Featured
Minority Rule Is Threatening American Democracy Like Never Before. By Ari Berman / Mother Jones
The Founding Fathers planted a bomb in the Constitution. Donald Trump lit the fuse.
Biden warned: “We’re living in an era where a determined minority is doing everything in its power to try to destroy our democracy for their own agenda.”
That’s undoubtedly true. But the crisis Biden described—and the choice facing the nation this November—is much older and deeper than Trump. A determined minority has been trying to shape the foundations of American governance for their own benefit since the inception of the republic. For more than two centuries, a fierce struggle has played out between forces seeking to constrict democracy and those seeking to expand it. In 2024, the country is once again immersed in a pivotal battle over whom the political system should serve and represent. Read more
Related: Are you finally with her? The Hillary Clinton paradox. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Political / Social
This Is What You Get When Fear Mixes With Money. By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT
Donald Trump has added something to the practice of extracting money from major donors: fear.
Traditionally, high-dollar contributors write big checks for a mix of reasons: to curry favor, to support their political party, to promote an agenda, to win favorable tax and regulatory policies, to defeat the opposition, to be seen as powerful — a blend of self-interest and principle. This year, Trump’s history in the White House and the agenda for 2025 that he and his allies have been putting together amount to a warning to wavering supporters. Read more
Related: What Worries Me Most About a Trump Presidency. By Caroline Fredrickson / NYT
Related: Trump’s MAGA rallies have morphed. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
How Alvin Bragg Hitched His Fate to Trump’s. Kim Barker, Jonah E. Bromwich and
The Manhattan D.A. campaigned as the best candidate to go after the former president. Now he finds himself leading Trump’s first prosecution — and perhaps the only one before the November election.
Reporters vied for seats in the briefing room, some even crouching on the floor. They all knew, on this Tuesday in early April 2023, that Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, was about to announce something momentous: the first criminal charges against a former American president. Read more
Related: DOJ To Supreme Court: No, Trump’s Coup Attempt Is Not Immune From Prosecution. By
Mark Cuban defends diversity, equity and inclusion policies even as critics swarm. By
As some of the nation’s largest employers pull the plug on their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, Mark Cuban is defending the policies this week, calling the practice “a positive” for business.
The billionaire, a part-owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a judge on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that his experience as an entrepreneur and investor shows that companies that embrace DEI tend to be more successful. Read more
Related: For true higher-ed diversity, we must break the testing monopoly. By Jennifer Frey / The Hill
Americans will find voting easier — or harder — depending where they live. By Patrick Marley / Wash Post
States have made the rules that govern elections either tighter or looser in the run-up to the 2024 vote, depending on which party has been in charge
Voting in Michigan will be easier for many people this fall than it was four years ago. There will be nine days of early voting. All mail ballots will have prepaid return postage. And every community will have at least one drop box for absentee ballots because of a measure adopted by voters with the support of the state’s top Democrats. Those casting ballots in North Carolina, where Republicans enjoy a veto-proof legislative majority, will see dramatic changes in the opposite direction. Read more
Wes Moore envisioned economic revival. Then the Key Bridge collapsed. By Erin Cox / Wash Post
The freshman governor, an ascendant figure for Democrats who had already faced high expectations, now tackles his first major test in a moment of crisis
Rain pierced the fog in thequiet Baltimore Harboras Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stood on the bow of a Coast Guard cutter, flanked by other grim-faced politicians approaching the twisted remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Confronted with the wreckage up close for the first time, Moore said he felt heartbreak. And while he believed the team he had built could meet the moment, he said that the path ahead is “daunting.” Read more
Seatbelt check: Cops fired 96 shots at Black motorist, killing him. By Michael Loria / USA Today
For Sheila Banks, the late afternoon of March 21 began easy, with her son Dexter Reed heading out to enjoy his new SUV. “Momma, I’m going out for a ride,” she recalled Tuesday.
