Civil Rights & Social Justice
Oscars Officially Apologize to Sacheen Littlefeather, 50 Years Later
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bettmann / Getty The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has formally apologized to Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native woman who took to the Oscars stage in 1973 to decline an award that was given to actor Marlon Brando. According to reports, the Academy announced that they had reached out to Littlefeather, also known as Marie Louise Cruz, in June with a letter of apology for the abuse she received while appearing on behalf of Brando, who had won the Oscar for Best Male Actor for his role in The Godfather in 1973. Brando chose to boycott the ceremony, citing Hollywood’s and the federal government’s ill-treatment of Native Americans. Then 26 years old, Littlefeather declined the award and was subjected to booing from the audience, with John Wayne ha...
Man Who Shot Ahmaud Arbery Gets Federal Life Prison Sentence, Too
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Pool / Getty Travis McMichael, one of three men responsible for the death of Ahmaud Arbery, was sentenced to life in prison on federal hate charges in a Georgia courtroom as Arbery’s family was present. On Monday (August 8th), U.S. District Judge Lisa G. Wood sentenced McMichael to life in prison plus ten years without the possibility of parole for his act of fatally shooting Arbery in February 2020. “You received a fair trial,” Judge Wood said to Travis McMichael as he was being sentenced. “It was the kind of trial Ahmaud Arbery did not receive.” His father, Greg McMichael, would also receive that same sentence later on in the day. William “Roddie” Bryan, their neighbor would receive a prison sentence of 35 years. Related Stories The men were sente...
Donald Trump Opens His Sphincter-Shaped Mouth To Speak On Brittney Griner
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / Getty Traveling in the land of Donald Trump’s delusion and audacity must be a blissful thing. Imagine being a sitting president who has had his own legal battles and is mainly responsible for spreading voter fraud propaganda that ultimately led to a domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol—and still thinking it’s appropriate to fix yourself to speak on Brittney Griner. Yet here we are… According to Rolling Stone, Trump made an appearance on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show podcast Friday, during which he weighed in on reports that the U.S. made an offer to trade Griner and U.S. Marine Paul Whelan for Viktor Bout. Bout is a convicted Russian arms trafficker. “She knew you don’t go in there loaded up with drug...
Black Family Suing Baltimore Sesame Place For $25 Million Alleging Racial Discrimination Against 5-Year-Old
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Dania Maxwell / Getty The rabbit hole is still rabbit hole-ing for Sesame Street-based theme park Sesame Place as it has once again been accused of racial discrimination against Black children. But this time a Sesame Splacelocation in Baltimore is in the hot seat—and this time a lawsuit has been filed. In fact, a Baltimore family is suing for a whopping $25 million alleging that multiple park employees ignored a five-year-old Black girl during a meet-and-greet event last month. From the Baltimore Sun: Related Stories The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in a federal court in Philadelphia against SeaWorld Parks, the owner of the Sesame Place, for “pervasive and appalling race discrimination.” The lawsuit alleges that four employees dressed ...
Rap Snitches: Congress To Review RAP Act Barring Use of Lyrics In Court
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Fulton County PD / Fulton County Sheriff’s Department The movement to prohibit the usage of rap lyrics in criminal cases by prosecutors has now reached the federal level, as a new bill with that aim has been introduced in the United States Congress. On Wednesday (July 27th), the RAP Act was introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives by Democratic Representatives Hank Johnson (GA-04) and Jamaal Bowman (NY-16). The Restoring Artistic Protection Act looks to protect artists from the wrongful usage of their lyrics against them in civil and criminal court cases. Representative Johnson shared the news through his Twitter account. “Freedom of speech is the constitutional foundation the framers thought necessary to enable a new and free soc...
