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Amy Klobuchar Calls for Independent Review of Murder Case That Dogged Her Presidential Campaign

(MINNEAPOLIS) — US Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked a top Minnesota prosecutor Thursday to initiate an independent investigation into the case of Myon Burrell, a black teen sentenced to life after an 11-year-old black girl was killed by a stray bullet. “As you are aware, significant concerns about the evidence and police investigation have been raised…

Joe Biden’s Win in Michigan Gives Him a Clear Path to the Democratic Nomination

Joe Biden is looking more and more like the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, adding to his delegate lead on Tuesday with another set of primary victories that further deflated Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Six states voted on Tuesday, and Biden won the first three to close their polls: Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri. Voting continued in Washington,…

Joe Biden Wins Michigan Democratic Primary, Delivering Major Blow to Bernie Sanders

(WASHINGTON) — Joe Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president’s victory in Michigan, as well as Missouri and Mississippi, dealt a serious blow to Sanders, who is urgently seeking to jump-start his flagging campaign. Sanders could…

Barack Obama Sends Cease-and-Desist Over South Carolina Ad Attacking Joe Biden

Former President Barack Obama called on South Carolina TV stations to stop airing an attack ad that uses his voice to criticize his former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday, accusing Republicans of trying to suppress black voter turnout ahead of the state’s Democratic primary on Saturday. The ad, paid for by pro-Trump PAC the…

30 Books and Series to Read While Social Distancing

No matter what’s going on in the world, a good book can provide insight, comfort or a welcome escape. As the COVID-19 outbreak continues and many of us are seeking entertainment while staying home, reading offers some respite. Now may be the time to finally dig into that epic novel you’ve had on your shelf…

Inside the Efforts to Prepare African Countries for COVID-19

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increases around the world—with new clusters recently emerging in Italy, Iran and South Korea—the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that its “biggest worry” is to make sure that the disease does not spread in countries with weaker health systems that have historically struggled to contain infectious disease outbreaks…

You Can Learn a Lot About Yourself From a DNA Test. Here’s What Your Genes Cannot Tell You

“Have you found an article of clothing with a suspicious stain?” asks the website of one Florida-based company called All About Truth DNA Services, which informs readers that “aprrpoximately [sic] 60% of husbands and 40% of wives will have an affair at some point,” and recommends consumers wait for their “suspicious item” to dry and…

Joe Biden Wins Florida Primary as Coronavirus Disrupts Voting

(WASHINGTON) — Joe Biden swept to victory in Florida, Illinois and Arizona on Tuesday, increasingly pulling away with a Democratic presidential primary upended by the coronavirus and building pressure on Bernie Sanders to abandon his campaign. The former vice president’s third big night in as many weeks came amid tremendous uncertainty as the Democratic contest…

Joyce Ladner Used Her Stories to Raise Awareness of the Civil Rights Movement. Now, She’s Telling Them in a New Way

When The March, TIME’s virtual reality re-creation of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, opens to the public on Friday at Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History, visitors will be able to experience being part of the crowd on the day in 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I…

Mojo: Biden Finds His Confidence in South Carolina, But is it Too Late?

Joe Biden has hit his stride. After a stumbling start to the Democratic presidential contest, the former Vice President is heading into Saturday’s South Carolina primary loose, scrappy and running in front. Polls show him ahead, fundraising is suddenly coming easily, and his crowds are matching those of his rivals. The difference is showing in…

Supreme Court Halts Alabama Execution of Nathaniel Woods so It Can Review His Appeal

(ATMORE, Ala.) — Alabama was set to put to death an inmate Thursday evening for the 2004 slayings of three police officers shot by another man at a suspected drug house. The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution plan at least temporarily to review his appeal. Nathaniel Woods, 43, was scheduled to receive a lethal…

‘I Was Not Going to Stand.’ Rosa Parks Predecessors Recall Their History-Making Acts of Resistance

On March 2, 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was sitting on a totally full bus in Montgomery, Ala., when the driver asked her and three black schoolmates give up the whole row so that a white woman could sit. According to her biographer Phillip Hoose’s account of the events, her classmates got up and moved to…

Why TIME Decided to Revisit a Century of Women and Influence

Throughout its history, editors of TIME aimed their curiosity at those who broke free of gravity. Week after week, year after year, the magazine featured an individual on the cover, often from Washington but also from Wall Street or Hollywood, from foreign palaces and humming factories, all outstanding and almost always men. The “great man…

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Son Asks Alabama to Stop Inmate’s Upcoming Execution

(MOBILE, Ala.) — The son of Martin Luther King, Jr. has called on Alabama’s governor to stop Thursday’s plan to execute an inmate for the 2004 killings of three police officers in which authorities say a co-defendant did the shooting. Nathaniel Woods, 43, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening at a south…

Accused of Calling a Black Juror ‘Aunt Jemima,’ Pennsylvania Judge Barred From Cases

A Pittsburgh area judge accused of making racist comments about a juror has been barred from hearing cases, according to a court order issued this week. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Mark Tranquilli is accused of repeatedly referring to a black juror as “Aunt Jemima.” Tranquilli made the racially-charged references during a conversation in his…

A Wrongfully Convicted Kansas Man Who Spent 23 Years in Prison Is Awarded $1.5 Million

A Kansas man who spent over two decades in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit will be awarded $1.5 million for his wrongful conviction, according to the Kansas State Attorney General’s office. Lamonte McIntyre was convicted and sentenced to two terms of life in prison for the murders of Donald Ewing and Doniel…

Where Trump’s Acquittal Fits Into the History of Impeachment, According to Historians

On Wednesday, the Senate ended President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial with a result that was momentous, if not surprising: with their vote not to convict him and remove him from office, he became only the third President in American history to reach that point. Trump was acquitted on charges of abuse of power and obstruction…

Joe Biden Says It’s Not Time to Panic. But His Campaign Is In Trouble.

