Thousands are marking the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder at religious services, concerts and vigils nationwide.

Jurors considering second-degree murder charges against a former Michigan police officer have repeatedly watched videos showing the officer struggling with and then shooting 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya.

Target’s chief executive officer has met with the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose civil rights organization has encouraged consumers to avoid U.S. retailers that scaled backed their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Food and beverage giant PepsiCo has agreed to meet this week with civil rights advocates from the National Action Network to discuss the company’s recent decision to roll back some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has written to the CEO of PepsiCo giving the company three weeks to meet with him — or suffer a boycott — to discuss reversing the company’s recent move to do away with its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to a letter shared with The Associated Press.

An “economic blackout” promoted on social media is underway but with no clear indication of how many people took part or whether retail companies and restaurants will notice any effect from the grassroots protest.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is meeting with key political leaders as she contemplates removing Mayor Eric Adams from office after his administration has been thrown into disarray following the Justice Department’s decision to drop his corruption case so he could assist with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has declared that he is “no longer facing legal questions” after the Trump administration moved to drop the bribery charges that have been hanging over his reelection campaign — but he may still be facing an impossible choice.

President Donald Trump’s inaugural benediction on the federal holiday that celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. included an homage to the civil rights leader’s legacy.

Kamala Harris has visited two Atlanta-area church where she summoned Black members of the congregations to turn out at the polls.

The indictment of New York City mayor Eric Adams on federal bribery charges has sparked debates among Black leaders and community advocates about whether to stand behind a figure who, for many, represents a milestone of Black representation in government.

With less than 40 days until Election Day, the Rev. Al Sharpton's choice of a battleground state for a get-out-the-vote bus tour made sense.

Prosecutors in Milwaukee have charged four former hotel workers in connection with D'Vontaye Mitchell's death after a bystander's video showed them piling on the Black man as they tried to remove him from the lobby.

Donald Trump lambasted the guilty verdict of his hush money trial this week from the same Manhattan courthouse that was the site of one of the most notorious examples of injustice in recent New York history that he had a part in.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and family members of an Ohio man who died in police custody last month told mourners at his funeral that they and the community must fight to see that he gets justice.

President Joe Biden has virtually addressed the Rev. Al Sharpton’s racial justice conference, telling a sympathetic crowd “we’ve kept our promises” as he ramps up efforts to energize Black voters who will be vital to his reelection bid this fall.

President Joe Biden is expected to give a live virtual keynote address to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s racial justice conference in New York.

A white Connecticut state police trooper has been acquitted of all charges in the death of a 19-year-old Black community college student who was shot as he sat in a stolen car while holding a knife.

A Dallas pastor is the new head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition civil rights group, stepping into the role that has been held for decades by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

New York state will create a commission tasked with considering reparations to address the persistent, harmful effects of slavery in the state under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.

The motivations of a shooter who recently targeted and killed Black people in Jacksonville, Florida, have revived concerns about the threat of hate violence and domestic terrorism.

Hundreds of people have gathered at prayer vigils and in church to mourn yet another racist attack in America.

Thousands have gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

Sixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress.

A U.S. Marine veteran has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the fatal chokehold of a man who was behaving erratically on a New York City subway train.

Mourners gathered at a Harlem church at the funeral of Jordan Neely, the man whose chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety.

Some call the choking death of a man at the hands of another New York subway rider a criminal act.

Family, friends and other mourners gathered at a Virginia church to remember Irvo Otieno at a funeral service.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has been called a lot of names in his public life.

Nneka Ogwumike says Brittney Griner is an American hero.

WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges on the second day of her trial in a Russian court in a case that could see her sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s tight restrictions on who can carry a handgun, condemnation erupted from liberal leaders and activists.

On the eve of Juneteenth, the Tribeca Festival came to a close with the Rev_ Al Sharpton documentary “Loudmouth.”.

A new documentary about Rudy Giuliani premiering at the Tribeca Festival weaves in musical performances to give the ups and downs of the man once commonly referred to as “America's Mayor” a touch of opera.

The Jennifer Lopez documentary “Halftime” is kicking off the 21st Tribeca Festival on Wednesday, launching the annual New York event with an intimate behind-the-scenes portrait of the singer-actor filmed during the tumultuous year she turned 50, co-headlined the Super Bowl and narrowly missed out on an Oscar nomination.

Negotiations that led to the executive order on race and policing signed last week by President Joe Biden had been in danger of breaking down.

The last of the victims of a gunman’s racist attack on Black people at a Buffalo supermarket has been memorialized at a funeral service that became a call to action.

