Free Republic

Williams died in Los Angeles on Friday June 4, 2021 of colon cancer, his management confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Williams began his career on the stage and earned a Tony nomination in 1965 for best featured actor in a play for his work in the powerful three-person drama Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. Decades later, he returned to Broadway to star opposite Maggie Smith in the original 1979 production Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day. On the big screen, the Harlem native portrayed Prince’s troubled father in Purple Rain (1984) and was Wesley Snipes and Michael Wright’s drug-addled dad...

Race was front and center on Wednesday night during a meeting coordinated to garner support for just one black candidate in Savannah’s mayoral election. With signs stating “Black press only” on the doors of the church where the meeting was held, white reporters were barred from entry, while black reporters for at least two television stations were permitted inside. The event was coordinated by the Rev. Clarence Teddy Williams, owner of the consulting firm, The Trigon Group, who declined to discuss the entry policy. Former Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson declined to comment before going inside, as did Chatham County Commissioner...

A family in Colorado is outraged after two men, who were accused of gang-raping a 13-year-old girl with their brothers and cousins, were only sentenced to probation. Tommy Williams, 20, and Clarence Williams, 19, were each sentenced on Tuesday to a minimum of 10 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation, with a maximum of life on probation, KKTV reported. The men are two of six suspects accused of sexually assaulting the young teen in December 2016 inside of the Stonebrook Terrace apartment complex in Colorado Springs. INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED GIRL, 15, SUSPENDED AFTER REPORTING GANG RAPE AT NYC SCHOOL, LAWSUIT...

Dave Chappelle has signed a massive deal with Comedy Central that will return the comedian's hit series to the network for two more seasons. Sources familiar with the deal indicate it could be worth about $50 million, vaulting Chappelle, 30, into the rarefied realm of television's top earners. The new contract is believed to mark not only a steep increase for Chappelle as star, writer, co-executive producer and co-creator of "Chappelle's Show," but more significantly, reward him with a hefty chunk of the series' robust DVD sales. Increasing the pressure on Comedy to close a megadeal with Chappelle was interest...