Featured
William Parker Recalls How He Escaped Slavery. By William Parker / The Atlantic
An escaped slave tells his story—including his account of his violent showdown with slave-catchers in Pennsylvania. February 1866 Issue
The manuscript of the following pages has been handed to me with the request that I would revise it for publication, or weave its facts into a story which should show the fitness of the Southern black for the exercise of the right of suffrage. It is written in a fair, legible hand; its words are correctly spelled; its facts are clearly stated, and — in most instances — its sentences are properly constructed. Therefore it needs no revision.
With these few remarks, I submit the evidence which he gives of the manhood of his race to that impartial grand-jury, the American people. E.K Read more
From Celebration to Cancellation: How Juneteenth Became a Casualty of America’s Reactionary Turn. By Terrance Sullivan / The Progressive Magazine
What a difference five years can make. In the months after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the spring of 2020, millions of people across the country filled the streets both in protest and in celebration, exalting the value of Black life and celebrating a world ready to reckon with the ills that came before.
Part of this reckoning was the shift toward a widespread recognition and endorsement of Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the delayed liberation of enslaved Black Texans on June 19, 1865. Read more
Related: Trump’s Total Disregard Of Juneteenth Underscores This 1 Extremely Cruel Strategy, Expert Says. By
Related: Will Trump’s DEI cuts come for more iconic Black history? By Alex Samuels / Daily Kos
Political / Social
American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran. By Robert Kagan / The Atlantic
The United States is well down the road to dictatorship. Imagine what Trump would do with a state of war.
Donald Trump has assumed dictatorial control over the nation’s law enforcement. The Justice Department, the police, ICE agents, and the National Guard apparently answer to him, not to the people or the Constitution. He has neutered Congress by effectively taking control of the power of the purse. And, most relevant in Iran’s case, he is actively and openly turning the U.S. military into his personal army, for use as he sees fit, including as a tool of domestic oppression. Whatever action he does or doesn’t take in Iran will likely be in furtherance of these goals. Think of how Trump can use a state of war to strengthen his dictatorial control at home. Read more
Related: We’ve become a failed nation-state in 150 days. By Brian Karem / Salon
ICE Detention Numbers Have Reached a Record High. By Isabela Dias / Mother Jones
There are currently more than 56,000 immigrants in custody—the most since 2019.
The whopping figure marks the largest total detainee population in ICE custody since at least August 2019, when there were 55,654 immigrants detained. (ICE started releasing semi-monthly detention statistics during Trump’s first term per a mandate from Congress.) As Austin Kocher, an assistant professor at Syracuse University who studies immigration enforcement, notes, this could possibly be the highest number of detained immigrants on record. Read more
Latinos Vote Differently Under Threat. By Mike Madrid / The Atlantic
The escalation of immigration raids around Los Angeles and Donald Trump’s deployment of military forces—over Governor Gavin Newsom’s objection—to quell anti-ICE protests have heightened fears among many Latinos that they are under systemic attack.
Out of dissatisfaction with the economy under Joe Biden, more Latinos voted for Trump in November than in his two previous bids. That historic showing was widely viewed as a turn away from ethnic politics. The reality is more nuanced: Latinos have always been primarily focused on economic issues, but they will coalesce as an ethnic voting bloc when they sense a serious threat to their community. Read more
Trump tax cuts: The impact on Medicaid and the welfare state’s future. By Eric Levitz / Vox
Four years ago, America was on the cusp of the largest expansion of its welfare state since the 1960s.
Under Joe Biden in 2021, House Democrats passed legislation that would have established a monthly child allowance for most families, an expansion of Medicaid’s elder care services, federal child care subsidies, universal prekindergarten, and a paid family leave program, among other new social benefits. But that bill failed — and then, so did Biden’s presidency. Now, Republicans are on the brink of enacting the largest cut to public health insurance in American history. And the outlook for future expansions of the safety net looks dimmer than at any time in recent memory. Read more
How Black conservative leaders aim to build the next generation in Washington. By Beatrice Peterson / ABC News
President Donald Trump made modest gains with Black voters in 2024.
