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Social Secretary Desiree Rogers Plans to Step Down

Monday, March 1, 2010 - 6:15 AM

by Cynthia Gordy

UPDATE: Read the official statement from President Barack Obama on Desiree Rogers' decision to retire from her role as White House Social Secretary.

ESSENCE.com's White House correspondent Cynthia Gordy reports that White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers plans to step down next month. There is no word on the exact day.

Things were rocky there for a while for Rogers, under fire last November after a Virginia couple managed to crash the State Dinner...

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Breaking News

Jayson Williams Sentenced 5 Years for Fatal Shooting

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 1:45 PM

A judge sentenced ex-New Jersey Nets baller Jayson Williams to five years in prison for shooting and killing his limo driver, Costas "Gus" Christofi, in 2002.

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Breaking News

Exclusive: Roslyn Brock, Youngest Chair of NAACP

Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 5:15 PM

by Jenisha Watts

Roslyn Brock speaks to ESSENCE.com in her first interview since the announcement of her election as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NAACP. The Fort Pierce, Florida native shares her plans for the oldest Civil Rights organization and how she will lead a "new generation" of advocates to achieve her objectives. In addition, she comments on First Lady Michelle Obama's initiative to reduce childhood obesity.

In making the announcement of her election, Ben Jealous, President of the NAACP who at 35 was the youngest person appointed to lead the organization said, "I am very excited that Roslyn is our new [Chairman for the Board of Directors for the NAACP], she is a huge advocate for social justice and very involved and focused on the crisis for today and the histories of tomorrow."

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Breaking News

Shani Davis Wins Second Gold Medal In Speedskating

Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 11:00 AM

American speedskater Shani Davis, who is described as the Tiger Woods of his sport, had U.S. fans cheering Wednesday night at the Richmond Olympic Oval at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. The returning Olympic champion earned his second Gold medal in 1,000-meter speedskating, making him the first man to win two Olympic Gold medals in the sport, according to the New York Times.

In 2006, Davis was the first Black athlete to win an individual Winter Games Gold medal.

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Breaking News

Lucille Clifton, Award Winning Poet, Dead At 73

Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 10:35 AM

by Jenisha Watts

Lucille Clifton, a former poet laureate of Maryland and National Book Award winner, has died. She was 73. The native of Depew, New York, passed away Saturday morning at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, according to the Associated Press.

Clifton's sister, Elaine Philip said the cause of death was unclear but Clifton was hospitalized for an infection last week at a hospital in Columbia, Maryland, before being transferred to Baltimore.

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Features

Breaking News

Howard Zinn Historian, Dead At 87

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 10:40 AM

Howard Zinn, author of the popular book, A People's History of the United States, died on Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. He was 87. He suffered from a heart attack, according to the New York Times.

In 1956, the iconic historian was offered the chairmanship of the History and Social Sciences Department at Spelman College. During the Civil Rights movement, Zinn pushed his students to request books from the segregated public libraries. The passionate activist also helped coordinate sit-ins at downtown cafeterias.

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Breaking News

Update: Photos of Four-Year-Old Boy Slain on NYE

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - 2:40 PM

by Jenisha Watts

Update: EXCLUSIVE Photos of Four-Year-Old Slain On New Year's Eve

ESSENCE.COM spoke with Marquel Peters' mother about the mysterious killing of her four-year-old son in her church on New Year's Eve.

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Breaking News

Exclusive: 7-Year-Old's Mother Speaks On Cut Braid

Thursday, December 17, 2009 - 5:00 AM

by Jenisha Watts

Sometimes, when she sits in class, seven-year-old Lamya Cammon twirls the colorful beads that adorn her braids. Her mother, Helen Cunningham, says that she does it "maybe out of nervousness or distraction." On November 28th, the girl's first grade teacher at the Congress Elementary School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became "frustrated" when Cammon kept playing with her hair and told the girl to walk to the front of class. The obedient child complied and, to her surprise, her teacher reached for a pair of scissors and cut one of Lamya's braids off.

An outburst of laughter filled the room and little Cammon went back to her seat, put her head down on her desk, and cried. At the end of the day she went home and told her mother, who at first didn't believe her. "I couldn't see a teacher doing a thing like that," says Cunningham.

ESSENCE.com talked exclusively with the working mother. She tells us what happened when she spoke with the teacher, what punishment she thinks the teacher should receive, and the reason the teacher gave for cutting her daughter's hair.

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Breaking News

D.C. Council Says Yes to Same-Sex Marriage

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - 4:23 PM

The D.C. Council approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage today by an eleven-to-two vote.

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News

S.C. Democrat: Confederate Flag Must Come Down

Friday, November 20, 2009 - 11:40 AM

by Rashaun Hall

South Carolina Democrat Mullins McLeod believes that the Confederate flag must be removed from the State Capitol building if the state is to attract more jobs.

According to South Carolina's The State, McLeod, a Charleston-based attorney who is running for governor, released a plan on Thursday, November 19th to create jobs and reopened the age-old debate about the flag.

"We are not going to compete in a 21st century economy by prolonging 19th century arguments," McLeod wrote in a prepared statement. "It is time for us to send a clear and unambiguous signal to the rest of the country, and the entire world, that South Carolina is better than what people see on the news, and that we are ready to make progress.

"By agreeing to move past this old argument once and for all, we will be telling the world that South Carolina is ready to lead again."

Fellow Democratic contender, Sen. Vincent Sheheen, said he too has believed for the past decade the flag should come down.

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