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A little more than a week has passed since current ESPN and former NESN anchor Elle Duncan detailed her personal encounters with racism during her two years in Boston.

In that short time, as the Black Lives Matter movement finally appears to be sparking genuine progress in the sports world, her perspective and candor have proven beyond valuable in the conversation about what Black people sometimes encounter in the city.

Duncan said during a conversation Friday that the response to her revelations has been overwhelmingly positive, with a few loud exceptions, and that it has only further confirmed that speaking up was the right thing to do.

The vocal minority of Bostonians that are the skeptics tend to dominate the headlines, said Duncan. They tend to be the loudest on Twitter.

But people should see what my DMs look like. Theyre so positive. My emails that Im getting from people that I knew briefly in Boston or the former colleagues that I really dont talk to anymore are like, Thank you, and either, A, Youre opening my eyes to some of these things in particular because of how vocal some of those detractors are. How theyre responding proves your point and how theyre trying to dismantle the message. Or, B, people telling me theyve never felt comfortable describing their time in Boston and saying, It was very difficult for me too. And that runs across color lines.

I dont want to focus on the people that were never going to listen or receive that message. Im more interested in focusing on the people right that I knew were good Bostonians who have remained quiet and who really want to reclaim the reputation of their city.

Duncan will bring that perspective to a special evening of programming Wednesday on ESPN, which will explore the issues of racism and social justice in sports. She will join fellow SportsCenter anchors Michael Eaves and Jay Harris and reporter Maria Taylor on Time for Change: We Wont Be Defeated, a one-hour program airing at 8 p.m. on ESPN and at 11 p.m. on ESPN2 that will examine Black athletes experiences with injustice and sports role in bridging the racial divides in America.

This is the centerpiece of 5 hours of programming that will air across ESPN and ESPN2 that night, beginning with the re-air of the 30 for 30 documentary The 16th Man, which features the South African Springbok national rugby team and its impact on South Africas transition from apartheid.

Time for a Change is broken up into four segments. Taylors focuses on why this time feels different, including a conversation with Chris Fowler on why white voices are speaking up more about issues Black people have been raising for a long time.

Duncans segment delves into white privilege, and includes a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi, director of the new Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, and anti-racist activist and writer Tim Wise.

Harriss segment digs into the expression stick to sports and includes a conversation with former major league outfielder Torii Hunter, who recently detailed his experiences with racism at Fenway Park, spurring the Red Sox to acknowledge the issue.

In his segment, Eaves drives a discussion on how to create legislation that can actually change policy and help eradicate racism.

I asked Duncan if she believes that there is genuine change happening now and that powerful people who have averted their eyes from racism in the past are authentic in wanting to make the country a better place for minorities.

I do. I am very hopeful, she said. I know that theres a lot of people that are skeptical. But heres what Im doing. Im leaning on my parents who are in their 60s, who marched in the civil rights protests, who integrated schools when they were young in Denver.

I lean on them because they have seen so much, and I have to be honest. When the George Floyd situation happened, the anxiety, the grief, the anger, the trauma was all there in their voices. The idea that 40 years later their children are still marching and battling and fighting for the same things they used to as teenagers was very disheartening.

But as this has continued, as the protests have gone on, I have seen their whole attitudes change. They are so hopeful, so inspired by these young people, theyre inspired at the makeup and the composition of the protests. Theyre inspired that it has become a global movement.

They are hopeful, and I am incredibly hopeful right now, too, because there are all these things happening that lead you to believe that this is different.

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Elle Duncan to be part of an ESPN night of examining racism and social justice - Boston.com

(BPRW) Court TV Announces Original News Special Exploring the Relationship Between the Criminal Justice System and African Americans

Black and Blue A Court TV Special Premieres Mon. June 22 at 8pm ET, To be Simulcast Across All Katz Networks

(Black PR Wire) ATLANTA Court TV, the multi-platform network devoted to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage, in-depth legal reporting and expert analysis of the nations most important and compelling trials, announced today an original news special that will take a deep dive into the criminal justice systems history and relationship with African Americans.

Black and Blue A Court TV Specialwill air at 8:00 p.m. (ET) on Monday, June 22, and will also be simulcast across the entire portfolio of Katz networks Bounce, Court TV Mystery, Laff,and Grit.