Seeking to harness what it sees as the momentum of the 2024 presidential election, the Black Conservative Federation is launching a two-day summit in Washington, D.C., next month aimed at bringing together Black conservatives and cultivating the next generation of leaders. The second Black Conservative Federation Solution Summit will be held July 11-12, bringing together elected officials, influencers, policy experts and strategists for what organizers hope will be a series of “bold, solution-driven conversations” on the most urgent issues facing Black America today. Read more
Generation Emanuel: Meet The Black Lawmakers Whose Careers Were Ignited By The Charleston Shooting. By Hunter Walker / TPM
“Without that tragedy, I would have never ran for office,” recounted JA Moore, who lost his sister in the shooting and now represents a state legislative district that includes North Charleston. “Without that tragedy, I would’ve never done a lot of things that I’ve done. It’s my compass. It’s my guiding light. It’s everything that I am.”
All four of the lawmakers who were touched and driven by the shooting said the main effect it had on their work was adding what both Graham and Middleton described as “urgency.” Moore said his desire to address issues of racism and inequality was amplified by the loss of his sister and the realization the core issues of the civil rights era remain unresolved. Read more
Education
A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award. Richard Fausset / NYT
The University of Florida student won an academic honor after he argued in a paper that the Constitution applies only to white people. From there, the situation spiraled.
Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on “originalism,” the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted. In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase “We the People,” in the Constitution’s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against “criminal infiltrators at the border.” Read more
Court blocks Louisiana law requiring schools to post Ten Commandments in classrooms. By Sara Cline / ABC News
A panel of three federal appellate judges has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in each of the state’s public school classrooms is unconstitutional
The ruling Friday marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the mandate violates the separation of church and state, and that the poster-sized displays would isolate students — especially those who are not Christian. Read more
‘A Banner Year for Censorship’: More States Are Restricting Classroom Discussions on Race and Gender.
Over the past two years, more than a dozen laws have been enacted that either limit which classes can be taught or imposed restrictions on what professors can say in the classroom, according to a Chronicle analysis of state legislation and a compilation of what PEN America calls “educational gag orders.”
This year especially “has been a banner year for censorship at a state level across the country,” said Amy B. Reid, senior manager at PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program. “The point of a lot of these restrictions is to put people on guard, worried that anything or everything could be prohibited so you really have to watch what you say.” Read more
Gail Etienne’s Fight to Desegregate New Orleans Schools. By Adam Mahoney / Capital B
Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, and Tessie Prevost’s story was overshadowed for decades. Hurricane Katrina’s anniversary brings new urgency to their unfinished work.
In November 1960, three 6-year-old Black girls climbed 18 steps into history, forever changing the face of American education and democracy. While Ruby Bridges became a household name for integrating William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, and Tessie Prevost faced large crowds of angry protesters as they desegregated McDonogh 19 Elementary School just blocks away. Read more
Enslaved Black Children Were Educated Here. Now the Public Can Learn the History. Audra D. S. Burch / NYT
Beginning on Juneteenth, a restored Virginia schoolhouse where enslaved and free Black students were taught to read is on view in Colonial Williamsburg.
The building with a forgotten past sat on the campus of William & Mary for nearly a century. It served as the home of the military science department at the college in Williamsburg, Va., and before that, a women’s dormitory. But its story is even older. In 2020, researchers discovered that it was not just a facet of the historic campus, but a rare artifact in the history of Black life in colonial America. About 250 years ago, the unassuming structure housed the Williamsburg Bray School, making it the oldest known building where enslaved and free Black children were formally educated. Read more
World
With strikes on Iran, Trump has chosen a path of insanity. By Bill Curry / Salon
It’s time to ask: Is a mental condition driving his foreign policy?
