NAACP

Racism Charged Against Hollywood Bar That Forbids Hip-Hop

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] One man's purity is another man's segregation. You don't expect to encounter those ideas in Hollywood in 2013, but they creep in through coding and innue ... More >>

Voter Suppression Efforts Could Take Out Barack Obama This Fall

Trayvon Martin's Parents Are in L.A. for Justice Rally -- Along With Al Sharpton, Stevie Wonder

When black Florida teen Trayvon Martin was shot dead by apparently crazed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman earlier this year, his parents -- Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton -- took on the sudden responsibility, like it or not, of becoming justice fighters against the greater evil of racism in ... More >>

All-Star Game Boycott Over Arizona's Immigration Law? Maybe Not ...

MLBHey now, you're All-Star.​Update: We told you so. Latinos are really great at boycotts. As long as they don't involve beer (we're looking at you, Coors), strip clubs or sports. (But grapes -- absolutely). Therefore we don't have high hopes for the great All-Star game boycott of 2011. The ... More >>

Newt Gingrich and the NAACP, Together Over Criminal Justice Reform and Century Blvd. Billboard

NAACPPremiering on Century Blvd.​What do Newt Gingrich and the NAACP have in common? Starting today, it's a new billboard in town. The latest addition to LA's sea of giant-ass signs is on Century Boulevard, compliments of the NAACP, and states that in the past 23 years state spending on jails ha ... More >>

Marijuana Legalization Supporters to Meet Up in Hollywood This Weekend in Effort to Get California Reform Back on Track

Troy HoldenCalifornia's pot jar is half full.​After California's effort to fully legalize pot failed in November, we told you that marijuana backers were already anticipating their next shot. Well, it's March, and they're not backing off. Cannabis supporters say there was a strong showing in ... More >>

Measure L: Cypress Park Librarian Patrick Xavier Says Harsh Budget Cuts Hamper Top-Notch Customer Service

Cypress Park Branch Library​In northeast Los Angeles at the Cypress Park Branch Library, acting senior librarian Patrick Xavier has been dealing with the daily fall out of severe budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library system, which has reduced his staff. "It's a struggle to maintain a ... More >>

Measure L: Due To Severe Budget Cuts, L.A. Librarians Struggle to Help Students and Families

Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown L.A.​Update, 2:50 p.m.: The Library Foundation of Los Angeles gave a major boost to the Measure L campaign, contributing $200,000 to get the ballot measure passed. Read more after jump. Last summer, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the ... More >>

Blacks vs. Mexicans: South Carolina Lawmaker Says Immigrants Work Harder Than 'Brothers'

Sen. Robert Ford.​An African-American state lawmaker in South Carolina was under fire for suggesting that "brothers" don't work as hard as Mexicans. We in L.A., arguably the Latino capital of the United States, know that nobody works as hard as Mexicans. (We're Mexican and we're selling orang ... More >>

LA Weekly Switches To Disqus Comment System: Tell Us We Suck Faster, More Efficiently

Tell us how much you care.​Dear readers: You know we love your comments. Especially when you call us names and say we got the facts more twisted than Sarah Palin's panties when she's at the NAACP convention (as if). And to that end, we made commenting much easier for you. Forget the old Capt ... More >>

Welcome Black

After conquering Broadway, "little Silver Lake band" the Negro Problem returns to L.A.

Pot Legalization Backers Unleash Marijuana Arrest Numbers For California Hoping You'll Get Scared And Vote Yes On 19

Will California legalize it in order to end pot-related racial profiling?​It's getting close to election day, and California's legalization effort is against the ropes. We were expecting an October surprise -- you know, those scandal-driven, last-minute, tabloidy headlines designed to change a ... More >>

Stage Raw: City Garage Bids Adieu to Fourth Street

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWS Cover Story on LATE's The War Cycle2011 MARK TAPER FORUM SEASON ANNOUNCED ​John Lithgow Photo by Nigel Perry John Lithgow will ring in the New Year spinning yarns in Stories By Heart, previously produced at the Lincoln Center and at the National ... More >>

Prop 19 Pot Legalization: A Review Of Which Interest Groups Favor, Oppose

​Prop. 19 has created some interesting coalitions of groups in favor and opposed. Josh Richman of the Oakland Tribune provides a handy guide to who is for and against.

