Freddie Figgers is an inventor, computer programmer, software engineer, and entrepreneur. He is the youngest person in history to hold a FCC license, which allows him to operate his own cell phone company.

Freddie was abandoned at birth, but was…

Richelieu Dennis, the 49-year-old cofounder of Sundial Brands, had spent 20 years avoiding meals like this with the U.S. president of Unilever, the $54 billion (2017 sales) Anglo-Dutch consumer goods conglomerate. But he finally caved after Unilever executives began imploring…

Queen Latifah and ESSENCE Ventures LLC have partnered to create the Essence Creators and Makers Fund. This $20 million initiative will provide more financial support while building a stronger production and economic infrastructure for artists of color. ESSENCE Ventures LLC…

Actress Garcelle Beauvais and producer Lisa L. Wilson have teamed up to form Beauvais Wilson Productions, a new multimedia production company. BWP’s aim is to focus on developing and producing stories with a diverse voice in television, film, digital and…

VANILLA is one of the world’s most popular spices and an important ingredient in products ranging from chocolate to perfume. But it is getting harder to find. Vanilla-rich foods like ice cream have been removed from shelves or become…

The State Department wants to require all U.S. visa applicants to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers, vastly expanding the Trump administration's enhanced vetting of potential immigrants and visitors. 

In documents to be…

Western medicine has some good points, and is great in an emergency, but it’s high time people realized that today’s mainstream medicine (western medicine or allopathy), with its focus on drugs, drugs, radiation, drugs, surgery, drugs and more drugs…

After hitting a low in 2012, Colombia's cultivation of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, jumped 134% between 2013 and 2016, US officials said late last year. 2016 alone saw a 52% increase in the area under coca cultivation…

Uncle Luke Campbell received some major backing for his Liberty City Optimist (Warriors) football program. Over the weekend, Luther Campbell announced Adidas has donated $300,000 to the program, in addition to equipment for the Sam Johnson Youth Center at…

Unilever, the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, is acquiring Sundial Brands to expand its offering of hair- and skin-care products aimed at black women. 

New York-based Sundial, founded in 1991 by…

Marshawn Lynch may no longer be a Seahawk, but that’s not stopping a Seattle-area wireless carrier from teaming with the NFL star for a new phone service called Beast Mobile. A hero in Seattle sports history thanks to…

In small studies around the country, a handful of researchers have been investigating how MDMA-assisted psychotherapy can help heal the psychological and emotional damage caused by sexual assault, war, violent crime, and other traumas. Now, federal regulators have approved the…

With her new movie, Disney's "A Wrinkle in Time" starring Oprah Winfrey, director Ava DuVernay is now the the first black woman to direct a $100 million-budgeted live-action movie.  The milestone became public when the film, which is a fantasy…

As the country holds its breath in anticipation of who will take Barack Obama’s chair in the Oval Office, the president is considering how to get his résumé into the right hands after his eight-year lease on the White House…

The NBA will begin selling jersey sponsorships in 2017-18, becoming the first major North American sports league to put partners' logos on players' uniforms. The three-year trial was approved April 15 by NBA owners and will take effect when the…

Misty Copeland is American Ballet Theatre’s first African-American principal dancer. She has come a long way from her first ballet class on a basketball court at the Boys & Girls Club. As one of Variety’s Power of Women honorees, she…

BeeSweet Lemonade was started by Mikaila Ulmer at 4 years old. Her family encouraged her to make a product for a Children's business competition (the Acton Children’s Business Fair) and Austin Lemonade Day. After getting stung by a bee, she…

Queen Latifah is executive producing a new series set to air this summer on the Travel Channel. 

It is called “The Best Place To Be,” featuring stars divulging their favorite places to eat, drink, shop and sightsee. A-list celebs will…

Over 30 million Americans have used an online dating service or mobile dating app, according to Pew Research Center. Yet Black online users face apparent bias: Data collected from 25 million OkCupid accounts demonstrated that when users rated their matches…

Apple’s ambitions to go head to head with Netflix and create its own lineup of exclusive movies and TV shows has long been the subject of much chatter and speculation. But its first original TV project a nonscripted series about…

In what will be one of the most anticipated memoirs in music history, Prince has revealed that he is working on an autobiography that his publishers Spiegel & Grau describe as "an unconventional and poetic journey through his life and…

Sony is set to buy out the Michael Jackson estate’s half stake in the Sony/ATV song catalogue for $750 million. The total “includes a lump sum payment by SCA of approximately $733 million as well as distributions previously committed to…

Ryan Leslie gave every fan his phone number. It’s (915) 600-6978. But instead of a million unwanted phone calls, it’s making him money and giving him deeper intelligence about his listeners than anyone in the music business. That’s why A16z’s…

As part of Intel’s $300 million commitment to diversity, the company has announced a multi-year partnership and $1.3 million investment in CODE2040, a non-profit organization that helps get Black and Latino/a students of color involved in tech. This comes a…