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After a contentious redrawing of Alabama’s congressional map, two candidates will compete in November for a seat, and perhaps congressional controlShomari Figures, an attorney and Obama White House executive from a politically-prominent civil rights family, has won the Democratic nomination to run in Alabama’s redrawn second congressional district Tuesday night, defeating state representative Anthony Daniels.The runoff election has been closely watched because of its...

Star Wars actor says he believes actors should be free to ‘do anything you want to do’, in a discussion about Laurence Olivier’s performance in OthelloBilly Dee Williams has said that actors should be able to perform in blackface, with the Star Wars actor revealing that he believes, “If you’re an actor, you should do anything you want to do”.Speaking to Bill Maher on...

Shooting of 15-year-old ‘beautiful soul’ in California revives scrutiny on law enforcement abuse of youth with disabilitiesWhen Ryan Gainer was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, he was nonverbal, and his family all learned sign language to communicate with him. But after the southern California boy learned how to speak at around age four, he was a “ball of energy” who never stopped talking,...

Sitter for William Lindsay Windus’s painting is rumoured to have stowed away on ship, possibly to escape slavery in USThe subject of the painting gazes at the viewer, alone and barefoot in loose and torn clothing. Known only as The Black Boy, his identity has been a mystery for nearly 200 years.A museum is appealing for information about the mysterious sitter, who is rumoured...

Bill signed by governor Kay Ivey and lambasted by civil rights advocates affects public schools, universities and state agenciesThe Alabama governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill into law in effect banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across public schools, universities and state agencies, the latest move in a wave of a Republican-led legislation that aims to restrict diversity efforts.The law, known as...

Merrick Garland warns of efforts to disenfranchise Black voters and says court decisions have weakened the 1965 Voting Rights ActThe right to vote in the US is under attack, with sustained efforts to disfranchise Black voters, US attorney general Merrick Garland told a Selma church service commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday police attack on civil rights activists.Garland said decisions by the...

Officials say search will continue after as many as 121 unmarked graves were located at MacDill air force base in TampaAs many as 121 unmarked graves in a former Black cemetery have been discovered at a US air force base in Florida, military officials confirmed.A nonintrusive archaeological survey performed over the past two years at the MacDill air force base in Tampa identified 58...

Civil rights leader hosts protest outside office of alumnus who spearheaded campaign to remove Claudine Gay and criticized DEIThe civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton hosted a protest outside the office of the Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman on Thursday after Ackman criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Harvard following the resignation of the former university president Claudine Gay.“[Ackman] declared war on DEI....

US hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posts 4,000-word screed decrying ‘racism against white people’ after Gay’s departureChief among the campaigners celebrating the resignation of Claudine Gay as president of Harvard University was a man who arguably did the most to push Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, out the door: Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge-fund manager and Harvard alumnus.Ackman, who accused Gay of antisemitism and...

Body camera reveals Los Angeles deputy fired at woman who sought help for domestic violence as nine-year-old daughter watchedThe Los Angeles sheriff’s department (LASD) released body-camera footage on Friday of an officer fatally shooting Niani Finlayson, 27, who had called 911 for help during a domestic violence incident.The footage from the 4 December encounter showed that deputy Ty Shelton shot Finlayson four times within...

The Politics Weekly America team are taking a break. So this week, we’re looking back at one of our favourite episodes of the year.From August: Jonathan Freedland sits down with Rev Al Sharpton to discuss why he believes Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a dream’ speech has been abused by some on the right, why he is still fighting for police reform, and...