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      Hettie Jones, Poet and Author Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies at 90

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      She and her husband, LeRoi Jones, published works by their literary friends. After he left her and became Amiri Baraka, she found her own voice.Hettie Jones, a poet and author who with her husband, LeRoi Jones (who later became the incendiary poet and playwright Amiri Baraka), made her household a hub for Beat writers and other artists — but who was often described as a footnote in the rise of her famous spouse as “the white wife” he disavowed — died on Aug. 13 in Philadelphia. She was 90.Her daughter Kellie Jones confirmed the death.Raised in a conventional middle-class Jewish household in Queens, Ms. Jones was musical, rebellious and ambitious, uninterested in tweedy academia or suburban domesticity. She dropped out of graduate school at Columbia University, where she was studying drama, to work at The Record Changer, a jazz magazine, for $1 an hour. There she met a charismatic young poet named LeRoi Jones, and they fell in love.They hung out at the Five Spot on Cooper Square, listening to jazz musicians like Thelonious Monk. Though they were the rare mixed-race couple in Greenwich Village in the late 1950s, theirs was a mostly colorblind world, Ms. Jones thought — until it wasn’t.She recalled the day they were walking together and heard jeers and racial slurs from behind. She wheeled around to protest, but Mr. Jones held her back.Ms. Jones in the 1960s. She was musical, rebellious and ambitious, uninterested in tweedy academia or suburban domesticity despite her conventional upbringing.via Jones familyThe situation was more dangerous for him, she realized, struck by her own naïveté and ignorance. (At the time, more than half the country had laws criminalizing interracial marriage.) She also realized, as she later wrote, that “to live like this I would have to defer to his judgment.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Minyon Moore Helped Kamala Harris Rise. Now She’s Leading the D.N.C.

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      When Vice President Kamala Harris takes the convention stage to formally accept the Democratic nomination on Thursday, it will mark the culmination of decades of public and behind-the-scenes work to make the party more reflective of its multiracial base.Off the convention stage, the moment is particularly meaningful for a group of Black women in Democratic politics who have long championed Ms. Harris’s political rise. And in a serendipitous intertwining of events, one of them is running the whole show.Those who know Minyon Moore, the veteran Democratic strategist and chair of this year’s Democratic National Convention, say she is accustomed to operating behind the scenes. She helped lobby President Biden to select Ms. Harris to be his running mate in 2020. She later left a job in the private sector to help coordinate the effort to support Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination.“You could probably take a bag of rocks and throw it in the air at the D.N.C. convention and they’re going to fall on somebody who’s going to tell you a story about the time that Minyon Moore quietly helped them, quietly pushed them, quietly accelerated them to a place where they now are now yielding influence in a very powerful way,” Jotaka Eaddy, a veteran Democratic organizer, said.Ms. Moore’s role overseeing the convention has required her to depart from the private meetings and side phone calls that have been features of her professional career. It may also test the coalition-building skills she has spent nearly four decades honing. Thousands of demonstrators are expected in Chicago this week to protest the convention and Democrats’ handling of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the war between Israel and Hamas.Some of those tensions are on display within the event itself. A group of delegates representing the Uncommitted movement, which has protested the Biden administration’s Israel policy, have joined some of the demonstrations and are hosting separate programming.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      3 More Victims of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Found With Gunshot Wounds

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      Officials are exhuming bodies to learn more about the victims of one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history.Three victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, whose remains were exhumed along with those of eight others, were found to have gunshot wounds, investigators announced on Friday, in the latest findings from research about one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history.G.T. Bynum, the mayor of Tulsa, Okla., announced in 2018 that the city would begin searching for and analyzing the bodies of victims of the massacre to learn more about their identities and causes of death.Between 36 and 300 people are thought to have died during the massacre, officials have said, however only 26 death certificates were issued in connection to it.“The people that we are searching for, our fellow Tulsans, they’re not just names in history,” Mr. Bynum said at a news conference on Friday. “These are our neighbors who were murdered in horrible ways.”Investigators are looking for “simple wooden caskets” that fit a variety of parameters that could indicate a possible victim of the massacre, according to Kary Stackelbeck, a state archaeologist.“Two of those gunshot victims display evidence of munitions from two different weapons, meaning that those two individuals were shot with at least two different kinds of arms,” Dr. Stackelbeck said. “The third individual who is a gunshot victim also displays evidence of burning.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Teamsters’ Black Caucus Endorses Harris While Parent Union Stays Silent

