hate crime

A makeshift memorial honored O'Shae Sibley in New York City earlier this month.

A dancer's killing — over voguing — highlights the dangers Black LGBTQ Americans face

5:02am August 11, 2023

by Rachel Treisman

O'Shae Sibley was stabbed for voguing to Beyoncé at a New York City gas station. His death, which is being prosecuted as a hate crime, comes as anti-LGBTQ bills and incidents surge across the U.S.

This image provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows Axel Cox, 24, of Gulfport, Miss. Cox, who burned a cross in his front yard to intimidate his Black neighbors in December 2020, was sentenced Thursday, March 9, 2023, to 42 years in prison.

National

A man burned a cross in a hate crime. He's now being sentenced to 3.5 years in prison

4:45am March 14, 2023

by Jonathan Franklin

Axel Cox said he chose to burn the cross in front of his Black neighbors because of their race, saying he "intended to scare them into moving out of the neighborhood."

This combination photo shows Travis McMichael (from left), William Bryan and Gregory McMichael during their trial at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. The three men have filed appeals of their federal hate crime convictions.

National

3 men found guilty in Ahmaud Arbery's murder file appeals of hate crime convictions

5:51pm March 10, 2023

by Jonathan Franklin

The 25-year-old Arbery was shot and killed after he was pursued by two of the men, who saw him running in their neighborhood in Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020. The third man filmed the encounter.

Attorney General Merrick Garland. visits the Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, the site of a May mass shooting in which 10 Black people were killed.

National

Buffalo shooting suspect says his motive was to prevent 'eliminating the white race'

11:13pm June 16, 2022

by The Associated Press

Prosecutors release court documents in suspect Payton Gendron's first appearance in federal court on hate crime charges.

Miya Ponsetto has made a plea deal after she falsely accused a Black teen of stealing her phone and then attacking him in 2020.

National

Woman pleads guilty to hate crime for falsely accusing Black teen of taking her phone

7:48am April 12, 2022

by Ayana Archie

The family of the teen has filed a lawsuit against a 23-year-old woman and the hotel, alleging racial profiling.

A woman holds a sign in honor of Emmett Till during a protest on June 13, 2020, in Chicago. Protests erupted across the U.S. after George Floyd was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

Lynching is now a federal hate crime after a century of blocked efforts

6:45pm March 29, 2022

President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law, the culmination of more than a century of efforts to designate lynching as a federal hate crime.

Jussie Smollett talks to the media in 2019 before leaving the court in Cook County, Ill. The actor will face sentencing on Thursday.

National

Jussie Smollett returns to court for sentencing for lying about an attack on him

12:27pm March 10, 2022

by Deepa Shivaram

The former Empire actor was convicted on five felony counts of lying to police, but he has maintained that he did not stage the 2019 attack in which he claimed to be the victim.

After more than a century of trying, Congress passes an anti-lynching bill

9:56pm March 07, 2022

by The Associated Press

Passage of the legislation to make lynching a federal crime is a major milestone after more than 200 attempts to pass such legislation failed over the course of a century.

Crime

WSSU was prepared when bomb threat came, spokeswoman says

4:44pm February 17, 2022

by Paul Garber

Winston-Salem State University joined a growing list of historically Black colleges and universities that have recently received a bomb threat, but a university spokeswoman says they were prepared.

National

Greg McMichael reverses plan to plead guilty to a hate crime in Ahmaud Arbery's death

9:50pm February 03, 2022

by The Associated Press

McMichael and his son Travis had agreed to plead guilty in return for serving time in a federal prison instead of a state one in a deal rejected by a judge after Arbery's parents objected to it.