Featured
The Unsung African American Scientists of the Manhattan Project. By Farrell Evans / History
At least 12 Black chemists and physicists worked as primary researchers on the team that developed the technology behind the atomic bomb.
During the height of World War II between 1942 and 1945, the U.S. government’s top-secret program to build an atomic bomb, code-named the Manhattan Project, cumulatively employed some 600,000 people, including scientists, technicians, janitors, engineers, chemists, maids and day laborers. While rarely acknowledged, African American men and women were among them—their ranks bolstered by greater wartime employment opportunities and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 of 1941 outlawing racial discrimination in the defense industries. Read more
Related: “Oppenheimer” Is An Uncomfortably Timely Tale of Destruction. By David Kilion / The New Republic
Related: Why It Matters That ‘Oppenheimer’ Casts Non-Jews in Jewish Roles. By Josh Levs / Newsweek
Political / Social
DeSantis Faces Swell of Criticism Over Florida’s New Standards for Black History. By Sarah Mcrvosh / NYT
In one benchmark, middle schoolers would learn that enslaved Americans developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
After an overhaul to Florida’s African American history standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s firebrand governor campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, is facing a barrage of criticism this week from politicians, educators and historians, who called the state’s guidelines a sanitized version of history. Read more
Related: DeSantis seeks to whitewash slavery in Florida’s curriculum. By the Editorial Board / Wash Post
Related: Kamala Harris Slams Ron DeSantis Over Florida’s Black History ‘Propaganda.’ By Igor Bobic / HuffPost
Alabama lawmakers refuse to create a 2nd majority-Black congressional district. By AP and NPR
Alabama on Friday refused to create a second majority-Black congressional district, a move that could defy a recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court to give minority voters a greater voice and trigger a renewed battle over the state’s political map.
Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated House and Senate instead passed a plan that would increase the percentage of Black voters from about 31% to 40% in the state’s 2nd District. The map was a compromise between plans that had percentages of 42% and 38% for the southeast Alabama district. GOP Gov. Kay Ivey quickly signed it. Read more
A Black Man Was Elected Mayor in Rural Alabama, but the White Town Leaders Won’t Let Him Serve. By Aallyah Wright / Capital B
For three years, Patrick Braxton says he has experienced harassment and intimidation after becoming the first Black mayor in Newbern, Alabama.
There’s a power struggle in Newbern, Alabama, and the rural town’s first Black mayor is at war with the previous administration who he says locked him out of Town Hall. After years of racist harassment and intimidation, Patrick Braxton is fed up, and in a federal civil rights lawsuit he is accusing town officials of conspiring to deny his civil rights and his position because of his race. Read more
Clarence Thomas accidentally blessed a new type of affirmative action. By Jonathan Zasloff / Slate
The Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting affirmative action in university admissions was long expected, but one aspect of the court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard has been seriously overlooked: If the logic of Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion were actually followed by the court, then affirmative action for the vast majority of Black Americans would have been saved.
In his concurrence in that case, Thomas rejected the idea that the framers of the 14th Amendment accepted race-conscious policy with programs such as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Even though that agency was focused on services for newly freed slaves, all of whom were Black, Thomas argued: Read more
Related: Clarence Thomas’s Cherry-Picked Originalism on Affirmative Action. By Stephen Siegel / TNR
Related: A message for Asian American students in affirmative action’s aftermath. By Frank Shyong / LA Times
Students and Faculty Fear Tenure and DEI Bills Could ‘Destroy’ Texas Colleges. By Eva Surovell / The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
College students and faculty members at the Texas State Capitol, in Austin, protest bills that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and affect teaching and tenure.
As a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, Sam Jefferson worked in the school’s diversity office. Jefferson said he learned firsthand just how essential the offices are to the success of students from underrepresented groups. Now it’s on the brink of being eliminated by a Texas bill that would bar public colleges from having diversity offices or officers. “You’re talking about legislation that’s going to take away one of the only places that students can feel seen, heard, and acknowledged and helped,” said Jefferson, who just graduated. Read more
Fulton County is ready to unveil Trump’s ‘criminal enterprise.’ By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos
Fani Willis is prepared to unveil an entire “criminal enterprise”—one facing racketeering charges.
