• Students hold Georgia school's 1st racially integrated prom

    Students at Georgia high school celebrate their first racially integrated prom. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Almost half a century after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination in schools and other public places, black and white students in Georgia's rural Wilcox County danced together for the first time at prom over the weekend.

    "I feel like we are living Martin Luther King's dream," NBC station WMGT 41 quoted student Alexis Miller as saying. Miller, who is white, attended Saturday's event with her black boyfriend.

    WMGT reported:

    Racially segregated proms have been held in Wilcox County almost every year since the schools integrated in the 1970s. In a long-standing tradition, parents raised money to host separate dances, the community referred to one as the "black prom" and the other as the "white prom." Traditionally, most students were welcome to the "black prom" but an unwritten rule kept students of different races from attending the "white prom." 

    Wilcox County High School was quick to point out on its website that it hasn’t organized or hosted the segregated proms that have been traditional. It called the events “private parties” over which it “has no influence.”

    Additionally, the school hosts an integrated dance called the Military Ball and says it will discuss making next year’s prom an inclusive, official school event.

    However, the NAACP has put the onus on Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, starting a petition calling on him to “put an end to segregated proms, homecomings, and other school related social events.”

    Georgia NAACP joins call for integrated prom after students plan their own dance.

    But perhaps nothing had as much impact as a Facebook page started by the small group of students who organized the integrated prom.

    As of Monday, with the prom finished, the page, carrying the banner “Love Has No Color” had almost 30,000 “likes.”

    So many donors came forward – from as far away as Australia -- that the students say they have money left over to help local families in need. And the publicity brought in DJs from Atlanta and Texas to provide the music.

    The students’ appeal was simple and from the heart:

    “We live in rural south Georgia, where not too many things change,” the page says. “Well, as a group of adamant high school seniors, we want to make a difference in our community. For the first time in the history of our county, we plan to have an integrated prom.”

    On its website, Wilcox County Schools praised the efforts of the student organizers, saying they were seeking "to right the wrongs of the past."

     

  • Anti-gay marriage group: We have signatures for Maryland ballot

    Rachel Maddow notes that support for marriage equality in Maryland has surged among African-Americans since President Barack Obama declared his support for equality.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Gay marriage opponents in Maryland said Tuesday they’ve handed in more than double the signatures required to hold a ballot referendum to squash the state’s new same-sex marriage law.

    Thursday is the deadline to submit to election officials at least one-third of the 56,000 signatures needed to get the referendum on the November ballot. But Maryland Marriage Alliance, which supports defining marriage as between a man and a woman, said it handed in some 122,000 later Tuesday.

    The final deadline for all signatures, which the state Board of Elections has to count and verify, is June 30. Derek McCoy, executive director of Maryland Marriage Alliance, told msnbc.com that he was confident they now had the signatures to get on the ballot but they would still continue to collect them.

    “What we’re finding is that people are just engaged and passionate about this, even after Obama and the NAACP came out” in support of gay marriage," McCoy said. “Anybody that was on the fence is no longer on the fence.”

    A similar effort is under way in Washington state, where legislation approving same-sex marriage was signed into law by the governor earlier this year. Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, while 31 states have constitutional amendments that effectively ban gay marriage (this tally does not include California, where federal judges have ruled the amendment unconstitutional though further appeals are expected).

    In mid-May, North Carolina became the most recent state to ban same-sex marriage. The day after that vote, President Barack Obama said he supported same-sex marriage, becoming the first American president to do so.

    Obama who? Gay marriage foes seek to extend gains
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    Since then, a survey of Maryland voters has shown a “significant” uptick for support of gay marriage among African-Americans, according to results released last Thursday by Public Policy Polling, which said it did the poll on behalf of Marylanders for Marriage Equality -- the group campaigning to keep the same-sex marriage law on the books.

    Some 57 percent of the state’s voters say they would support the law in November, compared to 37 percent who are opposed. Meanwhile, 56 percent of African-Americans say they’ll back the new law, with 39 percent opposed, almost a complete reversal from earlier numbers, said the polling firm.

    The survey’s overall margin of error was plus or minus 3.4 percent, and for the African-American sample it was plus or minus 4.9 percent.

    Nationwide, a Gallup poll released in May revealed closer numbers, with 50 percent of Americans saying same-sex marriage should be legal, compared to 48 percent opposed. Support for gay marriage fell slightly in that poll from a record high of 53 percent in 2011, the first time a majority of Americans favored gay marriage. Opposition was 45 percent in that poll.

    Kevin Nix, a spokesman for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, said his group expected opponents to get the required signatures since it was a “low bar” to cross.

    “We’re all planning on this going to a referendum,” he said.

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  • Task force hunts killer after shooting spree in Tulsa, Okla.

    NBC's John Yang reports.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated 6:41 p.m. ET: A city-federal task force has been set up to find the attacker or attackers who shot three people dead and wounded two in a string of early-morning attacks in north Tulsa, police in Oklahoma said Saturday.


