Why The 'Race Card' Is Played

Government reopens probe of Emmett Till’s gruesome 1955 slaying Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The federal government has reopened its investigation into the slaying of Emmett Till, the black teenager whose brutal killing in Mississippi shocked the world and helped inspire the civil rights movement more than 60 years ago. The Justice Department told Congress in a report in March it is reinvestigating Till’s slaying in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 after receiving “new information.” The case was closed in 2007 with authorities saying the suspects were dead; a state grand jury didn’t file any new charges. Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till, said she was unaware the case had been reopened until contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday. The federal report, sent annually to lawmakers under a law that bears Till’s name, does not indicate what the new information might be. But it was issued in late March following the publication last year of “The Blood of Emmett

July 12, 1991 On this day, director John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood” was released. Writing in The Washington Post, movie critic Rita Kempley called it “a rude, insistent rap, an unflinching, often funny, always compassionate look at coming of age.” The film follows three childhood friends: Doughboy, played by rapper Ice Cube of N.W.A., in what Kempley called “an impressive acting debut”; Doughboy’s “model-handsome” brother Ricky, played by Morris Chestnut; and Tre, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. Tre’s mother sends him to live with his father (Laurence Fishburne), who is “distant and preachy, but his tough love makes all the difference.” Tre perseveres, Kempley wrote, while his friends “fall by the wayside, victims of temper, neglect and indigence.” The film was a critical success. Singleton became the first African American and the youngest person nominated for a best-director Oscar. He went on to make such movies as “Poetic Justice” and “Baby Boy.” The film also made movie stars o