Racketeering charges usually require showing not just a crime, but a repeating pattern of criminal activity. To file these charges, Willis will need to show at least two “qualifying” crimes. Willis has previously mentioned considering both conspiracy and racketeering charges in her investigation of how Trump attempted to convince officials to reverse his loss in Georgia. Read more
Post-Retirement Cognitive Decline Varies by Race and Education – Neuroscience News. By Neuroscience News
A new study highlights the varying rates of cognitive decline among different race and sex groups after retirement. White men showed the sharpest decline, while Black women experienced the least.
Surprisingly, individuals who attended college showed a greater decline than those who didn’t. The research suggests that factors such as job opportunities and lifelong structural inequalities may play a role in cognitive aging post-retirement. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Frederick D. Haynes III on succeeding Jesse Jackson, marching and ‘woke preaching.’ By Adelle Banks / RNS
The Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, who has led a Black megachurch in Dallas for 40 years, has just been chosen to take the place of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition for more than five decades.
Like Jackson, the senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church has been known for preaching and protesting, following in the footsteps of role models like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Read more
Related: America Still Doesn’t Understand Jesse Jackson. By Abby D. Phillip / NYT
It’s a Christian mandate to create a society where all flourish — SCOTUS keeps undermining it. By Sally Vonner / RNS
Affirmative action may not have been perfect, but that does not mean that we abolish it, rather we stay committed to do better.
While the decision was not surprising, we must acknowledge the fact that there has been a long-lasting campaign against affirmative action, which exists as part of a broader current backlash to historic and present-day racial and gender justice movements. Read more
Evangelical Colleges Will Continue to Pursue Diversity Without Affirmative Action. By Hannah McClellan / Christianity Today
Warner Pacific University president Brian Johnson takes a selfie with college students.
“For most Christian institutions, I don’t think there’s going to be a significant change in our recruiting practices or our admissions policies,” said James Steen, Houston Christian University’s vice president of enrollment management. Read more
White Texas couple leads ‘Let’s Talk Race’ class to educate churchgoers. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
Shelley and David Park with their sons, Samuel, left,and his younger brother, Jeremiah, right. Photo courtesy Shelley Park
For Shelley Park, it was the 2019 killing of Atatiana Jefferson by a Texas police officer that transformed her from a casual observer of U.S. racial history to teaching about it in hopes of fostering cross-racial understanding. For David Park, it was the need to learn from Black friends how to have “the talk” with both of their children: their biological son, Samuel, and his younger adopted African American brother, Jeremiah, as they grew closer to the age when they could be subject to a traffic stop. Read more
Historical / Cultural
John Mercer Langston Paved the Way for Black U.S. Representatives, But Most People Don’t Know It. By Tom Shields / Diverse Issues in Higher Ed
John Mercer Langston was born free in 1829 in Louisa County, Virginia. He was active in the abolishment movement, helping slaves gain freedom along the Underground Railroad. Langston also served as a minister to Haiti and president of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate School, what is today Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia. Langston was elected to Congress from Virginia in 1888 — one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South during the post-Reconstruction era. Read more
Biden Will Establish A National Monument Honoring Emmett Till, The Black Teen Lynched In Mississippi. By Darlene Superville / HuffPost
A White House official says President Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had not formally announced the president’s plans. Read more
‘Rustin’ First Look: Colman Domingo Is Bayard Rustin, the Man Who Turned MLK’s Dream Into a Reality. By Chris Murphy / Vanity Fair
The star and director George C. Wolfe shine a spotlight on an unsung civil rights hero: “The more I was living with Bayard, I just became overwhelmed.”
On August 28, 1963—almost exactly 60 years ago—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what might be the most impactful speech of the modern era at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Over 250,000 people gathered in Washington, DC, and heard Dr. King declare his dream for the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a moment that would forever immortalize Dr. King as a civil rights icon in the annals of American history. And none of it would have happened if not for the effort of one man who has been largely sidelined by those history books. That man was Bayard Rustin. Read more
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s New Book “#SayHerName” Released by Haymarket Books.
This seminal work uplifts the individual stories of Black women who have fallen victim to state violence and the loved ones they have left behind.
