Featured

“When you get knocked down – you get back up” – President Joe Biden

The Strongest Case for Biden Is His Resilience in the Face of the Onslaught. By Charles M. Blow / NYT

Joe Biden is still standing, refusing to bow out — he reiterated that in a long and mostly successful news conference on Thursday night. Some may view it as selfish and irresponsible. Some may even see it as dangerous. But I see it as remarkable.

Despite sending a clear message — in his recent flurry of interviews and rallies, in his stalwart address this week to members of the NATO alliance and in his letter on Monday to congressional Democrats, in which he assured them that “I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024” — there’s still a slow drumbeat from luminaries, donors and elected officials trying to write Biden’s political obituary. Read more

A Fiery Biden, Ignoring Critics, Attacks Trump to Chants of ‘Lock Him Up.’ By By Nicholas Nehamas and Reid J. Epstein / NYT

Facing rising frustration in his party, the president brushed it off in an energetic speech in Michigan. Inside the room, at least, the Democratic mood was defiant, with cheers of “Don’t go, Joe.”

The president’s defiance, and the crowd’s enthusiastic response, helped give the Biden event at a Detroit high school gym the flavor of a Trump rally at times. When Mr. Biden referred to his political opponent, there were chants of “Lock him up” — which the president did not discourage. When he criticized news media coverage, big cheers followed, with his supporters turning to boo and point fingers at reporters. Mr. Biden thundered that his rival was a “convicted criminal” and a “business fraud,” and said that he had “raped” the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom Mr. Trump was found liable of sexually abusing by a civil court. Read more

Bernie Sanders backs Biden and urges Democrats to ‘stop the bickering.’ By Oliver Milman / The Guardian

Senator hails ‘most effective president in modern history’ and says Biden is strongest bet to beat ‘demagogue’ Trump

Sanders, the totemic progressive US senator, used an opinion piece in the New York Times to endorse Biden, who has come under increasing fire from fellow Democrats over his ability to beat Donald Trump following a disastrous televised debate between the two. Read more

Political / Social

Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead. By The Editorial Board / NYT

Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.

He is, quite simply, unfit to lead. Read more

Shooting at Trump Rally Comes at Volatile Time in American History. By Peter Baker, Simon J. Levien and Michael Gold / NYT

Former President Donald J. Trump was declared “fine” by his campaign, and the gunman was killed by Secret Service snipers. The explosion of political violence further inflamed the campaign for the White House.

The shots rang out at 6:10 p.m. Former President Donald J. Trump clutched his right ear as blood spurted out, then ducked for cover as supporters screamed and Secret Service agents raced to surround and protect him. Read more

Kamala Harris: Leading Despite Unprecedented Criticism. By Asha Bandele / Newsone

If one believes, as I do, with the notion of the past as prologue, it will come as no surprise that in a major crisis moment for the Democratic Party, all eyes are on Kamala Harris.

The Party is looking to the first woman and first Black person to serve as Vice President of the United States, to save the day. During the 2020 election cycle, it was Kamala Harris on the campaign trail and Stacy Abrams in Georgia who ushered the Party, including Biden and the Senate, to victory. Black women have been the most consistent voting bloc of support for the Democratic Party for generations. Read more

It’s time to fight the lawless Supreme Court — before Donald Trump makes it worse. By Sabrina Haake / Salon

The Supreme Court’s immunity decision opens up the floodgates to criminality if Trump returns to the White House

Expand the court and limit their terms: The Constitution does not set the pay, or the length of service, or the number of justices on the Supreme Court. Congress does. That means Congress can increase the number of justices from 9 to 13, because there are now 13 courts of appeal below the Supreme Court; they can also impose term limits. Democrats must pledge a commitment to court reform ahead of November’s election. Read more

RNC 2024: What Black Voters Should Know As Republicans Meet. By Bilal G. Morris / Newsone

On Monday, the Republican party will convene in Milwaukee for their Republican National Convention and officially nominate Donald Trump as their candidate in the 2024 Presidential election. NewsOne has compiled a list of things Black voters should know before the RNC to ensure our audience is prepared and informed about the convention.

There are a lot of pressing issues facing Black Americans this election, so it’s important to know what they are and how they might affect you and your loved ones before the election in November. Read more

Is Inclusion Possible on Campuses Today? By Katherine Mangan / The Chronicle of Higher Ed.

Campus leaders struggle to deliver on a core ideal

What’s happening in Florida, and in a growing number of states that are restricting DEI efforts, is unsettling to some students of color, women, and sexual and gender-minority students who enrolled at campuses in those states expecting to be affirmed in their identities and to be actively protected from harassment. Read more

Morehouse College president stepping down. By HBCU Gamesday Newswire

Morehouse College announced the retirement of Dr. David A. Thomas as president, effective June 30, 2025.

