Featured
The Perfectionist Tradition. By William P. Jones / Dissent MagazineThe African American perfectionists offered “faith” instead of “hope”—emphasizing the struggle to realize a vision of justice rather than passive assurance that it would prevail. Billie Holiday (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
In recent years, the United States has seen the entrenchment of an insurgent and overtly racist hard right, a retreat from fleeting but once seemingly sincere commitments to addressing the injustices of police brutality and mass incarceration, and a growing backlash against voting rights, affirmative action, and other gains of the civil rights movement. How should we relate to history in a time like ours?
In The Darkened Light of Faith, political theorist Melvin L. Rogers finds a middle path in what he calls the “perfectionist” tradition of African-American politics. This tradition links nineteenth-century abolitionists David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass with twentieth-century writers, artists, and activists including Ida B. Wells, Billie Holiday, and James Baldwin, all of whom viewed an honest confrontation with the history of American racism as necessary for any progress toward racial equality. Read more
Political / Social
We are now at the mercy of democracy doomers. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Disengagement is de facto surrender to Trumpism
The 2024 election is set to be the longest general election match-up in modern American history. This is true both in terms of the number of days and also the general feeling of exhaustion and anxiety (or excitement) about the threat of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, boredom with a rematch between the 2020 presidential candidates, and how large segments of the American public would prefer an alternative to both President Joe Biden and Trump. “It’s almost a cruel joke on the electorate that the longest presidential election potentially ever might also be the one that they’re least excited about,” one Democratic pollster told ABC News. Read more
Related: New warning sign for Dems over Black, Hispanic voters. By Elizabeth Crisp / The Hill
In Las Vegas, Biden Promotes Promises Kept to Black and Hispanic Voters.
While Nevada has a primary this week, the president is looking ahead to the general election and trying to energize supporters in a key swing state.
Mr. Biden spoke at a community center in the historic Westside neighborhood of Las Vegas, home to an African American community in a critical battleground state. He rattled off statistics about reductions in child poverty for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous people, talked about growth in minority-owned business and attacked former President Donald J. Trump for saying that immigration was “poisoning the blood” of the United States. Read more
An Airtight Ruling Against Trump. By George T. Conway III / The Atlantic
In a masterful opinion, the D.C. Circuit rejected the former president’s bid for immunity.
It’s not that often that you get a unanimous 57-page decision on novel questions of law in 28 days. And you almost never get an opinion of this quality in such a short period of time. I’ve read thousands of judicial opinions in my four decades as a law student and lawyer. Few have been as good as this one. Read more
Related: The D.C. Circuit Just Shredded Trump’s Immunity Claims. By Elie Mystal
Related: The Sad State Of Affairs When Black Men Stump For Trump. By / HuffPost
Haley Outvoted in Nevada Primary by ‘None of These Candidates,’ Without Trump on the Ballot.
Ms. Haley ran essentially unopposed in the primary, which awards no delegates. The former president will compete in Thursday’s caucuses.
With 88 percent of the vote on Wednesday morning, Ms. Haley trailed “None of These Candidates” by 33 percentage points. As the top vote-getter after “None of These Candidates,” Ms. Haley is still expected to be declared the victor, according to the secretary of state’s office, which pointed to a state election law that says “only votes cast for the named candidates shall be counted” when determining the result. Read more
Related: Nikki Haley Seeks Secret Service Protection Amid New Threats. By David Kurtz / TPM
How Black and Jewish communities are working together to combat hate. By Phaedra Trethan / USA Today
The Coalition for Black and Jewish Unity in Detroit visits Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta as part of an effort to learn about their respective histories. Courtesy JCRC/AJC Detroit
The meeting ran a little longer than anticipated, and even after it ended, many participants lingered in the conference room at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. They asked after one another’s families and talked about a welcome rise in temperatures after a snowfall and several cold days. Jason Holtzman, director of the federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council, offered sandwiches and cookies from the catered lunch for people to take home. Carl Day, pastor of Culture Changing Christians and a Black community organizer, offered goodbye hugs and handshakes. Read more
Related: From Ferguson to Gaza: How African Americans Bonded With Palestinian Activists.
