Featured
Critics see Trump attacks on the ‘Black Smithsonian’ as an effort to sanitize racism in US history. By Bill Barrow / AP and ABC News
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders are sharply rebuking President Donald Trump for his order targeting the Smithsonian Institution. The National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall is seen on Friday, March 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta.
The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.” Read more
Trump Signs Order To Restore Racist Monuments, Remove ‘Anti-America’ Ideology. By
The directive is “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” the White House said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at undoing many of the changes made during the racial reckoning movement, including the restoration of monuments, and the removal of so-called “anti-American ideology” from national museums and other federal properties. The White House said the order was part of “restoring truth and sanity to American history by revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.” Read more
Related: What to Know About Trump’s Order Taking Aim at the Smithsonian. Jennifer Schuessler / NYT
Related: Trump Signs Order To Restore Racist Monuments, Remove ‘Anti-America’ Ideology. By
Political / Social
Naval Academy Takes Steps to End Diversity Policies in Books and Admissions. John Ismay and Kate Selig / NYT
The defense secretary’s office has ordered that some books be removed from circulation in its library, and the academy has ended the use of affirmative action in admissions.
The U.S. Naval Academy said it had ended its use of affirmative action in admissions, reversing a policy it previously defended as essential for diversity and national security, according to a federal court filing on Friday. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office has ordered the Naval Academy to identify books related to so-called diversity, equity and inclusion themes that are housed in the school’s Nimitz Library, and to remove them from circulation. Thus far, the review of Nimitz Library’s holdings has identified 900 books that may run afoul of the defense secretary’s verbal order. According to a second defense official, they include “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.,” “Einstein on Race and Racism,” and a biography on Jackie Robinson. Read more
Related: FCC chair opens investigation into Disney and ABC over DEI practices. By Juliana Kim / NPR
The ‘Meritocracy’ Lie. By Eric Boehim / Reason
Two months after he was inaugurated, Trump has smashed many of the government’s silly DEI rules. But he hasn’t created a new age of meritocracy.
On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump vowed to “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” Less than two weeks later, Vice President J.D. Vance’s office hired Buckley Carlson—the 24-year-old son of former Fox News host and popular conservative pundit Tucker Carlson—as deputy press secretary. At least young Buckley can be certain that he didn’t get the job because of the color of his skin. Read more
Related: Understanding the value of DEI. By Anne Meisenzahl / Tallahassee Democrat
Related: Racism Has Been Redefined. By William Spivey / Level
A Video From Tufts Captures the Fear and Aggression in Trump’s Crackdown. Jack Healy, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Mike Baker / NYT
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and a Muslim, was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends Tuesday night when she was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security.
The security video looked like a scene from an undercover sting operation against a 30-year-old Turkish graduate student in her white coat and backpack. Read more and watch here.
Related: Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest should be a clarifying moment for democracy. By Zack Beauchamp / Vox
Related: Kristi Noem’s El Salvador Prison Photo Op Is a New Low. By Issie Lapowsky / Vanity Fair
Byron Donalds pitches himself as Trump’s gov pick, DeSantis extension in kickoff rally. By Kimberly Leonard / Politico
Rep. Byron Donalds doesn’t have Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support to become the next governor of Florida. But during his gubernatorial campaign kickoff rally on Friday, Donalds cast himself as a natural extension of the governor’s “free state of Florida” mantra.
After walking onstage to “The Time Is Now,” Donalds, 46, hailed Florida as “the best state in America” and reminded the crowd — many of them wearing “Make America Great Again” caps — that he had President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the 2026 race. Read more
Georgia Senate approves investigation of Democrat Stacey Abrams as Trump targets her. By Jeff Amy / AP
Georgia’s Republican-dominated state Senate is going forward with an investigation of Stacey Abrams, a move that comes as President Donald Trump has made a target of the two-time Democratic nominee for Georgia governor.
Republican State Sen. Bill Cowsert of Athens said Thursday that he and other Republicans want to further examine recent ethics findings that voter participation group New Georgia Project improperly coordinated with Abrams’ 2018 campaign for governor. Read more
Trump slashes election security efforts while making it harder for some to vote. By Chris Brennan / USA Today
President Donald Trump‘s approach to elections has been consistent since he entered politics in 2015. He casts any vote won by an opponent as fraudulent. And he portrays any attempt to safeguard America’s election systems as rigging the game to cheat him.
So it comes as little surprise that Trump, two months into his second term as president, is trying to make it harder to vote for people who don’t support him while also slashing away at security systems that keep our elections safe and secure. Last Tuesday, Trump issued an expansive executive order impacting the conduct of elections across the nation. Read more
America has hit the MAGA tipping point. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
We won’t be able to ignore what Trump and his accomplices are doing once it starts to impact us personally
Most of us are still watching the unfolding crisis from afar. But before too long, what Trump and his accomplices are doing will start to impact us personally, and we won’t be able to avoid it any longer. We’ll all have to make a conscious decision as to whether we will resist, collaborate, leave or just try to keep our heads down until it’s over. Whatever we choose, we should be very clear in our own minds that while life does go on in the midst of a political crisis, the country is being changed in some fundamental ways that are not going to be easy to reverse. This nightmare is real — and it isn’t going away. Read more
Related: Trump quickly works to consolidate power and muzzle dissenting voices. By and
Related: Why Mad King Donald’s Lunatic Edicts Risk America as We Know It. By
At Black Colleges, a Stubborn Gender Enrollment Gap Keeps Growing. By Clyde McGrady / NYT
The number of Black men attending four-year colleges has plummeted. Nowhere is the deficit more pronounced than at historically Black colleges and universities, like Howard. Only 19 percent of students at Howard University are Black men, whose enrollment levels at four-year colleges have plummeted across the board.