Rep. Maxine Waters Roundup: Jon Stewart, The New Republic, KCRW

​ Rep. Maxine Waters, who faces an ethics trial after arranging a meeting between Treasury Department officials and a bank in which her husband owned a lot of stock, continues to hit back hard against her accusers in the Office of Congressional Ethics. Waters, who represents South L.A., said s ... More >>

NAACP National Convention Coming To Los Angeles Next Year

​The NAACP's annual national convention will be held in Los Angeles next year, the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Thursday afternoon. The confab is scheduled for July 23 through 28 downtown. Exact venues were not announced but the Convention Center, Staples Center and LA Live s ... More >>

Andrew Breitbart: Is There No Such Thing As Bad Publicity?

​ The past 36 hours have been a whirlwind for Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing bomb thrower who oversees a family of conservative Web sites -- Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Hollywood -- from an office building in Santa Monica. The quick history: He released a video that seemed to s ... More >>

Thurgood

National NAACP Asks Federal Authorities To Probe L.A. Probation Department

Mark Ridley-Thomas.​The national NAACP on Thursday passed an emergency resolution calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigated the troubled Los Angeles County Probation Department following a wave of troubles for the embattled law-enforcement organization, including alleged physic ... More >>

Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch To Become A California State Park?

​State Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-South Los Angeles) is proposing to turn Michael Jackson's 2,500 acre Neverland Ranch into a state park, according to the Associated Press. Davis said that fans from around the world would visit the Santa Barbra County estate -- it once had a zoo and housed amus ... More >>

California NAACP Group Backs Marijuana Legalization Initiative On November Ballot

​The California State Conference of the NAACP was scheduled Tuesday to back Prop. 19, the November ballot initiative that would fully legalize marijuana in California, according to a statement from the Drug Policy Alliance. "We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor orga ... More >>

Frog of the South

Disney’s song and dance about a black princess croaks

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Feds Probe Inglewood Cop Shootings The Justice Department announced it will investigate Inglewood's police force and instances in which its members have shot unarmed civilians and allegedly used excessive force. L.A. TimesAnna Nicole Smith Figures Arrested The late Anna Nicole Smith's friend and att ... More >>

Strange & Ugly Times for Villaraigosa

Something strange and ugly is happening in Los Angeles, although you don't hear Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaking much about it. On Tuesday, the National Fair Housing Commission visits Los Angeles to hold a hearing on the foreclosure crisis. According to the commission's press release, "Forty yea ... More >>

Queer Town: No Time For Gay Losers

On Monday, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen officially certified the anti-gay marriage ballot measure. If passed, the initiative would overturn last month's California Supreme Court ruling--which legalized same sex marriage--and insert one sentence into the state constitution. It would re ... More >>

¡Ask a Mexican! Naming Conventions

I’d like to proudly display our last name on the back window of the family car, but she won’t allow it. How can I convince her that it’s a long and honored Mexican tradition to do so?

Gravy Train

A line forms as City Council confronts the $2.7 million dog-food debacle

Democrats for Rent

The NAACP’s Alice Huffman leases out the legacy of Rosa Parks

Train

Who Goes There?

L.A. security guards seek more security

Colors of Optimism

The immigrants’-rights movement energizes a nation

Schwarze in the Family

When race comes home to roost

Hurricane Katrina Benefits

Drowning Deaths Remembered

Two years after alleged hazing tragedy, families have tears but not closure

Black Power(less)

The decline of black politics in America

No Laughing Matter

Bill Cosby’s demons, and ours

Playing to Lose

Arnold may be governor, but the world is still a ghetto

Race to the Finish

Battling civil rights regressions in the big shadow of the recall

Thoroughly Modern Mammy

Of coons, pickaninnies and the gold dust twins: Why do black curios stay chic?

Derailed Dreams

Bus Riders Union is bad for L.A.'s transit future

Whose Children Do We Cherish?

L.A. education advocates are raising the question — and, finally, getting answers

Rail Against the Thief

A protester’s guide to Inauguration Day

Testy, Testy

L.A. theater toffs have each other for brunch

From Harlem to Hollywood

The renaissance that wasn’t

Philadelphia Story

Like L.A., the City of Brotherly Love had to confront cowboy cops

Held Back

The Miserable State of Black Education

The Year of The Sopranos

Adding up '99

Letters

Homeboys From Outer Space and Other Transgressions

TV in black and white

Malign Neglect

A Weekly Roundtable discussion on black L.A.