“#SayHerName” provides a significant contribution to the discourse on Black feminist practice, community-building, and reckoning. By taking an intersectional approach, Dr. Crenshaw underscores the unique susceptibility of Black women to police violence and spotlights racial patriarchy’s role in this systemic violence. Furthermore, the book examines how community engagements and town halls have influenced its narratives, highlighting the power of grassroots involvement. Read more
Activists split over whether reparations should go to Black immigrants. By Emmanuel Felton / Wash Post
John Lewis honored at Morehouse ceremony as stamp goes on sale. By Rahul Ball / WABE
A new postal stamp featuring late Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis is unveiled at a ceremony at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. on Friday, July 21, 2023. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
A U.S. Postal Service stamp honoring late Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis went on sale Friday. The issue date was marked with a ceremony at Morehouse College. Michael Collins, Lewis’ former congressional chief of staff, spoke about Lewis’ passion for stamps. Read more
‘Roots’: How the miniseries changed television and American culture. By Sabrina Clay / CNN
Lou Gossett Jr. and LeVar Burton on the set of “Roots” in 1977.
When the miniseries “Roots” debuted on ABC in January 1977, it created a powerful moment in American culture that remains significant today. The eight-night television event is one of the highest rated programs in history, with more than 100 million viewers tuning in for the final episode. “Roots” was nominated for 37 Emmy Awards and won nine. It also received a Peabody Award and the Golden Globe for best TV drama. Based on the novel by Alex Haley, “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” the series traces the capture of West African Kunta Kinte, a teenager sold into slavery in America, and spans 100 years to his grandson finally gaining freedom. Read more
Black deaf students to receive high school diplomas 70 years after graduation. By Nicole Chavez and Isabel Yip / CNN
Students at Kendall School Division II for Negroes, a segregated private K-12 school for Black deaf students that operated on Gallaudet’s campus in the early 1950s.
At least 24 Black deaf students who attended a segregated school on the grounds of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, in the early 1950s never received their high school diplomas. Seventy years after they were first able to enroll in the school, the students and their descendants will be honored Saturday during a graduation ceremony hosted by Gallaudet University, a liberal arts university for the deaf and hard of hearing. Read more
Tony Bennett saw racism and horror in World War II. It changed him. By Dave Kindy / Wash Post
What were the chances? Thousands of miles from home, in a foreign land devastated by war, old friends bumped into each other on the street.
An Army officer blasted the two soldiers — one Black and the other White — with a hate-filled rant for being together in public. In the segregated military of the day, the two men were not allowed to socialize. Back then, the punishment for Black and White soldiers associating with one another was more severe than if they fraternized with civilians in occupied Germany. The White soldier’s experiences in the Army had a profound effect on him. The 19-year-old corporal — who also survived the horrors of combat and witnessed unspeakable atrocities while liberating Nazi death camps — vowed to become a pacifist and to work for racial harmony. Anthony Dominick Benedetto made good on his promise when he later marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., under his professional name: Tony Bennett. Read more
Black Music Sunday: 1967’s long, hot summer of rebellion. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
A Black man gestures with his thumb down to an armed National Guardman, during a protest in the Newark race riots, Newark, New Jersey, July 14, 1967.
The aftermath of the summer of ‘67 also created a shift in music, which became more militant, more “Black and proud,” and also highlighted conditions in the Black “ghettos” of the United States. The first song about “the ghetto” that comes immediately to mind in my musical memory? It’s by Donny Hathaway, cowritten in 1969 with Leroy Hutson, and released in 1970. Read more and listen here
The Diversity Of Barbie: Black Barbie Dolls To Buy Amid Hysteria Over New Movie. By Tatayana Yomary / Newsone
The highly-anticipated and newly released Barbie film spotlights Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) “expulsion from the utopia Barbie Land” and their journey to self-discovery in the real world. The movie also includes other Hollywood A-listers, including Issa Rae, who serves up Black Girl Magic as President Barbie.