A week filled with goodbyes continues for family and friends of victims of the racist attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

The retired police officer killed in the Buffalo supermarket shooting has been posthumously awarded the city police department's medal of honor and promoted to lieutenant.

Long before an 18-year-old avowed white supremacist inflicted terror at a Buffalo supermarket, the city's Black neighborhoods had been dealing with wounds that are generations old.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, police have identified Christopher Schurr as the officer who killed Patrick Lyoya three weeks ago.

Dozens of interest groups have met with White House staffers to try to influence a long-awaited plan to ban menthol cigarettes.

The Rev. Al Sharpton is demanding that authorities release the name of the Michigan officer who killed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man and native of Congo who was fatally shot in the back of the head after a struggle.

A Michigan police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya after a traffic stop pressed the gun against the Black man’s head when firing the fatal shot.

Patrick Lyoya’s father says he and his family have a right to know the name of the white officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black man.

Body camera footage of the moments after an Arkansas deputy fatally shot a white teenager during a traffic stop have been shown publicly for the first time as the deputy’s manslaughter trial began.

President Joe Biden welcomed Black leaders to the White House Monday for a jovial Black History Month celebration, where he used the moment to call on Congress to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, and pass voting rights bills.

The mother of Trayvon Martin is marking the 10th anniversary of her son’s death by thanking those who sought justice for her family and urging them to continue to fight.

Trayvon Martin was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida, when the 17-year-old Black teen was fatally shot Feb. 26, 2012, during a confrontation with George Zimmerman.

The killing of Trayvon Martin at the hands of a stranger still reverberates 10 years later -- in protest, in partisanship, in racial reckoning and reactionary response, in social justice and social media.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a few team owners and executives met with civil rights leaders who urged the league to make drastic changes to its hiring practices to improve diversity in leadership positions.

The Rev. Al Sharpton told the hundreds gathered for Amir Locke’s funeral that the 22-year-old Black man would still be alive if Minneapolis had banned no-knock warrants.

A group of civil rights leaders called for replacing the Rooney Rule in a meeting Monday with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

A South Florida law school says it is creating a social justice center named after Ben Crump, the Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence.

Some Democrats have begun saying out loud what others are saying privately — that Joe Biden’s political standing is so weak less than a year into his presidency that he may not be able to win reelection in 2024 if he were to run again.

The man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery took the witness stand to tell jurors he pulled the trigger fearing for his own life.

A defense attorney in the murder trial over Ahmaud Arbery's death is likening a large courthouse rally and other actions supporting the slain Black man's family to a “public lynching” of the white defendants.

When a defense attorney in the trial of three men charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery called for Black pastors to be barred from the courtroom, shock and outrage rippled across the country.

Hundreds of pastors are rallying at the Georgia courthouse where three white men are on trial in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

Defense attorneys for the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery rested Thursday after calling a total of seven witnesses.

Race was always going to be at the forefront of the trial of three white men in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery.

The shotgun blasts that hit Ahmaud Arbery punched a gaping hole in his chest and unleashed massive bleeding.

Jurors in the trial of three white men charged in Ahmaud Arbery’s killing saw graphic photos of the shotgun wounds that killed him.

An attorney for one of three white men standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia says he doesn't want “any more Black pastors” in the courtroom.

Haitian migrants are waiting to learn their fate at a Texas border encampment whose size has dramatically diminished from the almost 15,000 who gathered there days ago in an effort to seek humanitarian protection in the U.S. but now face expulsion.

Federal and local officials say an encampment in a Texas border town where thousands of Haitian migrants gathered in recent days is now empty.

A former Arkansas sheriff’s deputy has been charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a white teenager whose death has drawn the attention of civil rights activists nationally.

Thousands of voting rights advocates are rallying across the country Saturday to call for sweeping protections against a further erosion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In the nation’s capital on Saturday, multiracial coalitions of civil, human and labor rights leaders are convening rallies and marches to urge passage of federal voter protections that have been eroded since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced state Sen. Brian Benjamin as her choice for lieutenant governor Thursday in the senator’s Harlem district.

The Biden administration has unveiled new efforts to help protect access to the ballot as complaints grow louder from civil rights activists and other Democrats that the White House has not done enough to fight attempts by Republican-led state legislatures to tighten voting laws.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and attorneys for George Floyd’s family have joined family and friends in mourning a white Arkansas teenager shot dead by a sheriff's deputy.

Honolulu's prosecuting attorney says his investigation has concluded that officers were justified in a shooting that killed a Black man.

In Questlove's documentary “Summer of Soul” a musical flood, too long dammed up, is finally released.

George Floyd's death after his arrest by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the event.

