Featured
When a White Republican Teen Invited a Black Pastor to Preach in His Hometown. By Julie Beck / The Atlantic
Each installment of The Friendship Files features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.
This week she talks with two men whose lives were altered by a chance encounter. When he was a teenager, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove heard Reverend William Barber II preach, and invited the Black pastor to speak at his majority-white, strongly Republican high school. They fell out of touch for a time, and, when they reconnected, worked together to build a multiracial “fusion coalition” to influence North Carolina politics. They discuss how they connected in spite of their different backgrounds, and the role that friendships like theirs can play in advocating for change and building political movements. Read more
Political / Social
Donald Trump, American Monster. By Maureen Dowd / NYT
The House Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time hearing was not about Trump as a bloviating buffoon who stumbled into the presidency. It was about Trump as a callous monster, and many will come away convinced that he should be criminally charged and put in jail. Lock him up!
The hearing drove home the fact that Trump was deadly serious about overthrowing the government. If his onetime lap dog Mike Pence was strung up on the gallows outside the Capitol for refusing to help Trump hold onto his office illegitimately, Trump said, so be it. “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” he remarked that day, chillingly, noting that his vice president “deserves it.” Read more
Related: ‘We All Have a Duty to Ensure That What Happened on Jan. 6 Never Happens Again.’ The Editorial Board / NYT
Related: The January 6 Committee Must Expose Trump’s Ties to White Supremacy. By Maya Wiley / The New Republic
Related: How race played a role in the Capitol insurrection. By John Yang / NPR
Why a Dem dream candidate can’t touch Rubio in Florida. By Gary Fineout / Politico
Rep. Val Demings may not get any measurable help in a state that may be slipping away from her party.
On paper, Rep. Val Demings should be the ideal Democratic candidate to challenge GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Demings served as Orlando police chief before winning a congressional seat in 2016, was short-listed to serve as President Joe Biden’s running mate, has outpaced Rubio in campaign donations and is regularly greeted enthusiastically by voters on the trail. She routinely notes her upbringing — a “Black girl who grew up poor in the South” and was the daughter of a janitor and a maid. Read more
Former ‘Hip-Hop Minister’ Running For NYC Council Seat. By D.L. Chandler / HIPhopwired
The political and spiritual journey of former Nation Of Islam (NOI) minister Conrad Tillard has been unfolding over the last decade. After leaving the NOI, Tillard became a Christian minister. Now, the former “Hip-Hop Minister” is eyeing a New York City council seat in Brooklyn.
DNAInfo sat down with the former head of Harlem’s Mosque No. 7, the same temple where Malcolm X once delivered fiery sermons. Then known as Conrad Muhammad, Tillard joined the NOI in the 1980s while he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Tillard earned his political stripes early, working as a coordinator for Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential bid. The St. Louis native is currently one of five potential candidates looking to replace current councilman Al Vann in the 36th Council District. Read more
Bakari Sellers-Affiliated PAC Aims to Unseat Rashida Tlaib. By Akela Lacy / The Intercept
A NEW POLITICAL action committee “dedicated to empowering urban communities to narrow the wealth gap between Black and White Americans” has picked its most prominent and first incumbent target this cycle: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Launched in October by more than 40 Black business and civic leaders, the group, Urban Empowerment Action PAC, has labeled the challenge against Tlaib its “premier race” and plans to spend at least $1 million to unseat her, arguing that Detroit, a city that is majority Black, should be represented by a Black member in Congress. Read more
NYC Mayor Eric Adams urges Congress to pass common sense gun reform. By Rachel Treisman / NPR
Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Wednesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams — a former law enforcement officer — said it is “high noon in America” and called on Congress to enact what he described as common sense gun reform. Those measures include regulating or banning assault weapons, enhancing background checks and directing more funding to states and localities for healthcare, childcare, education and housing. Read more
In abortion debate, echoes of another battle: Reproductive rights for Black women. By Alilah Johnson / Wash Post
The Mothers of Gynecology Monument Park in Montgomery, Ala., memorializes enslaved Black women who were experimented on without anesthesia to develop gynecological procedures and tools. (Andi Rice/For The Washington Post)
Justice Dept. Is Investigating Louisiana Police Over Accusations of Abuse. By Glenn Thrush / NYT
Similar investigations are underway into the Minneapolis Police Department in connection with the killing of George Floyd and the Louisville Police Department’s actions leading up to the shooting of Breonna Taylor.