It ended with Reed, 26, being gunned down on a residential corner by Chicago police officers who fired nearly 100 rounds in less than a minute, according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), the city’s police watchdog agency. Officers said they pulled Reed over for not wearing a seat belt – a contention that COPA questions amid rising tension in recent weeks over the killing and officers’ use of deadly force. Read more
What Is The Protect Black Women And Girls Act? By Shannon Dawson / Newsone
In February, Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick teamed up with Illinois Congresswoman Robin L. Kelly (IL-2), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-9), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and several other officials to re-introduce the bipartisan Protect Black Women and Girls Act. The legislation was first introduced in 2021.
If passed, the bill would create an Interagency Task Force to examine the circumstances and encounters of Black women and girls across various sectors including education, economic development, healthcare, labor and employment, housing, justice and civil rights. The goal is to advocate for community-driven approaches to alleviate and tackle harm, ensure accountability, and analyze the societal impacts on Black women and girls. Read more
World News
How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa review – facing down despots. By Helena Kennedy / The Guardian
The Nobel winner on her fight for the truth in the Philippines
Ressa’s memoir, is a strong ethical sense that journalism has to be grounded in honesty and truth-telling, in evidence and incontrovertible facts. An experienced and acclaimed journalist, Ressa made her career at CNN, setting up and running the Southeast Asia Bureau during the 1990s. Born in the Philippines then raised and educated in the US, she had returned after graduation and found her way into the media at an exciting time – colonialism had ended and democracy seemed possible. Read more
When Haiti’s gangs shop for guns, the United States is their store. By Widlore Mérancourt and Amanda Coletta / Wash Post
Trump revives his wish that immigrants came from rich White countries. By Phillip Bump / Wash Post
In January 2018, less than a year after he took office, Trump disparaged immigrants from Haiti, Central America and Africa as coming from “shithole” countries. Why, he lamented in a closed-door meeting, couldn’t the country instead receive immigrants from countries like Norway?
Over the weekend, he revisited the theme. The New York Times reports. “When I said, you know, Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries, I’m trying to be nice,” Trump said, according to the Times. “Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?” Read more
Prestigious Medical Journal Ignored Nazi Atrocities, Historians Find. By Alexander Nazaryan / NYT
Nazi doctors and scientists on trial at Nuremberg in 1947 for human experiments, murders and other atrocities during the Holocaust.Credit…Fox Photos Ltd./Sydney Morning Herald, via Alamy
A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the oldest and most esteemed publications for medical research, criticizes the journal for paying only “superficial and idiosyncratic attention” to the atrocities perpetrated in the name of medical science by the Nazis. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
In 1877, a stained-glass window depicted Jesus as Black for the first time − a scholar of visual images unpacks its history and significance. By Virginia Raguin / The Conversation
A stained-glass window, donated in 1877 to a church in Rhode Island, shows Jesus as a dark-skinned man. Most Western depictions portrayed him as a European, with light skin and sometimes even with blue eyes. A Black Jesus at this time was unknown.
The Black Jesus window is different – instead of depicting a singular saintly figure, the 12-by-5-foot window tells a full narrative. It depicts scenes of Jesus speaking with women who also have dark brown skin. As a scholar of images, I believe that the window speaks about equality, not only of race, but of gender, class and ethnicity. Read more
African spiritualities are attracting Black Americans as a source of pride and identity. By Fiona Andre’ / RNS
Followers of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé faith hold a candlelit ritual before dawn on the feast day of sea goddess Yemanja in Salvador, Brazil, on Feb. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A 2021 Pew Research Center study showed that 15% of Black adults pray at a home altar or shrine more than once a week. Rachel Elizabeth Harding, an associate professor of Indigenous spiritual traditions at the University of Colorado Denver and a Candomblé priestess, said that African religions play the same role African American Christianity has for decades, celebrating Black identity and offering solace to oppressed Black people. Read more
Catholic parishes disproportionately closed in poor, Black and Latino neighborhoods. By Aleja Hertzler-McCain / RNS
Priest shortages have played a significant role in the decisions to close parishes.