Parades, picnics and lessons in history are all part of Juneteenth events in the U.S. The day is carrying even more significance after Congress and President Joe Biden created a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery.

Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is condemning the Honolulu Police Department in the fatal shooting of a Black man as various versions of what led to his death emerge.

The Democratic primary race for New York City mayor is nearing the finish line with a surge in shootings pushing public safety to the top of some voters' concerns.

Members of George Floyd’s family, and others who lost loved ones to police encounters, joined activists and citizens for a march as part of events marking the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death.

Members of George Floyd’s family, and others who lost loved ones to police encounters, joined activists and citizens for a march as part of events marking the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death.

Many U.S. police departments limit shooting at moving vehicles because they consider the practice to be ineffective and not worth the risk to human life.

The Justice Department is sending a strong signal about its priorities these days.

The funeral for Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man shot and killed by deputies in North Carolina, brought calls for justice from the Rev. Al Sharpton and attorneys for the family.

Daunte Wright was remembered at his funeral Thursday as a dedicated father whose life was ended too soon at the hands of police.

The defense attorney also disputed that Chauvin was to blame for Floyd’s death. Jurors watched intently as the video played on multiple screens, with one drawing a sharp breath as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. ... She couldn’t help.”The timeline differs from the initial account submitted last May by prosecutors, who said Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. AdBefore the trial began, Floyd family attorney Ben Crump blasted the idea that the trial would be a tough test for jurors. City and state leaders are determined to prevent a repeat of the riots that followed Floyd’s death, with National Guard troops already mobilized.

As Minneapolis braces for Mondays opening statements in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-officer who is charged with murder and manslaughter in George Floyds death, so does the world. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)MINNEAPOLIS – National civil rights leaders appeared alongside several family members of George Floyd at a prayer service Sunday night, hours before opening statements were set to begin in the murder trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged in his death. Several dozen attendees congregated in the benches at Greater Friendship Missionary Church, where preachers led worship, a choir sang and members of George Floyd's family were joined by the Rev. The speakers called for justice in George Floyd's death, mirroring the words spoken by leaders during a protest earlier Sunday in downtown Minneapolis. George Floyd, who was Black, was declared dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on George Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes while George Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe.

He told reporters the Georgia law is an “atrocity" and the Justice Department is looking into it. Allies meanwhile plan to fight the Georgia law, and others, in court. He called as well for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore some aspects of a landmark law struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013. Donald Trump, the former president who promoted false claims of election fraud, congratulated the Georgia governor and state leaders on the new law. 1 is vast, and its Senate counterpart would confront the new Georgia law by expanding voting by mail and early voting, both popular during the pandemic.

He told reporters the Georgia law is an “atrocity" and the Justice Department is looking into it. Allies meanwhile plan to fight the Georgia law, and others, in court. He called as well for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore some aspects of a landmark law struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013. Donald Trump, the former president who promoted false claims of election fraud, congratulated the Georgia governor and state leaders on the new law. 1 is vast, and its Senate counterpart would confront the new Georgia law by expanding voting by mail and early voting, both popular during the pandemic.

Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs have left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said Tuesday. The shootings happened under the trauma of increasing violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fueled by white supremacy and systemic racism.” — Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. Ad___“The surge in violence against Asian Americans over the last year is a growing crisis. We need action from our leaders and within our communities to stop the hate.” — Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. ... Our entire nation must come together to speak out to Stop Asian Hate."

Al Sharpton, center, with his wife Kathy Jordan, third from left, as he speaks at a press conference following his released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. More than 16 years after separating, Rev. Al Sharpton has filed for divorce from his estranged wife, Kathy Jordan Sharpton. Al Sharpton has filed for divorce from his estranged wife, Kathy Jordan Sharpton. A statement attributed to both of them said: “After years of being separated, Kathy and I have decided to formalize our separation by filing for divorce. The couple had been married for more than 20 years when a separation was announced in November 2004.

In this Nov. 25, 2020, photo provided by the Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo, Gov. Cuomo speaks in Rochester, N.Y. Cuomo is one of several contenders under consideration by President-elect Joe Biden for the role of attorney general. Andrew Cuomo is one of several contenders under consideration by President-elect Joe Biden for the role of attorney general, a person with knowledge of the search process said Friday. The person was not authorized to discuss the search process by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. Cuomo has been asked in recent weeks about his interest in the attorney general spot.

