.

A U.S. health panel wants to widen the number of Americans offered yearly scans for lung cancer by opening the screening to less-heavy smokers. Lung cancer is the nation's top cancer killer, causing more than 135,000 deaths each year. Usually, lung cancer is diagnosed too late for a good chance at survival. Lung cancer screening is complicated -- not every hospital is equipped to offer it -- and few of those eligible today receive it, just 6% according to one study the task force cited. In contrast, 60% to 80% of those eligible for breast, colon or cervical cancer screening get checked.

HOUSTON Many people across the country are participating in an economic protest on Tuesday in wake of racial injustices in the United States. The initiative has been organized in response to the killings of George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. #BLACKOUTDAY2020 pic.twitter.com/XNpUisyK86 Tia'Jah Adair Siobhan Noelle (@edwards_tete) July 7, 2020Keep the dollars in ya pocket today or shop black. If you have to perhaps youll consider a black business. #BLACKOUTDAY2020 pic.twitter.com/h5rbn4Hk8C Rucker Game Attender (@RossSean177) July 7, 2020Let's do another black business thread today for #BLACKOUTDAY2020!

“Today’s announcement,” President Donald Trump declared Thursday after the report was released, “proves that our economy is roaring back.”Maybe. Even after superb hiring reports for May and June, the economy has regained only about one-third of the 22 million jobs it lost to the pandemic recession, according to Thursday’s jobs report. Here are five major takeaways from a jobs report that was surprisingly robust yet may not fully reflect a fast-evolving employment market. Restaurants, bars, hotels and other leisure and hospitality businesses, hard hit by closures in the spring, added 2.1 million jobs in June. “Job gains in June were broad-based across 75% of the private sector,‘' noted Kathy Bostjancic of Oxford Economics.

Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. He took his words to his younger brother, a classically trained composer named J. Rosamond Johnson, and "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" (as it is accurately titled) was born. That’s where the hymn debuted the following year, sung by 500 children at an event celebrating Black history. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught usSing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.

The 2020 Black National Convention will take place Aug. 28 via a live broadcast. The first-ever Black Lives Matter convention was held in Cleveland in 2015. Convention organizers said this years event will pay tribute to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. Somewhat similarly, the Vision for Black Lives platform and its characterization of Israel as an apartheid state committing mass murder against Palestinian people drew allegations of anti-Semitism from a handful of Jewish groups, which had otherwise been supportive the Black Lives Matter movement. We dont just say Black lives matter and beg people to care.

While racial inequity has long been a focal point of African Americans, experts say many white Americans, particularly white Democrats, are now grappling with the longstanding impacts of systemic racism in ways they never have before. Trump on Sunday tweeted and later deleted a video showing one of his supporters chanting white power, a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. The increase is especially sharp 40 percentage points among white Democrats. Black Democrats are even more likely than they were in 2015 to say that, 87% vs. 71%. White Democrats are now more likely than they were in 2015 to say police more commonly use force with Black people, 87% vs. 62%.