Day: May 11, 2025
A fraught history of race and immigration connect the new pope with his homeland
Pope Leo XIV, who on Thursday was elected as the first-ever US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church, has a familial bloodline that reflects his homeland’s fraught relationship with race – and why the nation’s stature as a melting pot of origins has long endured, records unearthed by genealogists show.
The maternal grandfather of 69-year-old Robert Prevost, the newly minted pope, was evidently born abroad in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, according to birth records that professional genealogist Chris Smothers cited to ABC News in a recent report. When Leo’s grandfather, Joseph Martinez, obtained an 1887 marriage license to wed the future pope’s grandmother, Louise Baquié, he listed his birthplace as Haiti, which at the time was the same territory as Santo Domingo, Smothers noted.
Fort Lauderdale redevelopment would scrap oceanside basketball courts – and some have suggested a racial motive
A proposal to rip out decades-old public basketball courts on Fort Lauderdale’s historic beachfront and replace them with new pickleball facilities has enraged residents, and prompted some to suggest an underlying racial motive.
The two oceanside courts were built within 10 years of a landmark 1962 judicial ruling that ended segregation on the Florida city’s beaches. They have remained popular with a diverse crowd of players and spectators since.