Virginia Legislature elects Don Scott as its first Black speaker of the house. By Jahd Khalil / NPR
The Virginia General Assembly unanimously elected Democrat Don Scott as house speaker on Wednesday, making him the first Black speaker in the Virginia House of Delegates’ history.
Del. Scott approached the podium to cheers and a standing ovation as he took the oath of office and began his term as the leader of the House. “My first immediate emotion is just gratitude. I’m very grateful,” said Scott, tearing up as he thanked his 88 year old mother and his wife, watching from the gallery. “The historic nature of this moment is not lost on me,” he told the House. Read more
Another Black Woman At Harvard Is Being Targeted In Wake Of DEI Attacks. By Rayna Reid Rayford / Essence
Someone sent an anonymous letter to Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, alleging that Harvard’s current “chief diversity and inclusion officer Sherri Ann Charleston committed 40 instances of plagiarism over the years,” Fox News reports.
This campaign against Charleston seems eerily similar to the one waged against former Harvard president Claudine Gay, which ultimately played a role in her resignation. And the Free Beacon, along with conservative activist Chirstopher Rufo and Bill Ackman, a billionaire investor, spearheaded the campaign to oust Gay from Harvard. Read more
How the union fever in 2023 fared for women of color. By Juliana Kim / NPR
Union members listen as President Joe Biden speaks to United Auto Workers at the Community Building Complex of Boone County, on Nov. 9, in Belvidere, Ill. Paul Beaty/AP
The share of Black and Latina women in unions went up slightly in 2023 — from 10.3% to 10.5% for Black women and from 8.5% to 8.8% for Latina women. While these bumps look minor at first glance, Anwesha Majumder, an economist with the NPWF who co-authored the analysis, described them as a step in the right direction, given that union membership overall has been plummeting over the years. The rate of decline was even faster for Black and Latina women until last year. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
The Changing Roles Of Black Churches In America. By Ginny Baxter / Patheos
Black churches in America have played a pivotal role in the lives of African Americans since long before the Civil War began in 1861. As we celebrate Black History Month this February, I would like to look at how black churches have touched African Americans and impacted the nation as a whole.
Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. author of The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song and numerous other books, says that you have to understand the black church in order to understand America. What does Gates mean? The PBS American Experience documentary, “The Black Church,” says that black churches in America have “provided a safe haven for black Christians in a nation shadowed by the legacy of slavery and a society that remained defined by race and class” for more than 300 years. Read more
Watching “The Book of Clarence” shows we’ve been losing our organized religion. By D. Watkins / Salon
Growing up, I was taught that church, the epicenter of the Black community, was not a joke – but what about now?
I never heard of a biblical comedy-drama until seeing the trailer for the Jeymes Samuel film “The Book of Clarence.” Samuel’s 2019 Netflix cowboy flick “The Harder They Fall” was extremely impressive, so I knew I would be somewhere, at some movie house checking his new work. While sitting in a jet-black theater well after 10 p.m. on a weeknight, enjoying “The Book of Clarence” –– laughing embarrassingly at the age-old biblical references like “the amount of money sandals cost and how Jesus probably gets them for free because he’s the Messiah” – I constantly found myself distracted. Read more
Kirk Franklin, Lecrae, Blind Boys of Alabama add new Grammy wins. By
Gospel singer Kirk Franklin won his 20th Grammy award for his performance and songwriting on ‘All Things’ in the best gospel performance/song category.