Morehouse College has launched a national search for its 13th president, led by trustee and alumnus Fred Humphries, who will chair the presidential search committee currently being assembled. Thomas affirms, “I will forever remain committed to supporting Morehouse in its pursuit of excellence and delivering on its mission. I look forward to the upcoming school year and making it the best of my tenure.” Read more

The Stats Are In: Here Are The Top 10 Ranked HBCUs Of 2024. By Afro Tech

Every year, the U.S. News & World Report releases a list of the nation’s top colleges and universities. The publication also ranks HBCUs according to a specific methodology that uses “quantitative and qualitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality.”

The more extensive list includes 77 schools, quantified based on the above rubric. However, this list does not invalidate the value of any HBCU and its rich history of scholarship and academia. Each HBCU, regardless of its ranking, is a respected and integral part of the HBCU community. Read more

World News

World leaders react to Trump rally shooting: ‘A tragedy for our democracies.’ By Annabelle Timsit, Maham Javaid and Anika Arora Seth / Wash Post

Leaders from France, Canada, India, China and elsewhere condemned political violence and sent well-wishes to the former president.

The shooting at a campaign rally for Donald Trump — which the FBI is investigating as an assassination attempt — sent shock waves around the world, with leaders expressing deep concerns about violence in the American democratic process. French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting “a tragedy for our democracies” and said, “France shares the shock and indignation of the American people.” Read more

Trumpism’s powerful weapon against Western democracies is antisemitism. By Chauncey Devega / Salon

The increase in antisemitism and white supremacy during the Age of Trump and the global democracy crisis are not coincidental.

The relationship is central and causal. Democracy in its best and most enduring form is inclusive; by comparison, racial authoritarianism and fake democracy in the form of Trumpism and forms of neofascism as seen in Europe and other parts of the world is exclusionary where its fake populist appeal is fueled by xenophobia, nativism, bigotry, and other forms of social dominance behavior (including violence) by the in-group against those deemed to be the Other. Read more

The West finally allowed Ukraine to strike back at Russia — and it seems to be working. By Ivana Kottasová / CNN

Bankir and his men have been trying to fight off Russian attacks along the Ukrainian front lines for more than two years. But it’s only now that they are finally able to strike where it hurts: Inside Russia’s own territory.

The newly granted permission by the United States and other allies to use Western weapons to strike inside Russia has had a huge impact, Bankir said. “We have destroyed targets inside Russia, which allowed for several successful counteroffensives. The Russian military can no longer feel impunity and security,” the senior officer in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told CNN. For security reasons, he asked to be identified by his call sign only. Read more

The Global Crisis That No Border Crackdown Can Fix. By Dara Lind / Vanity Fair

At America’s southern border, arrivals from Mexico to Morocco, China to Chad, are caught in a no-man’s-land between the danger they’ve fled and the paralyzed system that awaits them.

The UN’s refugee agency estimates that nearly 40 million refugees and asylum seekers were displaced from their home countries as of April, which would break records set since the organization’s founding in 1950. While most of these people are living in refugee camps or on the margins of society in countries that are often struggling themselves, an increasing number are seeking a new life in America. Read more

Israeli Attack Targeting Hamas Military Commander Kills At Least 90 In Southern Gaza. By Mohammed Jahjouh / HuffPost

Saturday’s attack was one of the war’s deadliest. The Gaza Health Ministry reported 90 dead and at least 300 others injured.

Israel said it targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander in a massive strike Saturday in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 90 people including children, according to local health officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “there still isn’t absolute certainty” that Mohammed Deif and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were killed. Hamas rejected the claim that Deif was in the area, saying “these false claims are merely a cover-up for the scale of the horrific massacre.” The strike took place in an area Israel’s military had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Read more

Ethics / Morality / Religion

Was The U.S. Founded On Christian Beliefs: The Final Word. By William T. Orr Jr. / Patheos

Of all the noise in American politics and journalism, one of the loudest arguments is this: Was the U.S. founded on Christian beliefs, were the founders Christian men and did they intend for the Bible to guide the country?

In spite of what people might say and believe, in spite of what politicians might say, in spite of what any news media might publish, it is crystal clear that there was no intention by the writers of the United States Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, or of its Bill of Rights to base any aspect of the governance of the United States on the Holy Bible, the Holy Quran or on any holy book. Furthermore, it was never their intention to create a “Christian nation,” a concept developed out of whole cloth by fundamentalists who seem to be more concerned with controlling other people’s behavior than with any legitimate theological purpose. Read more

This version of Christianity distorts faith and destroys democracy. By Kathy Schluter / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee interfaith group will rally Sunday ahead of the Republican National Convention.