As expected, the highly-anticipated film has caused “Barbie Fever” to erupt. Social media has become an unofficial hub for Barbiecore beauty, fashion, home decor items, and much more. That said, there is also an extensive collection of Barbie playsets and toys that have also piqued the interest of the masses — including Black Barbie dolls made with brown girls in mind. Read more
Sports
Negro League Seattle Steelheads a brief but essential part of the city’s rich baseball history. By Clinton Yates / Andscape
Despite one short-lived season, team lives on as a tribute to marginalized sports communities in the area. Image Seattle Magazine
For a city with a lot of relatively wacky baseball history — the Seattle Pilots played a single season before they went bankrupt and moved to Milwaukee; then after King County sued the American League in 1970 to get a team back, the county broke ground on the multi-sport Kingdome in 1972 just in case — the Steelheads didn’t make it to Independence Day in 1946. Read more
A deafening silence from Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s Black football players. By Donnell Alexander / Raw Story
Last month, I phoned Ronnie Brown at the Atlanta office of UBS, a 150-year-old wealth management company where the former Auburn University gridiron legend has made a name for himself as a big-time financial adviser. My notion had been to collect Brown’s perspective on baldly racist statements made by his former college coach. Read more
‘Stephen Curry: Underrated’ documentary tells his Davidson College origin story. By Richard Harris / Andscape
Golden State Warriors star asks and answers how he got to the pinnacle of the NBA in new film
In a new documentary, Wardell Stephen Curry II — Steph to his family, friends and fans — asks the key question about his journey from skinny 9-year-old on the 10-and-under AAU Charlotte Stars to 35-year-old NBA superstar: “How did I get here?” “It’s a powerful question,” said Peter Nicks, director and producer of Stephen Curry: Underrated (streaming on Apple TV+ beginning Friday). And Curry answers it candidly in the film, reflecting how he had his work cut out for him from the moment he first played organized basketball. Read more
Magic Johnson invests in Washington Commanders to win in NFL. By Chris Bumbaca / USA Today
Few people can command a crowd with more captivation and excitement than Earvin “Magic” Johnson. So, the newest, most popular minority-stake owner in the NFL did just that Friday as he was introduced as part of Josh Harris’ ownership group that officially purchased the Washington Commanders from Dan Snyder for a record $6.05 billion this week. Read more
Frances Tiafoe Turns Into Tennis Hero for South Los Angeles as the American Ace Steps Up With Massive Initiative for a Special Cause. By Akshat Gaur / Essentially Sports
Beyond the tennis arena, Tiafoe’s philanthropic endeavors have been nothing short of extraordinary. Embracing his platform as a professional athlete, he has taken it upon himself to support children and underprivileged communities, striving to uplift and empower those in need.
Recently, Tiafoe took a step beyond his already impressive accomplishments to create an initiative aimed at turning dreams into reality for aspiring young talents. With his heart set on helping children fulfill their dreams and become the next tennis sensations, Frances Tiafoe is leaving an indelible mark on the sport and in the lives of countless youngsters. Read more
Crystal Dunn is playing with freedom — and fury. By Tamerra Griffin / Andscape
Portland Thorns soccer player Crystal Dunn trains at Providence Park on May 30 in Portland, Oregon. Christine Dong for Andscape
Dunn speaks often of how her parents, two Queens, New York, natives determined to provide their children with an easier life than they had, knew precious little about soccer when she played it for the first time. That blissful ignorance, Dunn said, immunized them to steep expectations that the culture of American competitive soccer causes some parents to project onto their kids. That gave her the space to fall in love with soccer, and to wring as much fun out of it as she could for as long as she could. She’s also one of a few Black soccer players — let alone a dark-complexioned Black woman — to represent the U.S. on the women’s national team as long as she has, the better part of a decade. Read more
150 Years of Black Activism in Sports, With Dr. Harry Edwards | The Nation. By Dave Zirin / The Nation Podcast
On this episode of Edge of Sports, the renowned sociologist joins the show to reflect on the 1968 Olympics, Colin Kaepernick, and much more.
The central place of sports in American life lends immense influence to athletes to shift the culture of the country. For more than 150 years, Black athletes have done just that. Few scholars are as attuned to the intricacies of this history as renowned sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards. From his role in shaping the events of the 1968 Olympics to the politics of Colin Kaepernick, Edwards is just as much a participant in this history as a student and teacher of it. Now 80 years old, Edwards joins Edge of Sports as he embarks on his “Last Lectures” –a final project to close his long career as a public intellectual. Listen here
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