The Justice Department on Thursday opened an investigation into the Louisiana State Police over accusations that officers had engaged in abusive and discriminatory behavior, including the fatal beating of a Black motorist three years ago. Under President Biden and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, the department has expanded its use of such intensive inquiries, known as pattern-or-practice investigations, which are meant to determine whether a state or local law enforcement agency uses “excessive force, biased policing and other unconstitutional practices.” Read more
Why Students Are Choosing H.B.C.U.s: ‘4 Years Being Seen as Family.’ By Erica L. Green / NYT
Many in a generation that grew up with a Black president and Black Lives Matter are embracing Black colleges and universities.
Once the primary means for Black Americans to get a college education, historically Black colleges and universities, or H.B.C.U.s, now account for just 9 percent of such students. But top-tier H.B.C.U.s — long bastions of Black excellence — as well as others are increasingly becoming the first choice for some of the nation’s most sought-after talent, according to interviews with dozens of students, guidance counselors, admissions advisers and college officials across the country. Read more
Related: Racist Bullying of Black Students Rising Online and in Person. By Giulia Heyward / Capital B
Ethics / Morality / Religion
The Moral Desolation of the GOP. By Peter Wehner / The Atlantic
The sheer scale of Donald Trump’s depravity is unmatched in the history of the American presidency, and the Republican Party made it possible.
The violent assault on the Capitol was the culmination of that effort; Trump “summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said. And he reveled in what he had done. The more carnage, the better. The sheer scale of Donald Trump’s depravity is unmatched in the history of the American presidency, and the Republican Party—the self-described party of law and order and “constitutional conservatives,” of morality and traditional values, of patriotism and Lee Greenwood songs—made it possible. It gave Trump cover when he needed it. Read more
How Christian nationalism paved the way for Jan. 6. By Jack Jenkins / Religion News
The president seemed to frame himself as leading an existential fight against liberal foes, defending America from an attack on the Christian faith.
In retrospect, the “symbolic” message of Trump’s Bible photo op, as he termed it, operates as a bookend to the Christian nationalism on display at the attack on the U.S. Capitol seven months later. It communicated, however histrionically, that the president was leading an existential fight against politically liberal foes calling for a racial reckoning, but at the center of which was an attack on Christian faith. From that moment on, Christian nationalism — in the broadest sense, a belief that Christianity is integral to America as a nation and should remain as such — provided a theological framework for the effort to deny Democrats the White House. Read more
Related: Jan. 6 committee must address Christian nationalism. By Amanda Taylor / Religion News
Republicans pitch religious, family values as gun violence solution. By Emily Brooks / The Hill
“We had AR-15s in the 1960s. We didn’t have those mass school shootings,” Scalise said during a press conference Wednesday. “Now, I know it’s something that some people don’t want to talk about. We actually had prayer in school during those days,” Scalise continued. “We had other things going on in our society where we took a different approach to our young kids. And let’s look at that. These are tough conversations we shouldn’t be having that we’re not having about why we’re seeing more young kids go astray.” Read more
Related: What Supporters of Gun Rights Mean When They Talk About ‘Evil.’ By Esau McCaulley / NYT
Historical / Cultural
Organization Apologizes For Involvement In Tuskegee Syphilis Study. By Jay Reeves / HuffPost
A New York-based philanthropy is apologizing for its role 50 years after the study was revealed to the public.
For almost 40 years starting in the 1930s, as government researchers purposely let hundreds of Black men die of syphilis in Alabama so they could study the disease, a foundation in New York covered funeral expenses for the deceased. The payments were vital to survivors of the victims in a time and place ravaged by poverty and racism. Read more
Civil Rights Activists Fought for America’s Democracy. They Should Be Honored as Veterans. By David Dennis Jr. / NYT
Credit…United Press International, via High Museum of Art
My father and his peers fought a vital battle in the war for freedom that is still being waged. As the movement continues to seek justice amid attacks on civil rights and voting rights, and the racially motivated killings of Black Americans in Buffalo and elsewhere, we should also look back at how we can aid the veterans from earlier eras of this struggle who are still with us. Read more
The Long Shadow of Eugenics in America. By Linda Villarosa / NYT Magazine
As young girls, the Relf sisters were sterilized without consent. What does the government owe them — and the thousands of other living victims?