We are blessed to live in a country where democracy is treasured and celebrated, and “liberty and justice” are promised to all. But now these sacred rights are under threat. Some conservative Christian groups are working to impose their version of Christianity on our nation, controlling how we live, what we learn and what we believe. They would forfeit 250 years of democracy in their quest for political power and societal control, under what’s often described as white Christian nationalism. Read more

Bills to enhance religion in schools spur fights between faiths. By Jack Jenkins / RNS

When Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was asked to defend his support for a new state law requiring public schools to display a version of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, he made sure to touch on the bill’s obvious religious connections.

“This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and every time we steer away from that, we have problems in our nation,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Catholic, said during an interview with Fox News. But just a few days later, it was Christian clergy — along with an array of religious leaders and parents of various faiths — who filed a lawsuit against the new statute, backed by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and offices of the ACLU. Read more

Historical / Cultural

A stunning find in his family tree: The Bushes’ ancestors enslaved his relatives. By Tara Bahrampour / Wash Post

Charles Holman’s research into his genealogy turned up connections to the ancestors of President George H.W. Bush.

A couple of years ago, working in his study in Maryland, Holman says he came upon a Kentucky newspaper article from 1992 about a family whose ranks then included one U.S. president and soon would add another. The article identified ancestors of then-President George H.W. Bush dating to before the American Revolution, and Holman recognized the names of Bush’s great-great-grandmother and her parents. They matched names on deeds and inheritance records Holman had already found. The Bushes’ ancestors, Holman says he realized, had enslaved his own. Read more

Charlotte Forten Describes Life on the Sea Islands. By Charlotte Forten Grimke’ / The Atlantic (May 1864 Issue)

A young black woman describes her experience teaching freed slaves during the Civil War.

To THE EDITOR OF THE “ATLANTIC MONTHLY.” — The following graceful and picturesque description of the new condition of things on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, originally written for private perusal, seems to me worthy of a place in the “Atlantic.” Its young author—herself akin to the long-suffering race whose Exodus she so pleasantly describes—is still engaged in her labor of love on St. Helena Island. — J. G. W. Read more

Scientists identify victim of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in mass grave. By DeNeen L. Brown / Wash Post

Scientists have identified a victim of the Tulsa massacre whose remains were found in a mass grave in a city-owned cemetery, Tulsa’s mayor announced Friday.

The man was identified as C.L. Daniel, a World War I veteran, who was killed in 1921. His remains were discovered during a 2021 excavation of a mass grave in Oaklawn Cemetery, which is blocks from Greenwood, the all-Black community destroyed by a White mob in a rampage that historians say left as many as 300 Black people dead and 10,000 homeless. Read more

After MLK’s home was bombed, he refused to back down: ‘This movement will not stop. By DeNeen L. Brown / Wash Post

Minutes after 9 p.m., on the night of Jan. 30, 1956, a segregationist parked his car in front of the modest white clapboard parsonage home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala. In the shadows, the man walked up five steps leading to the front door and planted a stick of dynamite on the porch.

At the time of the bombing, King had just celebrated his 27th birthday. He’d been the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery for 19 months. And he’d started leading the Montgomery bus boycott, a movement organized after the Dec. 1, 1955, arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to vacate her bus seat to a White man. Read more

Discriminatory past shapes heat waves in minority and low-income neighborhoods. By AP and NBC news

Mortality records from cities across the country have shown that heat waves kill along socioeconomic and racial lines.

Tens of millions of Americans are facing major heat waves, with temperatures consistently exceeding 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius). But in big cities, the heat hits hardest for people of color and low-income residents. In New York, Black residents die from heat stress at double the rate of white residents. Environmental justice advocates trace this inequality back to decades of discriminatory housing policy, especially redlining — the 1930s government practice of rating neighborhoods’ investment worthiness using race as a determining factor and denying mortgages to minority buyers. Read more

In ‘Sing Sing,’ Black And Brown Men At Play Are The Key To Liberation. By Taryn Finley / HuffPost

The new A24 film starring Colman Domingo is a tender look at formerly incarcerated men in upstate New York.

