Blacks Women

An active ingredient in a new heart failure drug tailored for African Americans can increase the risk of developing a form of lupus, a debilitating disease that strikes black women in disproportionately high numbers. BiDil was officially launched Friday by Massachusetts-based NitroMed Inc. as the first drug intended for use by patients in a particular ethnic group. The Food and Drug Administration approved it June 23.

Crowns. They wear crowns. Big, beautiful elaborate hats bejeweled with imported crystals that dance in the sunlight streaming through stained glass windows. Fancy creations abloom with iridescent plumes, oversized roses and sweet violets, perfect for pulpit or pew. Elegant chapeaux trimmed with fur, Belgian lace or flat-back pearls that stand out nonpareil in church.

"When I get dressed to go to church, I'm going to meet the king, so I must look my best." So says one of the women interviewed for "Crowns," a book documenting, in photographs and interviews, the hats that are such a vibrant part of churchgoing in the African American community.

Gail ELIZABETH WYATT doesn't look the part. Hooker. With her fair complexion, silky hair and refined dress, she resembles the archetypal African American trophy wife of her generation. Indeed, her husband is an obstetrician-gynecologist, and they live in a grand home -- tennis court, swimming pool -- high above Beverly Hills. Yet even on his arm, and even when she "looked like a lady going to church" in a new, emerald silk dress, she has been mistaken for a prostitute.

For Essence Week in Los Angeles, Angel Gaines needs her favorite jeans, her Diesels and a formal gown. Tonight the venerable magazine for black women will take the stage built for the Oscars at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood for its glitzy annual awards program. But in the Essence tradition of blending style and substance, the black-tie gala caps a week of special events designed to entertain, inform and inspire.

Charity Earley, the first black commissioned officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and commander of the only battalion of black women who served overseas during World War II, has died. She was 83. Earley , a retired teacher and school administrator, died of undisclosed causes Jan. 13 in Dayton, Ohio, where she once served on the Sinclair Community College board of trustees.

Juanita Williams, 75, a former Georgia legislator who was one of the first black women to run for public office in the state. The wife of civil rights leader Hosea Williams, Juanita Williams graduated third in her class at Savannah State College in 1957 with a degree in elementary education. She later earned a master's degree from Atlanta University in 1967.

Barbara T. Christian, author and UC Berkeley professor of African American studies who examined and encouraged contemporary American feminist literature, has died at the age of 56. Christian, who helped focus attention on such writers as Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, died Sunday of cancer at her home in Berkeley, university officials announced. Intrigued by literature since she discovered T.S.