There’s nothing quite like the U.S. entering a war to drive home the risks involved in electing a mentally ill person president. Since Israel attacked Iran, Donald Trump, the clearest example of malignant narcissism most of us have ever seen or even heard of, has rampaged about Washington — and, earlier this week, the G7 in Canada — hunting the attention he craves. With Saturday night’s attacks by the U.S. on three Iranian nuclear sites, it appears he has gotten it. Read more
Related: The Three Unknowns After the U.S. Strike on Iran. By Nicholas Kristof / NYT
Related: Trump strikes Iran hard, and the world waits for what comes next. By Dan Batz / Wash Post
Putin says ‘the whole of Ukraine is ours.’ By Zachary Schermele / USA Today
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested during an economic forum that the “whole of Ukraine” belongs to his country, even though Russia only controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
He made the comments on June 20 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he also indicated that he wouldn’t “rule out” taking the northern Sumy region, which Russian troops have been rapidly advancing into in recent weeks. The regional capital of 250,000 people is located just over a dozen miles from the Russian border. Read more
Haiti’s presidential council confirms use of mercenaries in anti-gang fight. By Jacqueline Charles / Miami Herald
Fritz Alphonse Jean officially became the new President of the Transitional Presidential Council on Friday, March 7, 2025. He replaces Leslie Voltaire in the position and will remain at the head of the council until August 7, 2025 as part of a rotating presidency. Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council
The presence of foreign mercenaries in Haiti’s anti-gang fight and the lack of transparency around the players, most notably the former head of Blackwater, Erik Prince, and the rules of engagement, have been raising concerns both inside the country and in international circles since the group was first tied to the dropping of weaponized, explosive drones into gangs’ strongholds by an equally opaque government task force. Read more
Mahmoud Khalil Returns to New York After Months in Detention. Jonah E. Bromwich / NYT
The Trump administration remains committed to deporting Mr. Khalil, a Columbia graduate and leading figure in the pro-Palestinian protest movement.
Mahmoud Khalil walked through a nondescript door into a Newark airport lobby on Saturday, his wife to his left, a congresswoman to his right and a stroller in front of him. His fist was raised and he could not stop smiling. Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident, had spent more than three months detained by the Trump administration, which said he had enabled the spread of antisemitism and had sought to deport him.
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Frederick Douglass Found His Mission in the Black Church. By Jessica Janvier / Christianity Today
In newly formed Black congregations, the famous abolitionist and others were able to live out their faith—and affirm their full humanity.
In his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Douglass tells the story of how he became a Christian around 1831 while listening to the preaching of a white Methodist minister. After his conversion, Douglass, who was a teenager at the time, was discipled by a slave whom he called “Uncle Lawson.” He writes that Lawson nurtured a love for the Bible in him, set an example of ceaseless prayer, and encouraged the belief that God would one day free Douglass for a “great work.” Lawson also connected Douglass to a fervent community of enslaved Christians who met to worship in seclusion. Read more
Black churches push back against Trump-fueled anti-DEI wave. By Cheyanne M. Daniels / Politico
Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and mastermind behind the 2025 Target boycott, speaks during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Black church leaders are ramping up the pressure on corporate America as companies continue to roll back their diversity, equity and inclusion policies, trying to serve as a counterbalance to President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to end DEI initiatives across the country. Read more
The Growing Threat of Homegrown Religious Extremism. By Mona Charen / The Bulwark
The alleged Minnesota assassin was known as a ‘deeply religious’ Christian man. That should be an alarm bell for all of us.
What stands out about the descriptions of Boelter we’ve seen thus far is that everyone agreed he was “deeply religious.” In other words, he appears to be a religious extremist. He was also reportedly an ardent Trump fan. Those things are obviously related, but they also underscore how much the world has flipped in just ten years. Read more
Related: The Problem of the Christian Assassin. By David French / NYT
We Traced Pope Leo XIV’s Ancestry Back 500 Years. Here’s What We Found. By Henry Louis Gates / NYT
On May 8, moments after the world learned that an American cardinal named Robert Francis Prevost was becoming Pope Leo XIV, my inbox was flooded with emails. For the past 13 years, I’ve hosted a PBS show called “Finding Your Roots,” where, with the help of a team of genealogists, we trace the family history of prominent figures.
The New York Times, drawing on research by Jari C. Honora, a genealogist, revealed that Pope Leo had recent African American ancestors. Prevost’s maternal grandparents, residents of the Seventh Ward in New Orleans, were described in records as “mulatto” and “black.” This was earthshaking news, but we knew it was only the beginning. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Trump is following in the footsteps of the worst traitor in US history. By Thom Hartman / MSN
Robert E. Lee killed more Americans than Hitler. More than Khruschev. More than King George III, Ho Chi Mihn, or Kim Il Sung. He killed more Americans than we’ve lost in every war since the American Revolution, combined. He was the largest mass murderer of Americans in our nation’s history.