WASHINGTON – Rahm Emanuel’s chances of landing a top Cabinet post in Joe Biden's administration appear increasingly unlikely after the former Chicago mayor emerged as a source of controversy for the president-elect, who had been considering Emanuel for transportation secretary, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Al Sharpton raised similar concerns during a meeting with Biden and other civil rights leaders, the person said. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss private deliberations and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. An announcement on transportation secretary is not believed to be imminent. Two other high profile Obama-era alumni were announced Thursday as joining the Biden administration — Denis McDonough as veterans' affairs secretary and Susan Rice to head the Domestic Policy Council.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)DETROIT – In a meeting with leaders of some of the nation’s top civil rights organizations, President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed Tuesday that his administration will prioritize racial justice and assemble a diverse Cabinet that can tackle pressing equity issues. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will join the Biden administration as a senior adviser, also participated in the nearly two-hour virtual meeting with seven civil rights leaders. The talk touched on how racial justice will be a common thread as the Biden administration works to address policing and criminal justice reform, COVID-19, the nation’s racial wealth gap, voting rights and more. The civil rights leaders said they made clear that Biden's supporters expect him to deliver on his promises. Although Tuesday’s meeting with the Biden transition team seemed reserved for leaders of historic civil rights groups, other leaders are also in line for opportunities to lobby the incoming administration.

WASHINGTON – Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland are emerging as the leading contenders to be nominated as President-elect Joe Biden’s attorney general, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Biden's thinking was described by people with knowledge of the presidential transition's internal thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly. Jones, who is white, has had a long-standing personal relationship with Biden dating back to Biden’s first presidential campaign in 1988. Jones would not comment Tuesday on the possibility of a nomination as attorney general. The Biden team has also been considering a number of other potential candidates for the post, including former Justice Department official Lisa Monaco.

Biden countered the concerns by arguing that Austin knows that a Pentagon chief's duties are different from those of a military officer. But the requirement for a congressional waiver makes getting him installed as Pentagon chief more complicated than usual. Austin retired in 2016 after 41 years in the Army and has never held a political position. Some prominent Democrats opposed the Mattis waiver, and among those who voted for it, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island expressed doubts. Biden has known Austin at least since the general's years leading U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq while Biden was vice president.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)WASHINGTON Tears streamed down Brooke Morelands face as she watched tens of thousands gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to decry systemic racism and demand racial justice in the wake of several police killings of Black Americans. Im going to do all that I can to encourage, promote, to mobilize and whats at stake is the future of our nation, our planet. Im going to hold these elected officials that are in office now accountable and Im going to vote in November and hold those same people accountable. That was clear as the Movement for Black Lives also marked its own historic event Friday a virtual Black National Convention that featured several speakers discussing pressing issues such as climate change, economic empowerment and the need for electoral justice. I do think voting and recognizing what an election should be is a way to kind of exercise that muscle.

I hope you hear us, Trump, the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted Thursday night near the site of Trump's speech. One protester held up a sign, Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue the street where the White House is located. Paul later tweeted that he had been attacked by a crazed mob a block from the White House. Lafayette Park, a traditional site of demonstrations across from the White House, was sealed off and there were some street closures. A longtime D.C. signature sound, Go-Go music emerged last year as a battle anthem for activists fighting fast-moving gentrification in the nations capital.

Sixty-five years later (after Tills murder), we still struggle for justice demilitarizing the police, dismantling mass incarceration, and declaring as determinately as we can that Black lives matter, King said. As peaceful protests turned to arson and theft, naysayers of the Black Lives Matter movement issued calls for law and order.The Rev. Theres a white system and a black system -- the black system aint doing so well.No justice, no peace! he proclaimed. Some participants headed toward Black Lives Matter Plaza, right outside of the White House, which was renamed from Pennsylvania Avenue during protests in June. In June, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act, which would ban police use of stranglehold maneuvers and end qualified immunity for officers, among other reforms.

Black Lives Matter activists are holding a virtual Black National Convention Friday, Aug. 28, to adopt a political agenda calling for slavery reparations, universal basic income, environmental justice and legislation that entirely re-imagines criminal justice reforms. Anyone who is watching, who is both enraged or looking for action, will find a space" in the Black National Convention, Byrd said. The Black National Convention was originally planned to take place in-person in Detroit, the nations Blackest major city. Fridays convention is expected to be the largest gathering of Black activists and artists, albeit virtual, since the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. The Black National Convention broadcast begins after the D.C. march has concluded.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)KENOSHA, Wis. The father of a Black man who was shot, apparently in the back, by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, says his son was left paralyzed from the waist down. The man who said he made the cellphone video, 22-year-old Raysean White, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, Drop the knife! White said he left the window for a few minutes, and when he came back, saw three officers wrestling with Blake. That man just literally grabbed him by his shirt and looked the other way and was just shooting him. The city is about 67% white, 11.5% Black and 17.6% Hispanic, according to 2019 Census data.