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      The National Black Caucus of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency on Tuesday, setting it apart from its parent union, which has declined to make an endorsement and whose president spoke at the Republican National Convention.“Their records reflect a deep dedication to advancing labor rights and supporting working-class Americans,” the caucus said of Ms. Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, in a statement announcing its endorsement. “As a key partner in leading the most pro-labor administration in our lifetimes, Vice President Harris has proven to be a tough and principled fighter for workers’ rights and a leader who delivers on her promises.”The statement praised the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Biden signed, as well as steps his administration has taken to lower prescription drug costs and increase wages. It also credited Ms. Harris with pushing to expand the child tax credit — which the pandemic relief bill Mr. Biden signed in 2021 did temporarily, but Congress declined to do permanently — and with helping to preserve union members’ pensions.It said that former President Donald J. Trump’s administration “was one of the most antilabor in modern history,” citing among other things his loosening of workplace safety regulations and his opposition to raising the federal minimum wage. And it criticized Mr. Trump as “contributing to a hostile environment for Black Americans.”“Trump showed us for over 40 years who he really is: someone who is not for us,” James Curbeam, the chairman of the caucus, said in the statement. “Endorsing a candidate with his history would be a betrayal of the values that we have fought to uphold.”The decision to endorse Ms. Harris aligns the Teamsters’ National Black Caucus with other major organized-labor institutions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the United Automobile Workers and the American Federation of Teachers. But the overall Teamsters union has not endorsed either party’s ticket.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Taraji P. Henson, Keke Palmer and Uzo Aduba Turn Out to Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival

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      Summer on the island is packed with cultural events, and for many celebrities, politicians and filmmakers, the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival is a highlight.“Ready for the Supremes?” the Legendary Chris Washington called out from a D.J. booth inside the packed auditorium at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School on a recent August evening, as he played Motown hits for the crowd.It was one of the biggest nights of the 22nd annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, a nine-day event devoted to celebrating Black filmmakers. The festival held on Martha’s Vineyard, the quaint Massachusetts island, has drawn luminaries like the actress Jennifer Hudson, the director Spike Lee and former President Barack Obama in summers past.Wednesday night’s crowd of about 800 was there for the premiere of “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat,” the director Tina Mabry’s adaptation of the best-selling novel about a trio of lifelong girlfriends who call themselves the Supremes, after the 1960s girl group. Backstage, Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Sanaa Lathan, who star in the film, were posing for a row of photographers as they prepared for the debut screening.Ms. Aduba, who grew up in Massachusetts and occasionally visited the island as a child, said it was her first time attending the festival.“To see culture and art and our stories presented in this incredibly placid and elegant and green backdrop, which feels like it weds so many historic vacation moments for Black culture,” she said, “is wonderful.”Panelists at an event for female executives and influential women shared their wisdom.Gabriela Herman for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Kamala Harris Is Already Changing the Face of Presidential Power

