Venus & Serena Williams Lead An All-Star Black Women's Tribute To Tennis Icon Althea Gibson

Black Women Unite for Althea Gibson
John Singleton Cleared in Fatal Accident
Mandela Urges Britain's Black Leaders to Help Empower

Afeni Shakur's Life Story Comes to the Big Screen
Seattle's African American Academy Gets One More Try

New Research Links Black Suicides and Religion

Allen Iverson's Stepdad Indicted on Fed Drug Charges
Mounting Racial Tensions 'Resegregating' America
Remembering the 'Black ABCs'

BREAKING: Celebrated Filmmaker John Singleton Kills Black Woman In Horrible Car Incident

Boyz In The Hood Director In Fatal
SUV Accident In Los Angeles

As his new film "Illegal Tender" debuts, one of the pillars of Black Hollywood, John Singleton, has been involved in a vehicle homicide eerily similar to singer Brandy.

Singleton, 39, was driving a 2001 Lexus SUV in LA Thursday evening around 8:00 p.m. when it struck and killed a Black woman who stepped in front of the car, according to Associated Press.

The African American writer and producer immediately stopped his car and waited for police to arrive after the accident in the city's predominantly Black Jefferson Park neighborhood, said Officer Jason Lee, a police spokesman.

"Mr. Singleton stopped and identified himself as required by law and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol," Lee said. "He was questioned and released."

The reported jaywalker was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead Friday morning, Lee said. She was identified as Constance Russell, 57, of Los Angeles.

Other details were not immediately released, and an after-hours call to the native-Angeleno's agent was not immediately returned.

Earlier this week Singleton, the youngest person to ever be nominated for an Academy Best Director nod and the only African American, had been in the news rightfully calling out folks.

Referring to many of the comedy films featuring Black men as "coon shows" and decried the unfair critism his films were garnering over all the violence being depicted.

"I just think that it is a shame that 'Who's Your Caddy?' got a thousand screens and 'Talk To Me' only got 50. People are hungering for a great movie."

Singleton, whose debut film, 1991's "Boyz N The Hood," earned him two Oscar nominations, has also directed "Poetic Justice,""Shaft," and "2 Fast 2 Furious." He was the producer of "Hustle & Flow,""Black Snake Moan" and is set to direct Halle Berry in "Tulia."

The brother's latest work as a producer is the thriller "Illegal Tender" starring Rick Gonzalez and Wanda de Jesus. It opened yesterday, Aug. 24.

WHEREVER BEYONCE IS, THAT'S WHERE YOU'LL FIND US!

Did Beyonce Have a Wardrobe Malfunction?

Star's New Court TV Show Premieres

Jamaica Postpones Election After Hurricane

Inequality Found in Tobacco Advertising

UN Reports New Details on Darfur Rapes

Time Partners with Essence on Digital Venture

John Singleton: Most Black Comedies Are 'Coon Shows'

Like "Rosewood": A Controversial Movie About A Massacre But By... Mormons

On a quite meadow in Utah, 120 pioneers—men, women, and children traveling by wagon train from Arkansas—were slaughtered by a group of Mormons.

“Johova created me to be your god on earth!” – John Voight as Jacob Samuelson.

That was 150 years ago and the carnage, now known as The Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 is reenacted in a controversial new film called “September Dawn” starring Jon Voight.

Voight also starred in John Singleton's "Rosewood," a 1997 film about another massacre of a mostly all-black Florida township in 1923. But in "September Dawn" Voight plays no well-meaning white man. In fact he plays a character named Jacob Samuelson who says he has been "ordered" to kill the pioneers.

The movie embraces the position that it was Brigham Young, then head of the Church of Latter Day Saints, who ordered the attack. However, historians fiercely disagree over that fact. The Mormon Church also takes that position, but it does not deny that the church was not involved in the killings and as such, has built a monument to the massacre.

The filmmakers say they have no axe to grind with Mormons but they do draw parallels to modern day Islamic fanaticism. Strangely coincidental, the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred on September 11.

And what does today’s most popular Mormon, Mitt Romney, say about the film? “I don’t do movie reviews” his office responds.