    Three men and one woman were shot within a mile of each other in north Tulsa at around 1 a.m. on Friday morning, police said. The body of a fifth victim, a man, was discovered outside a nearby funeral home in the predominantly black part of the city after 8 a.m. on Friday. Police said he was likely shot at about the same time as the others.

    All the victims were black, prompting the Rev. Warren Blakney Sr., NAACP Tulsa president, to say that someone appeared to be "targeting black people to shoot.”

    "I’m on edge for my people," Blakney said, according to the Tulsa World.

     

    At a Saturday afternoon press conference, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said it was too early to know whether the shootings were racially motivated.

    "The whole race issue, the hate crime issue, there's a very logical theory that would say that's what it could be, but I'm a police officer, I've got to go by the evidence," Jordan said, adding that no racial slurs had been used by the gunman, Reuters reported.

    Jordan had a message for the shooter: "We're coming after you."

    Officer Jason Willingham said police were searching for a white man driving a white pickup, which was spotted in the area of three of the shootings. At least two dozen officers are investigating the case, along with the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, Willingham said.

    "We don't have one definitive way where this investigation is headed," Willingham said. "Right now, that's the only thing we have to go on."

    The local chapter of the NAACP and other black leaders held an emergency meeting Friday evening at a church to appeal for calm and discuss safety.

    When asked if people in the community felt that the shooter was targeting black people, Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson replied, "Yes, absolutely," krmg.com reported.

    Henderson said people should not let "some crazy, deranged person mess up their weekend," but he added that the community "needs to watch their backs" until the shooter is caught, according to the Tulsa World.

    "We have to handle this because there are a number of African-American males who are not going to allow this to happen in their neighborhood," said Blakney, according to The Associated Press. "We're trying to quell the feeling of `let's get someone' and we will make as certain as we can that this isn't pushed under the rug."

    Police don't believe the victims knew each other.

    "There is no forensic evidence to link at this point," said homicide detective Sgt. Dave Walker. "Timing and location lead us to believe they may be connected."

    The FBI is assisting in the investigation as part of a joint city-federal task force, dubbed "Operation Random Shooter," and will determine if any federal laws were broken, said Special Agent Clay Simmonds, FBI spokesman for the state of Oklahoma.

    Police identified those killed as Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54, and William Allen, 31. Fields was found wounded about 1 a.m. Friday, Clarke was found in a street about an hour later, and Allen was discovered in the yard of a funeral home about 8:30 a.m.

    Minutes after Fields was found, police found two men with gunshot wounds in another yard two blocks away. They were taken to hospitals in critical condition but expected to survive, police said.

    Police Capt. Steve Odom said in his 30 years with the police department, he’d never seen so many shootings happen in such a short time.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Trayvon Martin marchers to Sanford, Fla., police: 'We want an arrest. Shot in the chest'

    NBC's Ron Allen reports.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 1:27 p.m ET: SANFORD, Fla. -- Civil-rights leaders from the NAACP and other groups led thousands of other protesters on Saturday in a march to the city’s police headquarters to demand the arrest of the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin.

    The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous were among those leading the rally through Sanford’s streets, marching behind a huge yellow banner with the words “Justice for Trayvon.”

    “We want an arrest. Shot in the chest,” marchers chanted.


    With gospel music playing in the background, protesters were marching from a technical high school campus on 13th Street through a predominantly black neighborhood to the Sanford Police Station several blocks away. The throng stretched for blocks, weaving past homes, churches and small businesses, many of them boarded up.

    The rally was organized by the NAACP. Its chapters from South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama arranged buses to bring participants to the rally, while others traveled by car.

    "Because of the age of the young man and because of the circumstances of his death, every community can identify with that," said Bernard Simelton, president of the Alabama state conference of the NAACP. "We've had things like that happen in Alabama where somebody gets killed and the police just sweep it under the rug. It just touches everyone."

    The marchers were demanding the arrest of George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who says he was defending himself when he fatally shot 17-year-old Martin during a scuffle. Martin, who was black, was unarmed as he walked from a convenience store, and the case has become a racial flashpoint with protesters across the nation calling for his arrest. Zimmerman's father is white, his mother Hispanic.

    NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous joins MSNBC to discuss the investigation into the death of Trayvon Martin.

    Sanford police did not immediately arrest Zimmerman, saying they had no information to disprove his assertion that he acted in self-defense. A special prosecutor has since been named to look into the case.

    Are old photos of Martin, Zimmerman deceptive?

    At a press conference before the march, Jealous and Sharpton denied media reports that Sharpton planned to call for an economic boycott of Sanford or the surrounding central Florida area, calling it a "media fabrication."

    "Put to rest the rumor that there is any discussion of a boycott of the community," Jealous told reporters.