6th Member Of ‘Central Park Five’ Exonerated Of Lesser Crime. Manhattan DA Apologizes
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty We’ve all heard of the Central Park Five. Many of us know the names Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam—the five men who were boys when they were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman who was jogging in Central Park in 1989 and then exonerated after they spent between seven and 11 years in prison. But you might not be familiar with a sixth victim who was arrested along with the others. Well, that man has now been exonerated. According to NY Daily News, Steven Lopez was exonerated of a crime he pleaded guilty to when he was 14. He had been arrested along with the other five, but he served less time after pleading to a lesser charge. From the Daily News: Lopez pleaded guilty to robbin...
The Jackie Robinson Museum Officially Opens In NYC
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: New York Daily News / Getty A new museum honoring the late baseball & civil rights icon Jackie Robinson officially opened to the public in New York City, after years of anticipation and planning. On Tuesday (July 26th), a ribbon-cutting ceremony occurred at The Jackie Robinson Museum, located just above the Tribeca neighborhood in New York City. The ceremony was attended by Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow and founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation along with her son, David Robinson, and daughter Sharon Robinson. Also in attendance was Della Britton, the president and CEO of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, tennis legend Billie Jean King, filmmaker Spike Lee and former MLB pitcher C.C. Sabathia. Good Morning America ho...
Unpublished Memoir of Liar and Emmett Till Accuser Carolyn Bryant Donham Made Public
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bettmann / Getty A memoir written by the woman who was at the center of the murder of Emmett Till has surfaced. The discovery, coupled with news of an unserved warrant from that time has raised calls to reopen the case. According to NewsOne, an unnamed source provided a copy of a 100-page memoir from Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who made the false accusation against 14-year-old Emmett Louis Till in Mississippi in 1955. Her claim led to the boy’s abduction, savage beating, and lynching. Till’s grotesquely disfigured face was published in JET Magazine, spurring many to mobilize within the Black community and serving as a flashpoint for the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The document, entitled “I Am More Than A Wolf Whistle”, was apparentl...
Ketanji Brown Jackson Sworn In as First Black Woman on Supreme Court
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: The Washington Post / Getty Today (June 30) at noon, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Jackson was nominated after Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement earlier this year. Jackson once clerked for Breyer. His retirement will also be effective today. Related Stories “It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but we’ve made it! We’ve made it — all of us,” Jackson said in remarks at a White House event the day after the Senate vote, per NPR. She added, “I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free.” The 51-...
White Cop In Patrick Lyoya Shooting Charged With Second-Degree Murder
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: The Washington Post / Getty The police officer who was involved in the high-profile shooting of Michigan resident and Congolese refugee Patrick Lyoya two months ago has been charged with second-degree murder by prosecutors. On Thursday (June 9th), the prosecutor for Kent County announced that Grand Rapids, Michigan police officer Christopher Schurr was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Lyoya. In response to complaints about the length of time it took to make this charge, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said “he wanted to be thorough.” He informed Lyoya’s family before speaking to reporters. “These things take time,” he said at the press conference. Related Stories Lyoya, 26, was shot in the back of the head on April 4th during a traffi...
More Of The Same On The 2nd Anniversary Of George Floyd’s Death
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Guy Smallman / Getty It has been two years since the horrific and senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, which was captured on video and shocked the world into protest. The unfortunate reality is that Black death at the hands of law enforcement still persists, with a few striking cases as examples. On the two-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, recent statistics underscore a grim truth – since his death, Black people accounted for 27 percent of the 1051 Americans who were killed by law enforcement in 2021 according to data compiled by the nonprofit group Mapping Police Violence. The same study also showed that Black people were three times more likely to be killed by police, yet 1.3 times more...
Rap Lyric Usage In Court Limited By New NY State Senate Bill
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty A bill limiting rap lyrics being used in criminal trials against defendants in New York State is one step closer to becoming law thanks to the state’s senators. On Tuesday (May 17th), the State Senate of New York approved Senate Bill S7527 which would limit the usage of song lyrics and other forms of “creative expression” by prosecutors as evidence in criminal cases. While the bill doesn’t outright ban prosecutors from presenting lyrics and other materials to juries, it does require that they show that the work is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional” and that “evidence of criminal conduct, not the provocative nature of their artistic works” is what defendants should be tried by. Related Stories Those tactics have l...
