(NNPA)—The cover of this month’s Vanity Fair boasts a portrait of what the magazine calls up-and-coming actresses—but missing from the cover are any women of color.

Actresses Carey Mulligan, Kristen Stewart, Abbie Cornish, Mia Wasikowska, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood and Anna Kendrick—all White-appear on the cover of the magazine.

CONTROVERSIAL COVER—The lack of any actresses of color on the cover of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue has drawn criticism.

(NNPA)—A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb. 1 dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, or AKA, the nation’s oldest Black sorority.

The eight members alleged that the organization’s president, Barbara McKinzie, misappropriated millions of dollars of the sorority’s money. They claimed McKinzie was also improperly awarded a $375,000 stipend and used the organization’s credit card to purchase personal items for herself and friends.

BARBARA MCKINZIE

(NNPA)—Former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo made controversial statements about President Obama, voting procedures, and immigration in his kickoff speech at the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tenn. on Feb. 4.

Among his statements, Tancredo called for the return of a poll tax, which those wishing to vote must pay. Tancredo also said potential voters should be required to take literacy tests in order to vote.

The Week of Feb. 12-18

February 12

1793—Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Law. The law made it easier for a slave owner to re-take control of a slave who had escaped to freedom. Blacks and their supporters were outraged because the 1793 law only required the “word” of a White man before a magistrate to declare any Black person a run away slave and have him or her arrested and placed in bondage. Under the law even Blacks who had earned their freedom or had never been slaves were placed in danger.

TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT

1900—Legendary poet James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) writes the lyrics to the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as part of a birthday tribute to Abraham Lincoln. In time, the song would become the Black National Anthem.