Black Man Suing Newport cigarettes

 --  free giveaways contributed to his mother's death
The son of a woman who started receiving free cigarettes at her city housing project when she was 9 years old is suing the manufacturer for its alleged role in his mother's death. The lawsuit, which will be filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday according to The Boston Globe, is thought to be the first to accuse a tobacco company of targeting black children. Marie Evans, said in interviews with lawyers before she died in 2002 at age 54, that as a child she would get free sample packs of four to 10 Newport cigarettes from a company giveaway van that regularly came to her Orchard Park housing project in the Roxbury neighborhood. [more]