Grammy favorites added to their previous wins in the gospel & contemporary Christian music category at the annual awards on Sunday (Feb. 4), with top honors going to Kirk Franklin, Lecrae, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Tye Tribbett and Blind Boys of Alabama. Read more
Nebraska is newest battleground in religious right’s crusade to infiltrate public education. By Charles Jay / Daily Kos
The Christian right has long dreamed of tearing down the wall of separation between churches and public schools. Just look at Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who spent two decades advocating for “religious freedom” in public schools, government, and public places.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that conservative lawmakers in the state’s unicameral state legislature have introduced a bill that would allow public school students to receive school credit for attending religious classes off school grounds. Other bills presented to the state legislature’s education committee would give parents more control over their local school’s library books and curriculum. Read more
Related: Why White Nationalists Are Working with Hindu Supremacists. By Safa Ahned / The Progressive Magazine
Historical / Cultural
Slavery From the Inside — as Only a Slave Could Show It. By Carl Rollyson / The NY Sun
Title page of ‘The Bondwoman’s Narrative,’ circa 1853-61. Via Wikimedia Commons
Certain scholars doubted an ex-slave could have written ‘The Bondwoman’s Narrative,’ a novel that channeled Dickens’s ‘Bleak House’ and evinced familiarity with the genres of gothic and sentimental fiction. Read more
Home Front: Black Women Unionists in the Confederacy. By Matthew Wills / JSTOR
For more than a century after the Civil War, historians rarely made room for the wartime history of Black women. Even in the wake of the rise of women’s history, as scholars began to pay more attention to white women North and South and their roles in the conflict, Black women were ignored. The resistance and unionism of enslaved and freed Black women in the midst of the Confederacy is an epic story of sacrifice for nation and citizenship. Read more
Decades after suspected arson, a historic Black church in Pennsylvania reopens as a Black history museum. By
The historic Spring Valley African Methodist Episcopal church in Concordville, Pennsylvania, reopened as an African American history museum after it was abandoned in the 1980s, and then destroyed in an arson in 1997. KYW
Spring Valley AME was built in 1880 and DeBaptiste said the surrounding Black community was primarily made up of farm workers. The church, she said, offered people a place to “put their love, sweat and tears into, and for something they owned – not someone else’s property.” Then, in the late 1990s, a fire destroyed the parish hall that was once the site of community gatherings, as well as other parts of the church. Read more
5 MLK speeches you should know besides ‘I Have a Dream.’ By Scott Neuman / NPR
The Rev. Ralph Abernathy (left) shakes hands with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala., on March 22, 1956, as a big crowd of supporters cheers for King, who had just been found guilty of leading the Montgomery bus boycott. Gene Herrick/AP
King’s greatest contribution to the Civil Rights Movement was his oratory, says Jason Miller, an English professor at North Carolina State University who has written extensively on King’s speeches. Here are four of King’s speeches that sometimes get overlooked, plus the one he delivered the day before his 1968 assassination. Collectively, they represent historical signposts on the road to civil rights. Read more
Joy Reid’s ‘Medgar and Myrlie’ traces extraordinary lives and love of civil rights leaders. By Geoff Bennett and Karina Cuevas / PBS
A love story is helping paint a fuller picture of the civil rights movement. Activist Medgar Evers was killed in 1963 by a white supremacist outside his home in Mississippi. His murder thrust Myrlie Evers into the spotlight, becoming a freedom fighter in her own right. Joy-Ann Reid traces their extraordinary lives in “Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.” Listen here
Jay-Z’s Grammys speech and Beyonce’s snubs call out a deeper problem. By Li Zhou / Vox
They’re emblematic of how the awards have failed Black artists.
There’s long been outrage over the Grammys’ Beyoncé snubs for the awards show’s highest honor — omissions that have infuriated fans and prominent celebrities alike. At the 2024 awards on February 4, Beyonce’s husband, Jay-Z, became the latest to call them out, castigating the show for its history of overlooking Black artists, including his superstar wife. “We want y’all to get it right — at least get it close to right,” Jay-Z said. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics that doesn’t work.” Read more
Related: Is Whoopi Goldberg Right About Beyoncé’s Grammys Snubs? By Stephanie Holland / The Root
From rebel to retail − inside Bob Marley’s posthumous musical and merchandising empire. By
The long-awaited Bob Marley biopic “One Love” will highlight important moments in the musician’s life – his adolescence in Trench Town, his spiritual growth, the attempt on his life. But as a music industry scholar, I wonder if the film is yet another extension of the Marley marketing machine. Image Grunge
Marley died in 1981 at the age of 36. He’d achieved a level of mainstream success unrivaled by other reggae acts, and he did so while challenging global capitalism and speaking to the oppressed. This image, however, is fundamentally at odds with what has happened to Marley’s name and likeness since his death. Read more
Related: These Were Bob Marley’s Tragic Final Words. By Andrew Amelinck / Grunge
Netflix’s Big New War Movie Is Doing Something The Genre Almost Always Overlooks. By Kate Bove / Screen Rant
Written and directed by Tyler Perry, Netflix’s Six Triple Eight does something that other war movies often overlook, making it a must-see genre entry.
