Learn From the Past During This Kindle History Books Sale

Kindle History Books Sale | Amazon

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Fox News: Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Being Investigated for ‘Profiling’ Trump Supporter

Leave it to Poor POTUS’ pals at Fox News to appropriate a racialized term for when people in power abuse it when dealing with disenfranchised people.

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Blow the Whistle: Black Woman State Trooper Files Explosive Discrimination Lawsuit in Michigan, Exposing Police Brutality

A now-retired Michigan State Trooper is a whistleblower in an explosive lawsuit that reveals a history of racial discrimination and police brutality in her department.

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True Black western centered on Boley, Oklahoma in the works at Universal Television

The true story of how Black people armed themselves to protect their homeland of Boley, Oklahoma will soon become a television series.

Boley, in development at Universal Television, was written by Dianne Houston, who has written episodes for Empire and When We Rise, and producer Rudy Langlais, who has worked on The Hurricane and Sugar Hill, according to Deadline.

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Already being hailed as “television’s first premium Black western,” Boley takes its inspiration from the true story of Boley, Okla., established in 1904 as one of the largest and most prosperous Black towns in the United States. It was in Boley in the 1930s when a group of Black residents took on notorious gangster Pretty Boy Floyd and his gang of outlaws to successfully defend their town.

Booker T. Washington once described Boley as “the finest Black town in the world.”

All of this was threatened on November 23, 1932, when three members of Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd’s gang attempted to rob the town’s Farmers and Merchants Bank, the first nationally chartered black-owned bank in Oklahoma. In the melee, the bank’s president and two of Pretty Boy Floyd’s gangsters were killed, one by a bank bookkeeper and the other by townspeople who took up arms and shot at the robbers when they tried to flee. All the money was recovered.

The legacy of the town of Boley and its inhabitants form the backdrop of this limited series, which has been a passion project for Langlais and Universal TV President Pearlena Igbokwe for two decades, according to Deadline.

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“Boley was one of those mythic places, like Camelot, that I heard fleeting but exciting tales about,” Langlais told Deadline. “They described a place impossible to believe was real…in the middle of Oklahoma…mentioned Nikolai Tesla…and Pretty Boy Floyd…and a shoot-out during a bank robbery…all in the same breath. So when Pearlena called 20 years ago and asked if I was interested in telling this story, I was ready to jump on a train to find this mythic place. However long it took.”

“Rudy Langlais and I have been trying to tell this story for a long time,” Igbokwe added to the Deadline interview. “It is yet another piece of American history that has been overlooked. The showdown in Boley, Oklahoma is incredibly emotional and incredibly cinematic.”

We can’t wait!

The post True Black western centered on Boley, Oklahoma in the works at Universal Television appeared first on theGrio.

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Jacksonville Jaguars owner buys majority stake in Black News Channel

The Black News Channel, a new Tallahassee-based cable news network launching on November 15, is being backed by Pakistani-American billionaire Shahid “Shad” Khan, who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The channel will launch in 33 million U.S. households and will target an African-American audience, according to WJCT News. The network is news gathered, written and reported by Black people for Black people, reported The New York Post.

READ MORE: Jaguars owner open to signing Kaepernick amid NFL protests

Khan has not disclosed the amount of his investment, but a source told The New York Post that it exceeded $25 million. Another source referred to the deal as “open-ended,” explaining that “whatever Khan gets involved in, he’s in all the way.”

“My decision to invest was an easy one,” Khan said, according to The New York Post.

In addition to the Jaguars, Khan also owns England’s Fulham FC soccer team. He is also the lead investor, with his son Tony, in the All Elite Wrestling.

The timing is ripe for the channel, according to the channel’s website.

“The number of cable news networks dedicated to serving the nation’s African American communities remains at ZERO! Black News Channel will be the nation’s first channel to fill this significant void,” the site reads.

BNC’s founder is J.C. Watts, Jr., a former congressman from Oklahoma who also played football in the Canadian Football League. The co-founder is Bob Brillante, who is a veteran of Florida television and helped to launch the Sunshine Network, which has since become Fox Sports Sun.  Brillante also launched Florida’s News Channel, a 24-hour regional cable news network which is now defunct.

Khan said he is backing the Black News Channel’s mission to give voices to issues in the Black community – something he is committed to himself.

“This is a chance for me to make an impact on how African Americans report and consume news and related programming, how their voices are amplified and heard, and how all of us can better connect socially, culturally, economically and more,” Khan said in a news release, according to WJCT News. “I am truly proud to be part of such an ambitious but worthy effort.”

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Watts said he’s excited to have Khan’s support.

“Obviously, he’s a successful business person, not just in the Jacksonville area with the Jaguars and the things that he has going on there, but I think nationally and internationally. He’s got a brand that we’re excited and thrilled that he chose to join his brand to our efforts,” said Watts, according to WJCT News.

The Black News Channel will initially be available to 23 million satellite TV households and 10 million cable TV households. Watts told WJCT News that more distribution agreements would be forthcoming.

The post Jacksonville Jaguars owner buys majority stake in Black News Channel appeared first on theGrio.

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