Topics the hour-long special will explore include: An encompassing look at our current justice system that has seemingly empowered civilians to weaponize the police against African Americans; the rise in deadly interactions with unarmed black men and women in custody and what may be ingrained in the police psyche from a legal perspective that often leads them to wrongly target specific groups; how past segregation-era thinking gave way to controversial present-day laws such as the Stand Your Ground concept and more. High-profile cases involving Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Drejka, George Floyd, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and others will be discussed.

Black and Blue A Court TV Specialwill feature an insightful and thought-provoking discussion withLawyer and former professional WWE wrestler and personality David Otunga; Marissa Alexander, the Florida mother-turned-activist whose Stand Your Ground warning shot case became a rallying cry for anti-racism movements and survivors of domestic violence; former federal prosecutor and author of Chokehold: Policing of Black MenDavid Paul Butler, who recently testified at the House Judiciary Committee hearing along with George Floyds brother and others on issues of racial profiling, police brutality and lost trust; the Dean and Chancellors Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine L. Song Richardson and Tim Wise, an activist, and writer on the topic of race who has trained law enforcement officers, teachers, corporate and non-profit organizations in methods for addressing and dismantling racism in their institutions.

Court TV Crime and Justice Reporter Julia Jenae will host Black and Blue A Court TV Special, with contributions by members of the networks diverse team of anchors and correspondents that are both seasoned journalists and lawyers.

About Court TV

Court TV is available to be seen on cable, over-the-air, and over-the-top. Court TV is also live-streamed on CourtTV.com, YouTube TV, and SiriusXM as well as the Court TV app for Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android and Apple devices. All feature robust and exclusive content from the massive Court TV library, including the nations most compelling, high-profile cases over the past 20 years available on demand. Court TV is part of Katz Networks, a division of The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP).

The content and opinions expressed within this press release are those of the author(s) and/or represented companies, and are not necessarily shared by Black PR Wire. The author(s) and/or represented companies are solely responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the content of this Press release. Black PR Wire reserves the right to reject a press release if, in the view of Black PR Wire, the content of the release is unsuitable for distribution.

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(BPRW) Court TV Announces Original News Special Exploring the Relationship Between the Criminal Justice System and African Americans | Press releases...

As nationwide observance of Juneteenth begins, Americans from all over the country may be looking for movies to stream that can help them better understand the many years of systemic racism that the Black community has faced in the years since.

Juneteenth is commemorated annually on June 19, in observance of the end of slavery. On this date in 1865, Union army general Gordon Granger spoke in Galveston, Texas and read the federal orders proclaiming that everyone who had been enslaved in Texas were now free. The Emancipation Proclamation had officially freed slaves nearly two and a half years prior to this after the Union States defeated the Confederate States in the Civil war. Texas, however, had a low presence of Union troops, which caused delayed enforcement of the proclamation.

Over the next 100 years, Black Americans had to fight for legal equal rights, which was achieved with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. However, even since these equal rights acts were made law, the black community has continued to face systemic racism. The first film that can offer a better understanding of how America reached this point is Selma, a historical drama that depicts the 1965 civil rights march that Martin Luther King Jr. led from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery. This movie is currently free to rent on Amazon Prime Video. Scroll down to see more suggestions.

13th is another project from DuVernayand is quite possibly the most detailed-yet-consolidated documentary on racial inequality in the United States. The main focus is the film is the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery, except in the case of those convicted of a crime and imprisoned.

With a number of historical facts and expert opinions, 13th offers incredible insight into what the black community has faced from law enforcement and the judicial system over the past 155 years since slavery was abolished, as well as the past 56 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was made law.

Just Mercy is a 2019 biopic about the true story of Walter McMillian played by Jamie Foxx a black man convicted of the 1986 murder of a White woman, and placed on death row, based entirely on the witness testimony of a convicted felon. Attorney Bryan Stevenson played by Michael B. Jordan takes McMillian's case and files an appeal in 1989, hoping to get justice for this man who very clearly did not commit the crime he'd been convicted of.

Stevenson would later go on to found the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization that focuses on ending mass incarceration and racial inequality. Just Mercy is currently free to rent on Amazon Prime Video

If Just Mercy strikes a chord, then the next thing you check stream is True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality. This is a 2015 HBO documentary about Stevenson's life and career.

Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and "has advocated on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned, seeking to eradicate racial discrimination in the criminal justice system." The documentary is available to stream through HBO or for free on YouTube.

I Am Not Your Negro is a 2016 documentary based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember This House. It explores the history of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, through the eyes of Baldwin, who lived it and worked alongside men like Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X.