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      I have not been the biggest fan of Kamala Harris, but to my surprise, the candidate who underwhelmed in 2020 is gone. I have watched all of candidate Harris’s public appearances since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for a sense of how she intends to run and possibly govern. The audiences have been vastly different, among them: the annual conclave of Zeta Phi Beta sorority, a National Federation of Teachers convention and the Philadelphia rally where the Harris-Walz ticket made its first official appearance.What I took away: Kamala Harris is a different candidate than we saw four years ago. She is even a different rhetorician than we saw six months ago.Nominee Harris lands her applause lines. The former prosecutor is comfortable going on the attack. Her most consistent message is that Donald Trump wants to send America back to the Dark Ages. Unlike her predecessor, she relishes calling Trump out by name. Even her wacky humor, which has been mocked on social media, suddenly works. She sounds authentic. That’s the holy grail of electoral politics. Every wide-jawed cackle she offers the audience, every twinkle in her eye as she pokes at Trump — it all comes off as someone who is in on the joke. That is hard for any candidate but it is an almost impossible tightrope for a Black female candidate to walk.Authenticity is a mirage. Americans crave the performance of authenticity as a sign that our values are in safe hands — hands just like ours. Of course, people who study this stuff for a living don’t quite agree on what authenticity is. It’s a “you know it when you see it” situation. Political candidates have to negotiate ideas about identity with an audience’s expectations of who should be in power. A tall white guy with a healthy head of hair simply looks presidential.That’s where gender tripped up Hillary Clinton, the first, most viable female candidate for president. Americans were used to looking at her — as first lady, as a congresswoman, as secretary of state and as a national obsession. But for many reasons, a lot of voters (although not a majority of voters) did not think she was authentic enough to be president. She never figured out how to communicate presidential power during her campaign. She couldn’t make the idea of a president look like a woman.Kamala Harris has an even more difficult task: She has to make the presidency look like a Black woman.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump, by the Numbers

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      As long as I’ve covered Republican campaigns, there has been racial fearmongering: Dark-skinned people are coming to hurt you. Be very afraid.With Reagan, it was “welfare queens” glomming onto tax-free cash income.With George H.W. Bush, it was Willie Horton. Liberals would give more criminals like Horton furloughs, so they could break into your house and rape your girlfriend.With George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it was Arab terrorists. Democrats would let them invade America and kill us.With Donald Trump, it was migrants swarming over the border from Central and South America with the intent to rape and kill, as well as the racist “birther” conspiracy about “Barack HUSSEIN Obama.”Trump, who adopted his father’s view that some bloodlines are “superior” to others, has slipped into the usual Republican race-baiting by purposely fumbling Kamala Harris’s name, mispronouncing it different ways and christening her “Kamabla.”Speaking to a group of Black journalists recently, Trump stunningly questioned Harris’s racial identity, saying, “She was always of Indian heritage,” and adding, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sheriff Resigns After Backlash Over Sonya Massey’s Shooting Death

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      Jack Campbell, the sheriff of Sangamon County, was criticized for hiring the deputy, who has now been charged with murdering Sonya Massey in her home last month.Jack Campbell, the Illinois sheriff whose deputy was charged with murder after fatally shooting a Black woman in her home last month, said Friday that he would leave his position by the end of the month amid calls from the public and the governor that he do so.The sheriff said in a statement obtained by WAND, a local television news station, that the “current political climate” made it impossible for him to continue in his role leading the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and that he would retire no later than Aug. 31.Sheriff Campbell had previously said he would not resign as he faced criticism for having hired Sean Grayson, the white deputy who shot Sonya Massey, 36, despite knowing that Mr. Grayson, 30, had two convictions for driving under the influence on his record, including one that had led to Mr. Grayson’s premature discharge from the Army in February 2016.Mr. Grayson fatally shot Ms. Massey at her home in Springfield, Ill., on July 6 after she had called the emergency services because she believed an intruder was in her home.The day before, Ms. Massey’s mother, Donna Massey, had called 911 to alert the authorities that her daughter had been having a mental breakdown and was in a vulnerable state.“I don’t want you guys to hurt her, please,” she told a dispatcher on the morning of July 5.Sheriff Campbell, who was elected in 2018, fired Mr. Grayson on July 17 after an investigation into the deputy’s shooting of Ms. Massey by the state police resulted in a murder charge. On July 22, his department released footage of the shooting from Mr. Grayson’s body-worn camera.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More