While the number of U.S. Catholics is increasing, the total number of Catholic parishes nationwide declined 9% between 1970 and 2020, according to a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 10 of the 11 dioceses studied, those closures are disproportionately happening in Black and Latino neighborhoods and neighborhoods with higher poverty and unemployment. Read more
At Yale, Christian pastors sign a declaration opposing religious nationalism. By Yonat Shimron / RNS
The Rev. William J. Barber II speaks during Yale Divinity School’s first Public Theology and Public Policy Conference, April 7, 2024, in New Haven, Conn. (Courtesy photo)
A group of Christian pastors, theologians and scholars has signed a declaration committing the signers to preaching on “moral issues “ ahead of the 2024 election and opposing what the group calls “religious nationalism.” The document defines religious nationalism as a political movement that it says is exploiting “traditional values” to undermine democracy. “This distorted religious nationalism has persuaded many well-meaning Christians to focus on a narrow set of divisive cultural wedge issues while ignoring the real moral issues that are at the heart of our Scriptures and tradition,” the declaration reads. Read more Related: What Exactly Do the Christian Nationalists Want? By Josh Kovensky / TPM
A dramatic schism over social issues? The United Methodist Church has been here before – but this time, America’s religious landscape is far different. By Christopher H. Evans / The Conversation
In 2022, conservative Methodists announced a break with the UMC, forming the Global Methodist Church. These leaders believed that the UMC had become too liberal, drifting away from orthodoxy. The issue at the heart of the split, however, revolves around the UMC’s long-standing battle over LGBTQ+ rights.
This denominational split draws comparisons to one in 1844, when Methodists divided over slavery. As a scholar of American religious history and Methodist studies, I see parallels but also great differences between the current schism and the one in 1844. Read more
Historical / Cultural
A Virginia city burdened by history seeks a better future. By Theodore R. Johnson / Wash Post
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge that crosses the Dan River and leads into Danville, Va., on Sept. 2, 2020. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Black sailor killed at Pearl Harbor identified after 80 years. By Michael E. Ruane / Wash Post David Walker, who left his Virginia high school to join the Navy, was one of 50 Black mess attendants who died on ships that were attacked
Edna Lee Ward walked into a newspaper office in Portsmouth, Va., early in 1942 carrying a picture of her son, who was in the Navy. He had been declared missing in action after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. His name was David Walker. He was 19. He had dropped out of his African American high school to serve as a mess attendant in the segregated Navy. He had been on the battleship USS California when it was hit and sunk, and she had just learned that he was probably dead. Read more
In Martin Luther King’s last speech, people remember the mountaintop but ignore the poor. By Clarence B. Jones / USA Today
If I told my friend back from the dead of the 24/7 gun violence in America, Martin would know instinctively that it’s an outgrowth of our capitalist society ignoring poverty.
Glenn Loury Comes Clean. By Evan Goldstein / Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Is the public intellectual’s candid memoir and act of self-reckoning or self-sabotage
Glenn C. Loury begins his new memoir, Late Admissions, with a promise: “I am going to tell you things about myself that no one would want anybody to think was true of them.” Over the next 400-odd pages, Loury, a professor of economics at Brown University, bluntly details a litany of public scandals and private misdeeds: a crack-cocaine addiction; abandoning a child; myriad extramarital liaisons; soliciting prostitutes; multiple arrests. And on and on. Read more
The Tragedy Of Richard Pryor Explained. By S. Flannagan / Grunge
For many comedy aficionados, Richard Pryor was one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time. With several classic specials to his name and a reputation for being a comic with an uncanny knack for mimicry and voices as well as impeccable timing, he was the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
But Pryor didn’t simply have funny bones. Comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans told The New York Times that Pryor “made the blueprint for the progressive thinking of Black comedians, unlocking that irreverent style.” The fact is that Pryor’s comedy drew heavily from his own life, which was often painful. Read more
Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump Inks Fiction Deal With Bantam Books. By Angelique Jackson / Variety
Noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump has inked a seven-figure deal to author a series of crime novels for Bantam Books.
