The parents of a middle school student are suing a Houston-area school district and school officials in federal court for allegedly coloring in his hair design earlier this year with a black permanent marker.

BREMERTON, Wash. — A Bremerton man convicted of a hate crime against a Black man was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison.

LANSING, Mich.  — The embattled director of Michigan's civil rights department has taken a leave of absence, weeks after he was reprimanded for making inappropriate remarks about the appearance of a woman he saw outside a meeting.

NEW YORK — Since their founding in New York City in 2016, the far-right Proud Boys have cultivated a rough and ready image, often declaring: “We don’t start fights. We finish them.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Spurred by the fatal police shooting of a young unarmed Black man that roiled California's capital city, state lawmakers approved changes to the nation's oldest law governing when officers can use deadly force and it was signed by the governor Monday, though even support…

Houstonians are mourning the death of an African American transgender woman. Tracy Single was found dead in a Memorial City parking lot on July 30, according to the Houston Police Department. An autopsy revealed the incident was a homicide.

CHICAGO — A hearing is set in the city of Chicago's effort to recover costs from actor Jussie Smollett after police said his claims of a racist and anti-gay attack were phony and staged.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia teen volunteering at the Alexandria National Cemetery three years ago noticed a rundown plot nearby where overgrown trees blocked the signed marking it as the Douglass Memorial Cemetery.

MADISON, Wis. — Former Wisconsin receiver Quintez Cephus has been cleared to return to school after a jury acquitted him of sexual assault charges.

NEW YORK — After five years of investigations and protests, the New York City Police Department on Monday fired an officer involved in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, the Black man whose dying gasps of “I can’t breathe” gave voice to a national debate over race and police use of force.

A jury found a grocery clerk guilty of killing a 17-year-old boy who left the store with a beer he didn't pay for in Memphis, Tennessee, in a case that had sparked protests, authorities said.

There's a new kind of first responder to some crime scenes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: musicians.

Two mounted officers seen leading a handcuffed Black man by what appeared to be a rope will not face a criminal investigation, the Houston Chronicle reports.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Police arrested at least 13 people and seized metal poles, bear spray and other weapons Saturday as hundreds of far-right protesters and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators swarmed downtown Portland, Oregon.

PHOENIX — Dozens of people, mostly African Americans, huddled around tables scattered across a church gymnasium on a recent evening, discussing past run-ins with Phoenix police officers and ways to hold them accountable.