Respected Black writer dies. Dorothy Sterling, known for her ability to engage young readers with her intriguing stories of African-American historical figures, died earlier this month at her home in Wellfleet, Mass. She was 95. Among her most well known books are “Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman,” which was published in 1954 and is still in print;  “Captain of the Planter: The Story of Robert Smalls” (1958), the first children’s biography of the slave who captured a Confederate gunboat during the Civil War; and “The Making of an Afro-American: Martin Robinson Delany” (1971), which helped stir interest in the little-known abolitionist, Harvard-educated physician and early proponent of Black nationalism. Read more about Sterling here.

Brother of hate-crime victim seeks help. As the New York Police Department’s hate crime task force looks for suspects in the attack of a Ecuadorean immigrant who was beaten to death on Dec. 5, the victim’s brother is asking his neighbors to help find the murderers.  Diego Sucuzhanay’s 31-year-old brother, Jose, was jumped on a Brooklyn street by men who yelled racial and anti-gay slurs at him, police said. Jose Sucuzhanay was attacked by three men who smashed a beer bottle over his head, hit him in the head with an aluminum baseball bat and kicked him, police said. “It shows how far we must still come to address the devastating problem of hate crimes in our communities. Only by exposing these crimes and working together will we be able to make a difference,” Sucuzhanay said at a news conference outside the hospital where his brother died. He said a $27,000 reward was being offered for information that could solve the crime.