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Applebome's article is about the decision by a California school board to recognize Ebonics, or a distinct language spoken by American blacks, as the native language of many of the district's students. This was the first school board to make this decision. The school board hoped that students would receive better instruction in standard English and other subjects if the teachers understood they were teaching students who spoke a separate language. Critics accused the school district of making this move in order to get funding only available to bilingual schools, and some say that recognizing Ebonics will simply reinforce poor grammar. Linguists argue, however, that it is in fact a distinct dialect, and that many of the elements of Ebonics are reflections of African language structure.

Times Wire Reports. "Activists March, Seek Leads in 1946 Lynching." Los Angeles Times. 3 April 2005.

In recent news, people in Georgia remembered four black people who were victims of hate crimes in the 1940s. In 1946, a white hate mob attacked two men and two women in their car, then dragged them into the woods and shot them. This activist group that marched is trying to both raise awareness of hate crimes today, as well as encouraging anyone with information about this lynching many decades ago to come forward so that the killers can be prosecuted.