Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell

Annual peace and love messages delivered through community walks are not uncommon in Westwood. This year, however, the familiar took on a bit of a different look. Amid vendors, supporters and community friends, the Rev. Melvin Watkins, pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church-Westwood, put the...

Former CNN news anchor Don Lemon spoke candidly about his firing from the 24-hour news network to an attentive audience at the Memphis Branch NAACP’s Freedom Fund Celebration on Saturday (June 17). The 57-year-old Lemon, who joined CNN in 2006, was reflective about processing his...

On Tennessee 222, between the Stanton, Tennessee business district and Interstate 40, rising steel girders portend a probable monumental change for this rural Haywood County village of about 500 residents on U.S. 70-79 about 50 miles northeast of Memphis. The girders eventually will be the...

The winding route in pursuit of the prosecution of the alleged killers of Memphis rapper Young Dolph now includes a plea bargain deal with one of the defendants. Jermarcus Johnson, 26, pleaded guilty to three counts of accessory after the fact for the Nov. 17,...

Dr. Vernell Bennett-Fairs took the helm of LeMoyne-Owen College on Jan. 5, 2021. The LOC Board of Trustees appointed Bennett-Fairs as the 13th president. Hopes were high that the new president’s 25 years of higher education experience and an affinity to the HBCU sector...

A lively discussion about policing in the 21st century and its impact on people of color dominated the second installment of the National Civil Rights Museum series on race, policing, and criminal justice. The June 7 event, titled “The Resolve: Eliminating Systemic Racism and Toxic...

Nearly 300 people are expected to attend The 10th National Suicide & the Black Church Conference Wednesday and Thursday (June 14-15) at Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Macon Cove Campus. For conference host Pastor Dianne P. Young this will be her first time hosting the gathering...

Sick and tired of enduring 18 years of racially discriminatory working conditions and practices, Memphis’ African-American firefighters had enough. Tired of being sick and tired (to borrow a phrase from the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer), those African-American firefighters formed the Pioneers Black...

The 30th birthday party for Tyre Nichols Monday (June 5) at Fourth Bluff Park had practically everything – music, rappers, spoken-word performances, and tons of family fun.  More than 500 people came out to honor and remember the young African-American man, who came to represent...

As a point of reference, the late Floyd Sidney Newman III had made his imprint on Stax Records long before Isaac Hayes made his way there. “As a matter of fact, Floyd was the one who discovered Isaac Hayes,” said Stax Museum of American Soul...