Under the deal, Bantam Books will publish the first two installments of a crime fiction series written by Crump, who has defended and won significant settlements for the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Henrietta Lacks, the residents of Flint, Michigan and several others. The series centers on Beau Lee Cooper, a Black civil rights attorney who “tackles heart-wrenching cases of corruption and injustice while celebrating Black love, joy and resilience.” Read more
Sports
Story of boxer ‘Beau Jack’ Walker is part of Augusta National’s history. By Ferrell Evans / Andscape
Bowman Milligan (left), steward of the clubhouse at Augusta National, and boxer Sidney “Beau Jack” Walker (right) at the golf club on March 3, 1955, in Augusta, Georgia. Augusta National/Getty Images
At Madison Square Garden on Nov. 19, 1943, Sidney “Beau Jack” Walker faced Bob Montgomery in a rematch for the lightweight championship. Montgomery was a 4-to-1 favorite to retain his title. Six months earlier, Montgomery had beaten Walker in a unanimous 15-round decision. In the crowd of 17,466 for the rematch were 20 Augusta National Golf Club members, including one of its founders, Clifford Roberts. The group had come to New York to support Walker, a former shoeshine boy at the club who had made it big as a lightweight champion. Read more
50 Years After Historic Home Run, Hank Aaron Gets a Stamp and a Statue. By John Yoon / NYT
The baseball legend hit his record-breaking home run on April 8, 1974. His statue will be unveiled at the Baseball Hall of Fame in May.
Hank Aaron, the celebrated baseball player who faced down racism as he broke the Major League Baseball record for most career home runs, was honored on Monday with a United States Postal Service Forever stamp and a statue at baseball’s Hall of Fame. The commemorations marked the 50th anniversary of Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974, which launched him past Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list, the sport’s most cherished record. Read more
Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe Emerge as Trailblazers for Black Community Following Their Legendary Houston Milestone. By Ankita Banerjee / Essentially Sports
The Houston Open featured the first-ever ATP Tour singles final between two black Americans in the Open Era. Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe squared off in a momentous match that would leave a mark in the history of the tennis world. Shelton dominated over the defending champion, Tiafoe, in three sets.
Tennis has always lacked diversity at the top levels and is frequently perceived as a white-dominated sport. But with Shelton and Tiafoe in the championship game, the sporting community discovered the broader implications of cultural diversity in the professional realm of tennis. Read more
South Carolina beats Iowa to cement its place in women’s basketball history. By Kareem Copeland / Wash Post
UConn stymies Purdue in title game, becomes first back-to-back men’s champions since 2007 Florida. By Brendan Marks / The Athletic
With exactly six minutes left in Monday night’s national championship game, UConn guard Tristen Newton zoomed a pass to a cutting Stephon Castle, who skipped past Zach Edey in the paint and laid in an ordinary layup. Except it was only ordinary in execution, because that basket put the Huskies up 17 points, their largest lead of the night.
Consider that the moment the hourglass flipped, and time started ticking until UConn’s looming championship celebration. Minutes later, the confetti cannons inside State Farm Arena erupted, finalizing UConn’s 75-60 win over Purdue in Monday’s national title game and immortalizing Dan Hurley’s Huskies, who accomplished what no college basketball team had since Florida in 2006-07: winning consecutive NCAA championships. Read more
Tara Davis-Woodhall: ‘My entire memo is have fun,’ says the ‘free-spirited’ US long jump star. By George Ramsay / CNN
Skipping down the running track with a cowboy hat on her head and a grin across her face, Tara Davis-Woodhall hardly has the demeanor of an athlete about to win the biggest title of her career.
However, when the hat comes off an aura of focus descends upon the American track and field star and she produces a performance that is one of her best to date, a huge jump of more than seven meters to take gold and remain undefeated for the year. Read more
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