The film is directed by Raoul Peck, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Academy Awards. Is it available for Amazon Prime subscribers to stream anytime.

In 1992, Spike Lee's Malcolm X biopic starring Denzel Washington as the late human rights activist opened in theaters, giving audiences a deeper look at the controversial figure. The film used Alex Haley's 1965 book The Autobiography of Malcolm X as the basis for its story, which was co-written by Lee with Arnold Perl. It is currently streaming on Netflix, along with a brilliant documentary titled Who Killed Malcolm X?

Whose Streets? is a 2017 documentary about the death of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson, Missouri police, and the subsequent uprising that followed. The film focuses on a handful of main characters including Hands Up United's co-founder Tory Russell and David Whitt, a recruiter for civilian organization Cop Watch. Whose Streets? is available to stream on Hulu, for subscribers.

In 2019, Netflix released Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea, a documentary from comedian and TV host Chelsea Handler. The film follows Handler exploring the reality of White privilege, and features her having a conversation with an ex-boyfriends who is Black.

Additionally, it also features Black comedians Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, and W. Kamau Bell, as well as activists and educators such as Tim Wise, Ruby Sales, Rashad Robinson, and Carol Anderson. It is currently streaming on Netflix.

16 Shots is a 2014 Showtime documentary about the shooting of Laquan McDonald. The 17-year-old was killed by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, and the film documents the incident, as well as the cover-up that ensued. It is streaming on Showtime Anytime, for subscribers. It is also currently available for free on YouTube.

Another Spike Lee project, BlacKkKlansman is based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, a Black police officer who infiltrated and exposed the Colorado Springs chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. The film stars John David Washington the son of Denzel Washington as well as Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser, and Corey Hawkins. It is currently streaming on HBO.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco is not a story about police brutality, but rather one about the tragic reality of gentrification in major U.S. cities. The story is loosely based on the real-life experience of co-writer/star Jimmie Fails, and follows one man's struggle to retain the Bay Area home of his deceased father.

In addition to fails, it co-stars Jonathan Majors, Tichina Arnold, Rob Morgan, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock, and Danny Glover. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is available for Amazon Prime subscribers to stream anytime.

The film project on our list is not a film, but a limited biopic series about the Central Park Five. Created by Ava DuVernay, When They See Us tells the story of Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise five teens who were coerced into giving false confessions about their involvement with the 1989 assault and rape of a jogger in Central Park.

The series is broken up into four parts and follows the boys from the night of the incident, all the way to their convictions being vacated, due to new evidence, more than a decade after their trial. When They See Us is now streaming on Netflix.

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Juneteenth: 12 Films to Watch and Better Understand Systemic Racism in the US - PopCulture.com

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Dear Editor: In response to Dave Zweifel's "Plain Talk: The latest proof the world has been turned upside down: Rand Paul's objection to an anti-lynching bill":

Lynching is still not a federal hate crime in this country due to the objections that one senator, Rand Paul, had to the bill. His argument is that the definition of lynching is too broad. He says the breadth of the definition both cheapens the issue of lynching and could lead to miscarriages of justice by sentencing those tried to 10 years in prison for inflicting only minor injuries.

To require a threshold of how effectively a hate crime is carried out is to misunderstand the purpose and precedent of hate crimes. Hate crimes are about intent and motive. Indeed, this is the power of its legal status and what would differentiate this crime in many ways from murder and attempted murder. Ten and 20-year sentences for hate-based death threats and arson attempts are common.

Rand Paul's argument that you need to be lynched enough to use the term seems a textbook double-standard and a sinister example of the system telling Black people, "it's not that bad," "stop complaining," "get over it."

Confusing this double-standard slightly is that cross burning is a hate crime with origins tied up in much of the same white-on-black racial terror as lynching. Louie Revette was just sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in November 2019 for a cross burning carried out near the homes of African American residents. It seems we have managed to appropriately criminalize cross burning, but not the act its threatening presence implies.

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Annette Ritchie: Objection to anti-lynching bill sets a sinister double standard - Madison.com

SLAVERY POLITICS-Emancipation Day celebrations concluded this weekend, accompanied by significant talk among elected officials about finally recognizing Juneteenth as a national holiday.

However, the specter of the stalled federal Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Actshould remind us of the continuing struggle by Black Americans to obtain not only freedom, but also security.

After the Civil War, Black Americans enjoyed a precarious freedom in which extralegal violence was a common problem. For the newly freed, exercising their liberty could bring violent rebuke.