After back-to-back dismal finishes, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is scrambling to sharpen its strategy as it heads into a do-or-die stretch. Biden advisers spent much of Wednesday on the phone with donors and supporters, seeking to reassure loyalists that it’s not time to panic. They told allies to look for more of Biden…

The Enduring Mystery of Malcolm X’s Assassination

Friday marks 55 years since Malcolm X, one of the 20th century’s most important black figures, was assassinated at age 39 while speaking at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York, on Feb. 21, 1965. In the more than half a century since, what happened that day has remained the subject of debate. Three members…

‘You Never Find Quiet Except Under a Tyranny.’ Congress Has Always Been Partisan and That’s a Good Thing.

In the throes of the worst crisis in American history, the Civil War, Democrats in Congress repeatedly attacked Abraham Lincoln as a “tyrant” and even his fellow Republicans questioned his competence and investigated his generals. Beleaguered though he often felt, Lincoln never claimed that Congress lacked the authority to challenge his actions or declined to…

These Overlooked Black Women Shaped Malcolm X’s Life

The anniversary of the Feb. 21, 1965, assassination of Malcolm X was surrounded by a renewed wave of interest in the black nationalist leader’s life and death — particularly with the release of the recent Netflix series Who Killed Malcolm X? and the subsequent news that the Manhattan District Attorney will review the investigation of…

How Black Lives Matter Is Changing What Students Learn During Black History Month

Freshman year can make anyone feel lost, but Seattle teen Janelle Gary felt especially lost when she entered high school in 2015. At home, she watched a wave of gentrification drive change in the historically black Central District neighborhood, and at school, where she was one of the few students of color in an honors…

President Trump’s Take on Parasite Echoes an Old Debate Over the Role of Non-American Films at the Oscars

Nostalgia has been a regular theme at rallies for President Donald Trump since before he was elected — he is, after all, the man who wants to make America great again. On Thursday night, at a rally in Colorado Springs, Trump directed that sentiment at the movie industry, dismissing the South Korean film Parasite, which…

American Women Won the Right to Vote After the Suffrage Movement Became More Diverse. That’s No Coincidence

When the woman suffrage movement first began in the mid-19th century, its champions had all become human-rights activists in the searing fires of the abolitionist movement. In 1838, Angelina Grimké, renegade daughter of South Carolina slave owners, laid down the basics of women’s rights, in her book, Letters to Catherine Beecher: “Whatever it is morally…

‘We Wouldn’t Be Having This Conversation.’ Henry Louis Gates Jr. on America’s Missed Opportunities for Racial Equality

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Emmy-winning historian and head of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, tells TIME about the origins of modern inequality, America’s missed opportunities and where the fight goes next. How do you see the state of equality today fitting into the history of equality? One of…

Abraham Lincoln Healed a Divided Nation. We Should Heed His Words Today.

Abraham Lincoln repeatedly tops polls as our greatest and most revered president. But few people thought so on March 4, 1865, when he took the oath of office for the second time. On that day, America was still mired in the terrible war that the Republicans had been determined to wage. The refusal of Southern…

Everyone Knows About Hollywood’s Lack of Representation. This Woman Fought to Remedy It More Than 50 Years Ago

In 2015, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite went viral as a criticism of the lack of inclusion in Hollywood films. Not only was Selma‘s Ava duVernay missing from the best director category and its star David Oyelowo overlooked as a lead actor contender, every single performer in the acting categories was white. Now as we consider another…

The Coronavirus Outbreak Should Bring Out the Best in Humanity

Pandemics are perversely democratic. They’re nasty, lethal and sneaky, but they don’t discriminate. No matter your age, ethnicity, religion, gender, or nation, you’re a part of the pathogenic constituency. That shared vulnerability, and the resulting human collectivism—a universal response to a universal threat—is newly and vividly evident in the face of the now-global outbreak of…

The Education Reform Movement Has Failed America. We Need Common Sense Solutions That Work.

The education reform movement that started with George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law is dead. It died because every strategy it imposed on the nation’s schools has failed. From Bush’s No Child Left Behind to Obama’s Race to the Top to Bill Gates’ Common Core State Standards to Trump’s push for school choice,…

Cory Booker Drops Out of 2020 Presidential Race

Cory Booker’s presidential campaign launched with a flashy video, driven by a biography rooted in an optimism that should have found fertile soil in Iowa. He followed up with grind-it-out work on the ground in New Hampshire, where he racked up endorsements and packed venues. A speech on civil rights in South Carolina at an…