    Sharpton said there could still be unspecified action against national corporations that support the "Stand Your Ground" laws like the one police cited when they declined to arrest Zimmerman. The law gives citizens wide latitude to use deadly force when a threat is perceived.

    Sharpton declined to identify those corporations but said, "We take nothing nonviolent off the table."

    A Florida NAACP leader said that Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee’s stepping aside temporarily was not enough, and that he should be fired.

    Martin’s death has also attracted international attention.

    About 300 people gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Saturday in a show of solidarity for the Martin family's cause. Some read poems and others carried placards with the slogan 'No Justice, No peace.' At the end of the three-hour vigil, 17 black balloons where released in honor of the slain teenager.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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  • African-American 'complexion' pageant outrages many in St. Louis

    Facebook.com

    The promoters of the runway show said it was meant to honor African-American women during Black History Month.

    By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

    St. Louis residents expressed outrage this week over a "Battle of the Complexions" contest scheduled for Friday night, but the event's promoters said they organized it to honor African-American women and regretted any "misunderstanding."

    The event was set for 9 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) at a nightclub in St. Louis. Promotional materials, including the poster pictured at right, promised a contest to see which African-American women are most attractive — those with light skin, those with brown skin or those with dark skin.

    "This is the most debatable topic of the year, whats the sexiest skin complexion?? So ladies come out & lets settle this!!" the promoters — Mack TV, a video and music promotional company, and a local "men's entertainment" promoter calling himself Nelly Da'Celeb — said on a Facebook page for the event, which msnbc.com is not linking to because of extreme language.

    Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP, said the event "raises the ... hair on the back of people's necks like me and some other folks."

    Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    "Folks who buy into it, support it, feed into it, they're just assuring that using race — using the skin complexion of women, devaluating women and things of this nature — is going to continue to happen, because as long as people spend money to take advantage of it, somebody's going to use it as a promotional tool," Pruitt told NBC station KSDK.

    After the contest was highlighted this week by Kevin C. Johnson, a music writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, negative reaction was swift and loud.

    Camille Houston, an African-American woman from St. Louis, told KSDK that she found the promotion offensive because it perpetuates historical divisions in the African-American community centered on skin tone.

    "Some guys will say, 'I don't like talking to dark-skinned girls,' or, you know, some girls will say. 'I don't like talking to dark-skinned guys,'" Houston said.

    The comments section on Johnson's post was filled with remarks reflecting equal parts outrage and sadness, interspersed with some support from commenters whose pictures indicated they were African-American, along with some outright racist sentiments.

    "Not only does this kind of nonsense continue to promote a negative collective self image, (which society does fine all by itself). These clowns now promote it. Wow!!!" one said.

    "The women, the men, and the promoters of this event are only doing much more to create a larger divide by skin color in an already too divided country," said another, who added: "All involved are losers in my book."

    In a post Thursday on Nelly Da'Celeb's personal Facebook page, Mack TV and Nelly Da'Celeb said they understood why some people were upset but that the event would go on:

    MACK TV WOULD LIKE TO CLEAR UP THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF OUR CONCEPT FOR THIS PARTY...ITS NOT TO DEGRADE WOMEN OR DIVIDE SKIN COLORS. ITS SIMPLY TO SEE WHICH COMPLEXION OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN RACE REPRESENTS THE MOST (lightskinned, caramel-brown, or darkskinned) AS A WHOLE , MALE & FEMALE! I CAN SEE THE MISUNDERSTANDING WITH OUR PROMO.....WE COULD HAVE USED A BETTER CHOICE OF WORDS....WE DID NOT MEAN TO OFFEND THE OFFENDED

    ITS BLACK HISTORY MONTH , SO WE MADE A PARTY THEME DEDICATED TO OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN CROWD. THE YOUNGER GENERATION IS LOVING THIS PARTY BECAUSE HERE'S THE FIRST TIME EVER YOU CAN COME OUT & BE PROUD THAT YOU ARE BLACK!! REGARDLESS OF YOUR SKIN TONE SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION & MISLEADING INFO.

    ITS BLACK HISTORY MONTH , SO LETS BE PROUD OF THE SKIN WE'RE IN!! REPRESENT YOUR COMPLEXION!

    They added that "ladies" would be admitted at a discount of "$5 until 11 p.m."

    Mike Rush of NBC station KSDK contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com.

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  • Ga. district investigates math homework on slavery

    By The Associated Press

    NORCROSS, Ga. -- Suburban Atlanta school officials are deciding whether to discipline teachers who gave third-grade students math homework with word problems about slavery.

    Gwinnett County schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said Monday that the district is working with the school principal to address the problem after parents complained about the worksheets. She says the district wants to ensure it doesn't happen again.

    The NAACP has called for the firing of the nine teachers involved.

    One of the math problems reads: "Each tree has 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

    Another was: "If Frederick got two beatings each day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

    Roach said the questions attempted to incorporate what students had been discussing in social studies with their math.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.