Juneteenth should not only be a commemoration of emancipation, but also a reminder of the work ahead in making the promise of freedom and equality that so many Black Americans fought and died for a reality.

Such was the case in July 1867 when Union War veteran William Obie Evans was lynchedin Delaware. Enslaved near Fredericksburg, Maryland, Evans initially asserted his freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation. Like nearly 180,000 other Black Americans, he later enlisted in the Union Army. He served in the U.S. Colored Troops and on July 30, 1864, was wounded during the Battle of the Crater outside of Petersburg, Virginia.

After mustering out of the service in 1865, Evans faced the same challenge as other Black Union veterans. They awaited payment on enlistment bounties without an immediate means of making a living. Evans travelled to Delaware, where he bartered with a local farmer by putting up his bounty papers in exchange for a cash loan that he would presumably pay off with his labor.

When he later learned that the bounties were being paid, Evans asked the farmer to release him from his bond so that he could claim his bounty and repay the loan. The farmer, however, was more interested in retaining Evanss labor and refused. A few days later, a mysterious fire destroyed one of the farmers barns and outhouses. Although no evidence connected Evans to the fire, suspicion immediately fell on him.

A few nights later, a party of masked men arrived on the farm to mete out their own form of justice. The next day, Evanss body was discovered dangling from the limbs of a willow tree a short distance from the farmers home. Despite his service to the Union Army, Evans was buried in a common grave. A Black woman with whom Evans was familiar was ultimately tried and acquitted for the arson.

Evanss murder predates the thousands of lynchingsthat occurred in the United States between 1882 and 1968 that normally occupy our attention. In a recent study, Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson documentedmore than 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1877, underscoring the longer history of such extralegal violence and its impact on Black communities.

Stevensons work demonstrates the importance of examining the long history of racial violence in America. The pain that comes from learning about unpunished and forgotten acts of terror like lynchings can be as impactful as witnessing acts of violence against Black and brown bodies in our own time.

It passed the House of Representatives in February after more than 100 years of efforts by a vote of 410 to 4, only to be obstructed in the U.S. Senate by a single lawmaker, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul.This work of historical recovery can support activists efforts. In addition to honoring celebrations such as Juneteenth and pushing for police abolition, we must draw on history to push for the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act and demonstrate the necessity for such legislation in its strongest form.

The proposed bill, which would establish lynching as a federal crime, is now stalledin Congress. It passed the House of Representatives in February after more than 100 years of efforts by a vote of 410 to 4, only to be obstructed in the U.S. Senate by a single lawmaker, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul.

Finding constructive ways to reckon with painful chapters in our history is also a powerful tool for addressing the underlying trauma that informs so many of our discussions of race, violence, and criminal justice in America. It can unite communities in the search for truth and invite conversations about changing values that should inform memorials that decorate the public spaces we share. In either case, historical recovery is a critical step.

Without the knowledge of what came before, it is difficult to assess and address what must be done now to reform and/or eradicate those barriers to equal justice that have allowed stories like William Obie Evanss to be lost. This is exactly why stories, like that of Evans, must be recovered and shared.

Evanss lynching is not currently recognized as an act of racial violence in Delaware. This means the state also does not formally acknowledge the murder of a veteran as a wrongdoing.

Let that sink in.

Juneteenth should not only be a commemoration of emancipation, but also a reminder of the work ahead in making the promise of freedom and equality that so many Black Americans fought and died for a reality -- which includes the passage of legislation like the proposed anti-lynching bill.

(Yohuru Williams is an education activist and professor of history at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is the author, editor,or co-editor of several books, including Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven (Blackwell,2006), Teaching Beyond the Textbook: Six Investigative Strategies (Corwin Press, 2008), and Liberated Territory: Toward a Local Historyof the Black Panther Party (Duke, 2008). He also served as general editor for the Association for the Study of African American Life andHistorys 2002 and 2003 Black History Month publications, The Color Line Revisited (Tapestry Press, 2002) and The Souls of Black Folks:Centennial Reflections (Africa World Press, 2003).

Savannah Shepherd is the founder of the Delaware Social Justice Remembrance Coalition which works to discover and memorialize victims of racial violence in the state. She's a graduate of Sanford School and will attend Swarthmore College in fall 2020.) This piece appeared in Common Dreams. Photo: Photo: Ron Cogswell/flickr/cc. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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There's No Excuse for Blocking the Anti-Lynching Bill - City Watch