And so, when Lee lost the war that he’d started against us, the federal government seized his slave plantation and turned it into a cemetery for the Civil War dead. It’s today named Arlington National Cemetery. So, perhaps it makes perfect sense that the current chief betrayer of the ideals of our nation, convicted felon and Putin toady Donald Trump, would brag to a group of American soldiers that he’s going to rename a military base after Robert E. Lee. Read more
A former plantation becomes a space for healing, art and reparative history. By Brianna Scott / NPR
Harpersville is a small town in Alabama.
It’s predominantly white. It’s located in Shelby County, which the local Republican Party calls the reddest county in America. It’s also home to a new museum exhibit about a particular chapter of Black history. About what happened in Harpersville after formerly enslaved people were emancipated, granted their freedom — and not much else. Read more
Emmett Till national monument at risk of removal due to Trump’s anti-DEI stand. By Kati Weis / CBS News
There are 138 National Monuments across the U.S., but for the first time in nearly 100 years, they’re eligible to be sold for parts.
This Juneteenth, some of the protected lands in jeopardy commemorate important moments in American civil rights history, including some newer monuments like the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. “We are seeing this effort to erase and reverse history and historic preservation,” said historian Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. “This is turning quickly into a dream deferred.” Read more
Related: The Institutions Fighting to Save Black History Under Trump. By Kaitlyn Greenidge / Harpers Bazaar
In Harlem, a Juneteenth Celebration Revels in the Rhythms of Jazz. Samantha Latson / NYT
Music and dancing filled the streets Thursday night as residents turned out for the fourth annual Big Band Jubilee.
The sound of horns and percussion permeated Harlem, causing neighbors to poke their heads out of windows to listen to the colorful sounds of jazz. It was Thursday night — Juneteenth — and the sun was shining after a brief downpour. The Big Band Jubilee, an annual live music celebration, had been delayed for a bit by the weather. But now it was in full swing, and musicians and dancers had taken to the streets. Read more
The Slapstick Criminality of Hulu’s “Deli Boys. By Jorge Cotte / The Nation
Hulu’s new slapstick crime series. Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh in Deli Boys.
Tossing comedy and ethnicity into a blender with the standard Mafia and drug-dealing tropes, Deli Boys is at once a succession story, a riches-to-rags tale, and, perhaps most important, a buddy comedy following two hapless brothers, Mir and Raj, who inherit their father’s convenience-store empire only to immediately lose it. The series is really about how they rebuild that business, which turns out to be not at all what they expected, because the stores were merely fronts for the sale and distribution of cocaine. Read more
Sports
Why the LA Dodgers Stood Up to ICE. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
The ownership turned ICE away at the stadium and pledged $1 million to families of immigrants because of all the people protesting Trump’s immigration actions in LA.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have long had a transactional relationship with the city’s Chicano and immigrant communities. In 1949, the city seized land for Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine from a Mexican community that had turned the greenspace into “an immigrant Shangri-La.” Families would come to the park and say, “Your uncle lived where the third-base line ends at home plate.” Read more
Related: LA Dodgers pledge $1 million in support of immigrants amid ICE raids. By Alana Wise / NPR
It’s time for sports to take a stand against Trump’s excesses. By Kevin B. Blackistone / Wash Post
Immigrants are a crucial part of U.S. sports, but leading sports organizations have stayed silent about the Trump administration’s crackdown. Jim Keady speaks at a demonstration organized by Refuse Fascism at Logan Circle.
It has never been the corporate entity of sport that has reared up when needed, save that brief post-George Floyd moment. We have gotten it twisted when talking about sport as an agent for social change. It has been individuals. They have been athletes or coaches such as Keady, acting on their own. Now is the time for the entities they work under to step up. Read more
Trump has made sports franchises and athletes his sideshow props. By Jerry Brewer / Wash Post
Trump keeps stripping sports and athletes of their dignity. Just look at Juventus.
The way they looked, you figured hell would have been a cooler place to be. Select members of Juventus, the prestigious Italian soccer club, stood behind President Donald Trump for 16 cringeworthy minutes Wednesday at the White House, transforming from visitors to sideshow props. Read more
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