(Baltimore, MD) – The NAACP mourns the loss of Judge Robert L. Carter, federal judge and General Counsel for the NAACP during Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and other landmark cases. In 2004, Carter earned the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. He passed away on January 3, 2012. “We have lost a [...]

The reported death of Ofield Dukes, Dec. 6, has caused the African American community to pause out of respect for the loss of talent and fervor, and out of wonderment at how that particular void will be filled. He founded Ofield Dukes and Associates and for 42 years set the standard of excellence for public [...]

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, the rapper, producer and actor affectionately known as Heavy D collapsed in his Beverly Hills home in the morning and died a short time later at a Los Angeles hospital, according to police and the coroner. He was 44. Heavy D, whose real name is Dwight Arrington Myers, was found conscious [...]

The legendary heavweight bosing champion ‘Smokin Joe Frazier’ lost his brief battle to liver cancer on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 at the age of 67 years-old. Frazier’s long career in boxing was full of many victories, but he will be most remembered for being the first boxer to defeat Muhammad Ali. A vicious left hook [...]

By Denise Rolark Barnes Special to the NNPA from The Washington Informer Civil rights icon, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth has died, leaving few remaining living leaders of the U.S. civil rights movement. Shuttlesworth was co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He passed away on Oct. 5, at Princeton Baptist Medical Center, in Birmingham. He [...]

By Lynda Jones Milwaukee lost one of its great ones on September 29, 2011 when renowned photojournalist Harry T. Kemp died at the age of 78 at his home in his sleep. Born June 10, 1933 in Racine, WI, he moved to Milwaukee at the age of 6. Kemp graduated from Lincoln High School in [...]

Friends and family gathered to celebrate the life of Dr. Erskine R. Tucker, Sr. on Monday, Aug. 29, 2011 at Central United Methodist Church, which was his church home. Dr. Tucker passed on the morning of Aug. 23, 2011 a month shy of his 82nd birthday. Born on Sept. 24, 1929, in Ramer, AL to [...]

Clarice Taylor, the actress memorably known as Anna Huxtable on the “The Cosby Show,” died of heart failure on May 30, in Englewood, N.J. She was 93. The actress’s representative confirmed her death to PEOPLE magazine, and said she was surrounded by family at the time of her passing. Born Sept. 20, 1917 in Buckingham [...]

Compiled by Courier Staff Dr. Manning Marable, an influential scholar and historian died on Friday, April 1, 2011 at the age of 60. Dr. Marable’s latest book described as his life’s work was released this week on Monday, April 4 week entitled “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,”, a book over two decades in the [...]

Vince enjoyed music, working on handyman projects and helping others. He will be missed by his father Charles Hattix, grandmother Hattie Elizabeth Sanders, children: Candy Hattix, Vince Hattix, Jr., Kindra Way, Willie Hattix and Bernice Hattix, six grandchildren, seven siblings and a host of other relatives and friends. In his honor and memory, Vince’s family [...]