Mississippi NAACP Wants Answers in Shooting

Mississippi NAACP leaders want to know why the officer who shot an African-American man during a police road block is back on the street. “We would like to see the officer, first off, taken off the streets again until this investigation has been conducted,” said Rev. Jimmy Richardson, president of the Pearl River County NAACP. Mississippi NAACP Vice President Clarence Magee agreed. “Our whole intent is to be sure that if his civil rights are violated, somebody should answer for it,” Magee said. Read more.

Morris Brown Pays Off Water Bill, Stays Afloat

Historically Black Morris Brown College in Atlanta has paid of the balance of an overdue water bill, rescuing the campus from the brink of closure. The financially troubled institution is mired in debt and as late as last month owed more than $215,000, but a flurry of last-minute fundraising allowed the campus to submit a check to the city’s water board for 64,887.32, according to station WABE. Read the rest.

Black College Gets Water, Reopens
Historically Black Morris Brown College is back in business after paying $100,000 toward its water bill to the city of Atlanta. The 127-year-old campus had asked the court to order the city to turn its water back on, saying it would never be able to meet its financial obligations with the doors closed. On Friday, Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk ruled that the college had one more chance to deal with the $380,000 bill it owed the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, some of which dated back four years. Read the rest here.

Airline Apologizes for Booting Muslim Passengers
AirTran Airways, which kicked nine Muslims off a New Year’s Day flight to Florida, apologized to the passengers and announced that it would reimburse them for tickets they purchased for another airliner. They were booted after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security. “We apologize to all of the passengers — to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight,” the statement said. “Nobody on Flight 175 reached their destination on time on New Year’s Day, and we regret it.” The group of Muslims had just sat down when they approached by federal air marshals and escorted off the plane, as passengers glared at them suspiciously, The Associated Press reports. Read the rest here.

Black College Needs Water to Stay Open
Morris Brown College, a 127-year-old historically Black college in Atlanta, is on the verge of shutting down, unless a Fulton County judge forces the city to restore the campus’s water. Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management says that Morris Brown owes a whopping $380,000 water bill. The college has been behind for a solid half-decade, agency officials told The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Read the rest here.

Black Sue Bay-Area Cops for Harassment
African-American residents in the mostly White California Bay Area community of Antioch say that a special police unit – which was initiated to deal with complaints about Blacks from White residents – is trying to run them off. Two years ago, as more and more Black residents flowed into the community of about 100,000 people, complaints from White neighbors rose. The special crime-fighting unit began to crack down on tenants in the mostly Black housing units. Read what the Black residents  are doing about it here.