Latest news with #JimCrow-era
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Bus driver forces Black men to sit in the back or he'll call cops, MN suit says
Rosa Parks made history when she refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 1, 1955. Her refusal helped bring an end to legalized segregation on buses, among other Jim Crow-era laws. But, on July 13, 2023, two Black men were told to sit in the back of a bus, according to a Minnesota lawsuit filed on July 7. Two Black men boarded a Jefferson Lines bus in Fargo, North Dakota, and were instructed by the driver to sit in the back of the bus despite the company having a 'first come, first serve' policy for seats, the lawsuit said. The two men started to argue with the driver, but he threatened to call police if the passengers did not comply, the lawsuit said. One of the two men forced to sit in the back is now suing Jefferson Lines and the unnamed bus driver, accusing them of racial discrimination. 'Rosa Parks took a stand in 1955, refused to give up her seat, and we're not going back, not now, not ever, not in 2023, not in 2025,' the man's attorney, Samuel Savage, told McClatchy News in a phone interview. The attorney representing Jefferson Lines did not immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment on July 11. A spokesperson told KARE that the company doesn't comment on active legal matters. The plaintiff, who is seeking $50,000 in damages, sat in the back of the bus during his ride from Fargo to Crookston, Minnesota, rather than continue to argue with the driver, according to the lawsuit. 'I think in the moment, it was more of a 'I just want to get to my destination and be about my business,'' Savage said. The two men were the only Black people on the bus on July 13, the complaint said. Other passengers were allowed to choose their seats, according to the suit. Four days after the man's bus ride, Jefferson Lines asked the bus driver to create an incident report. The driver wrote that he asked the two Black men to sit in the back of the bus because they smelled like marijuana, the lawsuit said. The driver was given a verbal warning for 'deviating from the policy' the next month, according to the lawsuit. In January, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights said there was probable cause that discrimination occurred during the 2023 bus ride. A similar incident on a Jefferson Lines bus in Minneapolis occurred in 2009 when a driver told a mother and her 3-year-old daughter to sit in the back of the bus, which she said was because they were Black, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Crookston, Minnesota, is about a 70-mile drive northeast from Fargo, North Dakota.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' starts streaming this week, including a BASL version, here's how to watch
Hailed by many critics as one of writer-director Ryan Coogler's best films, Sinners makes the leap to streaming this week when it premieres on Max on July 4. The film stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twins Stack and Smoke, who return to their hometown in Jim Crow-era Mississippi to open a juke joint, where they encounter a supernatural evil. Sinners grossed over $364 million globally during its theatrical run this spring and will stream exclusively on Max. The film co-stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Li Jun Li, Yao, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo. In addition to the standard version of the film, Max will also be releasing a Black American Sign Language (BASL) version of the film, making Max the first streaming platform to exclusively debut a film interpreted in BASL. Here's everything you need to know about how to watch Sinners when it arrives on streaming this week. Sinners (both the original and BASL versions of the film) will arrive on HBO Max on Friday, July 4. Sinners will stream on HBO Max on July 4. It will also premiere on HBO's linear channel on July 5 at 8 p.m. ET. Sinners will stream exclusively on Max starting on July 4. You can tune in with a standalone subscription to the streaming platform, which starts at $9.99/month, or get the Max, Disney+ and Hulu bundle, which combines all the programming from those three platforms for one discounted price, $29.99/month. Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack Miles Caton as Sammy AKA "Preacher Boy' Hailee Steinfeld as Mary Wunmi Mosaku as Annie Jayme Lawson as Pearline Jack O'Connell as Remmick Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread Li Jun Li as Grace Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim While those who've seen the Sinners end credits scene feel that the door is open for the Sinners franchise to expand, director Ryan Coogler seems to disagree. 'I've been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,' Coogler told Ebony Magazine. 'I wanted the movie to feel like a full meal: your appetizers, starters, entrees and desserts, I wanted all of it there… That was always my intention.'
Black America Web
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Black America Web
Louisiana Senate Vetoes Retrial Bill For People Convicted By Split Juries
Source: HPphoto / Getty The Louisiana Senate reaffirmed its commitment to Jim Crow-era practices this week by vetoing a bill that would've allowed incarcerated people convicted under split jury verdicts to seek a retrial. According to AP, the bill failed on a 9-26 vote that fell along party lines. The bill was authored by state Sen. Royce Duplessis (D) and would've added split jury convictions to the list of claims an incarcerated person could seek a retrial. There are an estimated 1,500 men and women currently incarcerated in Louisiana as a result of split jury convictions, 80 percent of whom are Black. 'If we choose to vote down this bill, we're saying that justice has an expiration date,' Duplessis told his colleagues during debate over the measure. 'We have an opportunity in Louisiana to remove this stain, because right now we are the only ones wearing it.' Split jury convictions were found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2020, which acknowledged the racist origins of the practice and found it violated defendants' constitutional rights. At the time of the ruling, the only states that still allowed them were Oregon and Louisiana. For its part, Oregon's Supreme Court voted in 2022 to allow the then-400 people incarcerated through split jury convictions to seek a retrial. Conversely, the Louisiana Supreme Court voted to reject retroactively applying the Supreme Court's decision that same year. Split jury convictions were a cornerstone of Jim Crow policies and were inherently designed to uphold white supremacy. This isn't an opinion; split jury convictions were introduced in 1898 in the Louisiana State Constitution, a framework explicitly designed to 'reestablish the supremacy of the white race,' after the Civil War. Source: Kansuda Kaewwannarat / Getty Split jury convictions in particular were implemented to ensure that even if Black people were on a jury, their voices wouldn't sway the outcome of a case. This was a multilayered tactic as it allowed Black people to be convicted of felonies under questionable circumstances, which in turn would strip them of their voting rights. These verdicts were and still are used to strip Black people of both their freedom and political power. Knowing that history, it's