Set during World War II, Six Triple Eight tells the true story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — hence the film’s name. While Perry is most well-known for directing, writing, and starring in comedy films, like the Madea movies, the multi-hypenate has recently tackled other genres. For example, Perry directed Acrimony, a psychological thriller starring Taraji P. Henson, and a drama called A Jazzman’s Blues. Read more
George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is a story of jazz, race and the fraught notion of America’s melting pot. By
I’ve spent nearly two decades researching and writing about this piece. To me, “Rhapsody” isn’t some static composition stuck in the past; rather, it’s a continuously evolving piece of music whose meaning has changed over time.
Programming “Rhapsody” for concerts today has become somewhat of a double-edged sword. A century after it premiered, it remains a crowd favorite – and almost always guarantees a sold-out show. But more and more scholars are starting to see the work as a whitewashed version of Harlem’s vibrant Black music scene. Read more
How Usher’s Enduring Charm Led Him to 2024 Halftime Show. By Cady Lang / Time
Last summer, a video of Usher serenading actor Keke Palmer onstage at his Las Vegas residency made the rounds online. In the clip, Usher slow-dances with the star like she’s the only person in the room, while crooning his falsetto-laden 2010 ballad “There Goes My Baby.”
It was all enough to leave Palmer star-struck and giddy. That song, the dance, Usher’s undivided attention were the stuff of a romantic fantasy the R&B star has been cultivating for three decades—seductive but respectful, flirtatious, and wholly charming. Palmer’s unfettered joy was so tangible, so infectious, that I could feel myself blushing, falling under the irresistible spell of Usher, even through a screen. Read more
Sports
Las Vegas Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan continues to pioneer at the Super Bowl. By Jason Reid / Andscape
Douglass Morgan is the first Black woman to act as vice chair of the Super Bowl host committee
Already well-versed in being a pioneer, Las Vegas Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan is well-suited for her latest groundbreaking role: vice chair of the Las Vegas Super Bowl host committee. The first Black female franchise president in NFL history, Morgan, who’s also of Korean descent, is also the first Black woman to hold such a high-ranking position with a host committee. In a nutshell, host committees work with the league to ensure that each host city delivers a great experience for fans during Super Bowl week and on game day. Read more
Doc Rivers to coach in All-Star Game, a move he calls ‘ridiculously bad.’ By Cindy Boren / Wash Post
Doc Rivers, who posted his first win as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night, will coach the Eastern Conference team at the NBA All-Star Game, an honor bestowed upon him thanks to what he called “one of those quirky things.”
“That is ridiculously bad. It really is,” Rivers said after being asked how it feels “to earn the honor of coaching the Eastern Conference all-stars” following the Bucks’ 129-117 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Rivers is 1-2 since being hired late last month, and he said he plans to give his all-star ring and bonus to Adrian Griffin, who was 30-13 in his first year as the Bucks’ coach before being fired Jan. 23. Milwaukee was 2-1 with assistant Joe Prunty serving as the interim coach. Read more
Morehouse Brings On Terance Mathis As Football Head Coach. By Cedric Thornton / Black Enterprise
His hiring comes a year after being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
Morehouse College
A Forgotten Championship H.B.C.U. Team Comes Off the Sidelines. / NYT
Members of the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University men’s basketball team hoisting their head coach, John McLendon, after winning the second of three consecutive national titles in 1958.Credit…Tennessee State University
Surviving members of the all-Black Tennessee A&I basketball team have fought for recognition since they won three back-to-back national championships at the height of the Jim Crow era. In 1957, the men’s basketball program at Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University in Nashville had all of the makings of a great team: a coach dedicated to the fundamentals of the game and a fast-breaking offense that applied relentless full-court pressure. Read more
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