Some states have begun to go beyond apologies. Three so far, Virginia, North Carolina and California, have established programs to compensate victims of forced sterilization. But Alabama, where the Relf sisters were forcibly sterilized and which has been their home all their lives, is not one of those states, and the federal government has made no such moves. The Relf sisters subsist in obscurity on meager Social Security checks. Read more
‘Mississippi Masala’ finds new audiences 30 years later. By
It’s National Puerto Rican Day Parade, and salsa meets jazz in memories of The Village Gate. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
Sunday is the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. This annual event was founded in 1958. As marchers, dancers, and floats pass by on 5th Avenue, thousands of people gather to march or cheer on the sidelines, and millions more watch on television. I’m reminded that Puerto Ricans gifted New York City, and the world, with amazing music—most notably from the salsa genre. So for this week’s Black Music Sunday, and our final excursion into famed New York music venues before moving on to other cities, there’s no better time to take a journey back in time to New York’s legendary club, The Village Gate, which opened the very same year the Puerto Rican Day Parade debuted. Read more
History made on Broadway with plans to rename theater after Lena Horne. By
The Nederlander Organization announced on Thursday it will rename the century-old Brooks Atkinson theater after legendary performer and civil rights activist Lena Horne, who died in 2010. The historic move marks the first time a Broadway theater will be named after a Black woman, as the industry continues to grapple with a relative lack of racial diversity. Read more
Sports
Why Black folks can root for the Celtics. By Dart Adams / Andscape
Boston’s history makes it hard for some to get behind the Celtics, but the team’s progressive past should also come into play
One of the frustrating things about being a Black Bostonian and a Boston Celtics fan is dealing with flat-out hatred from my own people toward the franchise and anyone who roots for the team. The stereotype of a Celtics fan — white, racist and obnoxiously loud — is a far cry from the actual fan base. Read more
Related: Movie Review: Adam Sandler in Netflix’s NBA drama Hustle. By Bilge Ebiri / New York Magazine
Tiger Woods is officially a billionaire. By Christopher Brito / Forbes
Forbes reported on Friday that Woods’ net worth is believed to be at least $1 billion. He has won $121 million in prize money – more than any other pro golfer in history, and during the prime of his career, he held the top spot in Forbes’ highest-paid athletes for 10 consecutive years until 2012. Woods also reached the financial milestone without taking a lucrative to compete in Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, which reportedly would have been in the “high nine digits.” Read more
Mellody Hobson Is About To Be The First Black Female Owner Of An NFL Team. By Joey Held / Celebrity Net Worth
Earlier this week the Bowlen Trust revealed that it had reached an agreement to sell the Broncos for $4.65 billion. That’s the highest price ever paid for an American sports franchise. The primary buyer is Walmart heir Rob Walton. But Walton has some co-investors coming along for the ride. One of those co-investors is includes Mellody Hobson. Prior to this NFL deal, Mellody was perhaps best-known for being the wife of Star Wars creator George Lucas. As a result, Hobson is now the first Black female owner of an NFL team. Read more
How an Olympic sprinter turned an HBCU into a track powerhouse. By Glenn A. Hill / Wash Post
Over the past decade, Ross has transformed North Carolina A&T into one of the premier track and field programs in the country, defying skeptics who said his dreams of turning a historically Black university into a modern athletic powerhouse were too lofty. Now Ross’s team is one of the best in the country and on the verge of fulfilling his ultimate goal: a national championship. Read more
LeBron James sets his sights on owning an NBA team in Las Vegas. By Issy Ronald / CNN
Newly minted billionaire and basketball star LeBron James has long expressed an interest in becoming an NBA owner and he reveals his plans in the latest episode of the talk show “The Shop.” “I wanna own a team. Yeah, I wanna buy a team, for sure. I want a team in Vegas,” James said in a promotional video for the show ahead of its airing on Friday. He later shared the clip on his Twitter feed alongside the caption, “Speaking it into existence!” Currently, there isn’t an NBA franchise in Las Vegas, but there have been multiple reports of the league expanding in the future. Read more
Larry Holmes, Gerry Cooney forever connected 40 years after 1982 championship bout that pitted Black against white. By Branson Wright / Andscape
The two left animosity in the ring after the fight and became friends
Who’d ever thought Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney would be at a cookout talking [smack] with each other now?” Certainly not 40 years ago, when Holmes and Cooney faced off in a parking lot at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in a WBC heavyweight championship bout more associated with racial bile than on the two combatants in the ring — one white, one Black. The racial venom was so disturbing that Holmes’ property was vandalized, and he received enough death threats that he had to move his family briefly. Read more
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