Updated: In the US, gunman kills three seniors over potluck dinner at Alabama church
Updated: 10:40am, 18th June (AEST)Vestavia Hills, Alabama, US AP The 70-year-old visitor had previously attended some services at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church before police say he showed up for a potluck dinner, pulled a handgun and fatally shot three of the elderly participants, one of whom died in his wife’s arms as she whispered words […]
Alabama church of ‘Bloody Sunday’ on endangered places list
United StatesAP Like religious congregants all over, the people of historic Brown Chapel AME Church turned off the lights and locked the doors at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because it wasn’t safe to gather for worship with a deadly virus circulating. For a time, the landmark church that launched a national voting rights movement in […]
Last parent of a child killed in 1963 church bombing dies
Birmingham, Alabama, USAP The last living parent of any of the four Black girls killed in the 1963 Alabama church bombing died Sunday. She was 93. Maxine McNair’s family announced her death in a press release. A cause of death was not given. Maxine McNair, right, and Jewell Chris MacNair, seated at left, parents of […]
Pastor can hold inmate’s hand during execution, says US state of Alabama
Montgomery, AlabamaAP The US state of Alabama said it will allow a death row inmate’s pastor to hold his hand during a lethal injection next month, a decision that was made to end litigation over the issue. Lawyers for Alabama wrote in a June court document that inmates can now have a personal spiritual adviser […]
Kent Hovind, controversial US creationist preacher known as ‘Dr Dino,’ arrested in domestic assault case
RNS A controversial Alabama creationist preacher who recently sued the US Federal Government for half a billion dollars was arrested in late July in a domestic assault case. An arrest warrant dated 19th July alleges that Rev Kent Hovind, known as “Dr Dino”, intentionally threw his estranged wife, Cindi Lincoln, to the ground, causing bodily […]
From KKK family to civil rights activist: ‘Son of the South’ and the extraordinary journey of Bob Zellner
DAVID ADAMS speaks to writer/director Barry Alexander Brown about his latest film, ‘Son of the South’…
At least 160 Confederate symbols taken down in US in 2020 – SPLC
New York City, USAP When rioters tore through the US Capitol last month, some of them gripping Confederate battle flags, they didn’t encounter a statue of the most famous rebel general, Robert E Lee. The Lee statue, which represented the state of Virginia as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol for […]
US state of Alabama to allow spiritual advisor at inmate’s execution
Montgomery, Alabama, USAP Alabama is amending its lethal injection procedures to allow a condemned inmate to have his spiritual advisor in the execution chamber, state lawyers wrote in a Thursday court filing. The move comes after the US Supreme Court this month sided with Alabama inmate Willie B Smith III who had sought to have his pastor […]
US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett joins liberal justices to stay execution, grant inmate’s pastor access
Washington DC, USRNS US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined three liberal justices in allowing a pastor to be present during an execution, hinting at her broader approach to religious liberty disputes. The decision regarding Dunn v Smith, which was handed down late Thursday evening, involved death row inmate Willie Smith, a Christian who requested his […]
Alabama Governor apologises to ’63 church bombing survivor
AP Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has apologised to a survivor of a racist 1963 church bombing that killed four Black girls, calling the blast an “egregious injustice”, but declining Wednesday to pay restitution without legislative involvement. Ivey, responding to a request submitted by an attorney for Sarah Collins Rudolph, said the bombing of the 16th […]