hard not to look at the Louisiana Senate with a significant amount of side-eye. Their arguments against the measure were incredibly shallow, stating that they didn't want to overburden the courts and district attorneys. They choose not to rectify an explicitly racist, unconstitutional tactic…because of court scheduling. I would respect it more if they stopped playing in our faces and just said the quiet part out loud. Those in favor of the bill countered that it wouldn't automatically allow for a retrial; it simply would've provided a pathway for those incarcerated under split jury convictions, and that retrials would be granted under the discretion of the district attorneys. The fact that this move came as the Louisiana House of Representatives passed an anti-DEI bill that was widely viewed by the Black caucus as racist just goes to show how regressive the Louisiana state legislature is across the board. Making the veto even more egregious is the fact that a recent poll showed that the majority of Louisiana voters were in favor of the measure passing. So this clearly wasn't about doing what was in the best interest of their constituents. It was about reminding Black people how little their freedom matters to those in power. Whether it's 1898 or 2025, the playbook remains the same, and sadly, Louisiana will have to continue wearing this stain. SEE ALSO: Trump Administration Targets DEI Initiatives at Colleges California Teen Spurs Outrage With Racist Promposal SEE ALSO Louisiana Senate Vetoes Retrial Bill For People Convicted By Split Juries was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
UPI
24-05-2025
- General
- UPI
On This Day, May 24: 1st telegraph sent in United States
1 of 6 | A worker with the United States Military Railway Service repairs a telegraph line during the American Civil War in 1862. On May 24, 1844, the first U.S. telegraph line was formally opened. File Photo courtesy of Library of Congress On this date in history: In 1844, the first U.S telegraph line was formally opened -- between Baltimore and Washington. The first message sent was "What hath God wrought?" In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York City. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI In 1935, the first night game in Major League Baseball was played at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1. In 1943, Josef Mengele, the so-called "Angel of Death" became the new doctor at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He fled Germany at the conclusion of World War II and died in 1979 in Brazil. In 1958, United Press and the International News Service merger was announced, forming United Press International. In 1962, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit Earth, circling it three times. John Glenn was the first, earlier in the year. In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private religious schools that practice racial discrimination aren't eligible for church-related tax benefits. In 1987, 250,000 people jammed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th anniversary, temporarily flattening the arched span. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI In 1991, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia. In 2007, the U.S. Congress voted to increase the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years -- from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over a three-year period. In 2018, President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, for his conviction under a Jim Crow-era law. In 2022, a mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school left 19 students and two adults dead. Law enforcement officers fatally shot the gunman. File Photo by Jon Farina/UPI
Axios
09-05-2025
- General
- Axios
How Pope Leo's Creole roots in New Orleans tell "an American story"
Pope Leo XIV may have been born in Chicago, but he has Creole roots in New Orleans. Why it matters: The new pope, formerly known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, has a family history that tells a uniquely American story. Catch up quick: Once Prevost was elevated to Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, Historic New Orleans Collection genealogist Jari Honora got curious and immediately researched his family background. Based on the name Prevost, Honora tells Axios New Orleans, "I honestly was not looking for an immediate Louisiana connection. ... But on his mother's side, they are definitely from New Orleans." Honora's research shows that Pope Leo's maternal grandparents were Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, who lived in the 7th Ward. They married at Our Lady of Sacred Heart Church in 1887 before moving to Chicago between 1910 and 1912. That move makes Pope Leo's family part of the early, Jim Crow-era Black diaspora from the American South known as the Great Migration. During a stretch of time between about 1915 and 1970, about 6 million Black southerners left the Deep South, according to historian Isabel Wilkerson in her book "The Warmth of Other Suns." "The Great Migration would become a turning point in history," she wrote. "It would transform urban America and recast the social and political order of every city it touched." Chicago was a common landing place, according to Wilkerson, with its Black population expanding from about 44,000 to more than 1 million people. In other words, as Honora says, Pope Leo's story "is absolutely an American story." The intrigue: For some migrants, leaving the South also meant a chance to change how they presented, which Prevost's family did, Honora says. "Fairly consistently, they are listed in census and other records in New Orleans as Black and 'mulatto,'" he says. "But once they migrate to Chicago, those identifiers are all switched to white." In New Orleans, there's a Creole term — " passé blanc" — for people of color who can "pass" for white. "That's just not surprising for families that are in the process of passing. I don't fault them at all," Honora says. "I see it as a decision to safeguard their livelihoods, and an economic decision both to leave New Orleans and go to larger cities in the North, as well as to shift racial identities." What he's saying: John Prevost, the pope's brother, tells the New York Times that his family did not discuss their Creole ancestry. "It was never an issue," he said. Fun fact: New Orleans Archdiocese records indicate that Pope Leo's maternal great-grandmother Eugenie Grambois was baptized at the St. Louis Cathedral on Jan. 8, 1840. She later married Ferdinand D. Baquié on Sept. 19, 1864 at St. Mary's Church on Chartres Street, church records indicate. What it means to be "Creole" Flashback: New Orleans has been culturally diverse since its founding as a French city, and its complicated history includes periods as being both the home to one of the largest populations of free people of color and as the site of one of the largest markets for enslaved people. New Orleans' Creole population was born of that history. "Most people link 'Creole' to being mixed race, or they link it to something related to race as a whole, and it is not," Honora clarifies. "It's shared by people who are white, who are Black, indigenous or any combination thereof." To be Creole, says Honora, who counts himself as such, is to be "solidly rooted in Latin-based, Roman Catholic cultural practices in the New World, and particularly Louisiana."
