MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH Volume 133 No. 41
THE BLACK MEDIA AUTHORITY • AFRO.COM
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MAY 10, 2025 - MAY 16, 2025
AP Photo/ Evan Agostini
Superstar Diana Ross arrives at the 2025 Met Gala on May 5, on brand with the “Black Dandy” theme of the event and a new exhibit offered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The exhibit will run from May 10 to Oct. 26. According to information released by the Met, a dandy is “someone who ‘studies above everything else to dress elegantly and fashionably.’” The style “sprung from the intersection of African and European traditions of dress and adornment.” For more coverage of the gala, see A2 and A6.
Johns Hopkins to honor AFRO Publisher Frances Murphy Draper and other visionaries at 2025 commencement By AFRO Staff
Courtesy photo
afro.com
Dr. Frances “Toni” Murphy Draper will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during Johns Hopkins University’s 2025 Commencement ceremony on May 22.
The iconic Homewood Field at Johns Hopkins University will serve as the stage for more than a graduation on May 22. It will be a celebration of legacy, leadership and lifelong impact as four distinguished figures receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees during the university’s 2025
commencement ceremony. Among them is Dr. Frances “Toni” Murphy Draper, CEO and publisher of The AFROAmerican Newspapers and a trailblazer in education, media and ministry. Joining Draper in this prestigious honor are Louis J. Forster, chair of the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees and philanthropist; Salman Amin “Sal” Khan, founder of Khan Academy
and this year’s commencement speaker; and Alexander Sandor Szalay, renowned astrophysicist and data science pioneer. The degrees will be conferred by Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels.
Honoring a Baltimore legacy
Dr. Draper’s life and leadership reflect a rare and Continued on A3
OBITUARY
Trailblazing AME Bishop Carolyn Guidry dead at 87 By Zenitha Prince AFRO Contributing Editor The Right Rev. Carolyn Guidry, the 122nd elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, died May 3, the church announced. She was 87. The retired prelate died at home after a brief illness, surrounded by her family, The Christian Recorder
– the A.M.E. Church’s newspaper – reported. Guidry was born in Jackson, Miss., on Aug. 25, 1937. She received an associate’s degree in business and secretarial science from J.P. Campbell College in Jackson, then went on to study economics at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss. In 1977, she graduated from Los Angeles Bible Continued on A3
Photo courtesy A.M.E. Church
The Right Rev. Carolyn Guidry, a pioneering bishop and the first woman to lead several major roles within the African Methodist Episcopal Church, died May 3 at age 87 after a distinguished life of ministry, leadership, and community service.
Three former Memphis officers acquitted in fatal beating of Tyre Nichols By Adrian Sainz Three former Memphis officers were acquitted May 7 of state charges, including second-degree murder, in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a death that sparked nationwide protests and prompted renewed calls for police reforms in the U.S. A jury, which appeared to be all White, took about 8 1/2 hours over two days to find Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty on all charges after a nine-day trial in state court in Memphis. After the jury’s verdict was read, the defendants hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers cried. One relative yelled, “Thank you, Jesus!” The three defendants still face the prospect of years in prison because they were convicted of federal charges last year, though they were acquitted of the most serious charges then, too. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled a traffic stop after he was yanked out of his car, pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser.
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AP Photo/ Chris Day
RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols, listens as all three former officers accused in the beating death of her son are acquitted on multiple charges. Five officers who are also Black caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit Nichols with a police baton, struggling to handcuff him as he called out for his mother just steps from his home. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating and the incident directed intense scrutiny of police in Memphis, a majority-Black city. Footage of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled. Continued on A3