Thaddeus Jimenez was just 13-years-old when he was convicted of Eric Morro’s murder in 1993 in Chicago. He served nearly 20 years in prison for the crime that he says he didn’t commit. Now a 7th Circuit judge has awarded Jimenez $25 million for the wrongful conviction.
World-renown author, poet and actress Dr. Maya Angelou will be awarded the Norman Mailer Center & Writers Colony’s lifetime achievement award. Angelou received the National Book Foundation’s 2013 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literacy Community earlier this month.
Jurors in Chicago awarded $1 million to man that was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to prison for over a year. John Collins was arrested on charges of aggravated battery to a police officer in 2006.
Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
President Obama has signed a bill that awards the Congressional Medal of Honor to the four little girls killed in the 1963 KKK bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL.
The LAPD has reached a $4.2 million settlement with the two women its officers shot at during the search for Christopher Dorner earlier this year.
Despite Harper High’s much-publicized struggles with violence, two of its students – Deonte Tanner and Brittney Knight – are Harper High’s first Gates Millennium Scholars! They’ll have tuition, room, and board paid for at the college of their choice.
Two African students- Gérard Niyondiko and Moctar Dembélé – have been awarded $25,000 for inventing a soap that repels mosquitoes. The soap is intended to stop the spread of malaria, which is among the leading causes of death in Central Africa.
Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, was awarded The Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship earlier this week. Jealous has decided to give part of his prize money to Troy Davis’ nephew. Kudos to Mr. Jealous for his award and his generosity.
*This piece is published in partnership with Breakthrough as part of By & For: Black Youth, a written series documenting the issues affecting Black girls and gender non-conforming youth.* This essay mentions death, suicide and state violence. “Memory is a tough place. You were there. If this is not the truth, it is also not a lie.” […]
Toni Griffin, a leading visionary in the field of architecture and design, recently won the Design Competition for Chouteau Greenway in St. Louis despite subverting the intended aims of the competition. Griffin’s proposal was inclusive of streets and pathways populated by historically marginalized people, connecting them and their neighborhoods to the landmark Gateway Arch which sits […]
In 2014, Gregory Hill, a 30 year old Black man, was shot three times and killed by police in his Florida garage after complaints of loud music. To add insult to injury, last week, a federal jury awarded his family a $4 verdict in their civil case.