What does it take to fight for your freedom, even when it looks like it’ll never come? That’s the question “Sing Sing” answers with a key element: levity. “Sing Sing” implores you to watch these men bring light through play, humor and art. It commands that viewers look them in the eyes as these formerly incarcerated men introduce themselves. It’s a reminder that the men of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York are human and deserve to be seen and treated as such. “Sing Sing” is now playing in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and will release nationwide on Aug. 2. Read more

‘Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot’ Review. By Lisa Kennedy / Variety

A Christian-themed drama produced by Letitia Wright’s company focuses on the efforts of a Texas minister, his first lady and their church that changed the lives of foster kids.

The East Texas town of Possum Trot received national notice in 2008 when ABC News, followed by “Oprah” and a slew of television shows that knew a heart-warmer when they saw it, sang the deserved praises of Rev. W.C. Martin and Donna Martin. The couple are the real-life basis of the faith-infused drama “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” opening July 4 after a Juneteenth sneak nationwide. Read more

Born into slavery, he rose to the top of France’s art world. By Sebastian Smee / Wash Post

Guillaume Lethière’s epic life is the subject of a stunning new exhibition, in the U.S. before it travels to the Louvre.

During the most tumultuous period in France’s modern history, Guillaume Lethière was one of its most venerated artists. His story is epic. Charles Dickens or Alexandre Dumas (who delivered a eulogy at Lethière’s funeral) would have struggled to make it sound credible. Pity me, your poor reviewer. He was the third child (“Le Thière” is French for “the third”) of an enslaved, mixed-race woman and a White plantation owner. Today, his paintings — some of them cinematic in scale — can be found in museums in the United States and Europe, including the Louvre, and also in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Among his smaller works is one of the most tender and beautiful portraits I know. Read more

Sports

Grant Hill on USA Basketball’s Olympic preparation: ‘Everybody wanted to be a part of this.’ By Marc J. Spears / Andscape

USA Basketball’s managing director talks about his historic role, the keys to gold in Paris, courting Joel Embiid and more

As USA Basketball’s managing director, Hill has put together his own elite collection of Americans for the 2024 Paris Games led by the NBA’s career leading scorer LeBron James, the NBA’s career 3-point leader Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum and many more stars. So, knowing what it would take to beat the Dream Team, could the 2024 USA Basketball squad beat Jordan & Co.? Read more

Serena Williams hosts an ESPY awards show celebrating landmark year for women’s sports. By Beth Harris / ABC News

Led by host Serena Williams, The ESPYS celebrated a landmark year for women’s sports, with Simone Biles, A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Dawn Staley and JuJu Watkins among the honorees on Thursday nigh at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood

Williams joked during her monologue at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and later sang after Ciara opened the show with a musical performance. Williams’ older sister, Venus, came out and joked that she had actually been asked to host and the siblings got into a mock argument. Read more

Five things to know about Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini. By Jerry Bembry / Andscape

The Italian with Ghanian roots is playing in her second consecutive Grand Slam final

Paolini, an Italian with Ghanaian roots, who will be playing in her second Grand Slam final on Saturday despite having never gotten past the second round of a major tournament before her surprising run to the final of the French Open in June. Short in stature (5-feet-4) and highly energetic, the curly-haired Paolini will likely be a crowd favorite after her gutsy three-set win over Donna Vekic that was the longest women’s semifinal match in Wimbledon history. Who is Paolini, who will face Barbora Krejcikova on Saturday as Wimbledon crowns a different champion for its eighth consecutive tournament? Here are five things you should know about Paolini who, after 13 years as a pro, is currently the seventh-ranked player. Paolini lost to Krejcikova in the women’s final. Read more

Negro Leagues Throwbacks Let Fans Wear a ‘Piece of History.’ By Alexander Nazaryan / NYT

By striving for authenticity, brands like Ebbets Field Flannels have created jerseys, hats and shirts that are equal parts fashion statement and history lesson.

Wearing a Birmingham Black Barons hat on a recent walk through Birmingham, Ala., proved to be problematic for the comedian Roy Wood Jr. “People were literally trying to snatch it off my head,” Mr. Wood, the former star of “The Daily Show,” said of his black and red New Era throwback. Read more

Who is Rebeca Andrade? This Brazilian gymnast could challenge Simone Biles for gold in Paris. By Kaetlyn Liddy / NBC News

Andrade is known for unveiling surprise upgrades at the Olympics. Her potential new vault could give Biles a run for her money.

The Paris Olympics is expected to belong to Simone Biles. But if there’s one person who could spoil the party for the American gymnast, it’s Brazilian phenom Rebeca Andrade. Andrade, 25, became a household name in Brazil after she w o n two medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games. At the coming Paris Olympics, Andrade and Biles are expected to face off for gold in the all-around, vault and floor finals. While they have competed against each other before, Paris is set to be the first Olympic showdown with both of them at peak form. Read more

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