Black men account for 26 percent of the students at H.B.C.U.s, down from an already low 38 percent in 1976, according to the American Institute for Boys and Men. There are now about as many non-Black students attending H.B.C.U.s as there are Black men. The decline has profound implications for economic mobility, family formation and wealth generation. Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist who uses large data sets to study economic opportunity, has found that the income gap between America’s Black and white populations is entirely driven by differences in men’s economic circumstances, not women’s. Read more
World News
‘A Great Emboldening’: Trump Inspires Wannabe Authoritarians Everywhere. Michael D. Shear / NYT
Riot police officers using pepper spray on a protester in Turkey during demonstrations that erupted after the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, the main political rival of Turkey’s president.
Since taking office 66 days ago, Mr. Trump has turned a central precept of American diplomacy on its head. He is embracing — rather than denouncing — fellow leaders who abandon democratic principles. The longstanding bipartisan effort to bolster democratic institutions around the globe has been replaced by a president who praises leaders who move toward autocracy. Read more
Related: Is Turkey’s Declining Democracy a Model for Trump’s America? By Isaac Chotiner / The New Yorker
Related: How Trump’s policies have helped Russia and furthered Putin’s goals. By Robyn Dixon / Wash Post
Trump’s Pick For Ambassador To South Africa Actively Opposed Fight To End Apartheid. By Hunter Walker / TPM
As Black activists in South Africa fought against their country’s racist apartheid government decades ago, some on the American right felt they took it too far. One of those people who stepped up and spoke out against their fight was L. Brent Bozell III, the right-wing activist that President Trump tapped this week to serve as America’s ambassador to South Africa.
According to the congressional website, Bozell’s nomination was received by the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Monday. Trump had previously picked Bozell to be head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, but that nomination was withdrawn. Read more
Final Cuts Will Eliminate U.S. Aid Agency in All but Name. Karoun Demirjian Stephanie Nolen, Michael Crowley and Elizabeth Dias / NYT
The staff of U.S.A.I.D. will be reduced to some 15 legally required positions. The agency employed about 10,000 people before the Trump administration entered office.
The cuts are in keeping with the administration’s plan to use foreign aid as a tool to further its diplomatic priorities. This month, recipients of U.S.A.I.D. funds were asked to justify their value to the administration through questionnaires that asked, among other things, whether their programs helped to limit illegal immigration or secure rare earth minerals. Read more
U.S. Presses French Companies to Comply With Trump’s Anti-Diversity Policies. Liz Alderman / NYT
A letter from the American Embassy in France gave firms that do business with the U.S. government five days to indicate their agreement.
An executive order that Mr. Trump signed the day after taking office instructs federal contractors not to engage in D.E.I., which the order described as “illegal discrimination.” The letter to French businesses said the order “applies to all suppliers and contractors of the U.S. government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate.” Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Haitian congregations fight fear as Trump administration seeks deportation for immigrants. By Fiona André / RNS
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, congregants of the Voice of the Gospel Tabernacle church in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston have gathered weekly to pray for a miracle.
Members of the Haitian congregation hope God will soften the hearts of the country’s leaders so they will spare immigrants from deportation, said the church’s lead pastor, Bishop Nicolas Homicil. Read more
How Should Christians Respond to DEI Initiatives? By Elisa S. Johnston / Patheos
Politically conservative groups and many Republican evangelicals view Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies as unfair. On the other hand, Democrats, progressive groups, those people of faith who take a stronger stance against Christian Nationalism generally see DEI initiatives as valuable and more just.
Are we at an impasse? Are we able to find a common way of belief about diversity, equity, and inclusion? How should we, as Christians, respond to DEI initiatives changing under the new administration? First, let’s examine any scriptures that might be related, then let’s talk about what the response to DEI can lead us. Read more
Related: The Culture War is Spiritual Warfare. By Dennis Knapp / Patheos
As Trump silences Voice of America, an archbishop raises his voice and leads. By Michael Sean Winters / NCR
Archbishop Borys Gudziaklisted several courageous and excellent VOA journalists by name, such as Ostap Yarysh and Oleksii Kovalenko, commending them for their work.
Then the archbishop took it up a notch. Leaders not only assess the moral stakes of a given situation and diagnose problems. They bring perspective and they bring courage and they bring direction. “Such setbacks will not be permanent,” Gudziak’s statement concluded. “Do not lose faith. Be inspired by Ukrainians who sacrifice their lives and livelihoods for freedom and justice. Do not fear! God’s truth will prevail! Ostap, Oleksii and the former VOA journalists will not be silenced. Neither should be you or I!” Read more
Mike Huckabee uses Christianity to justify ethnic cleansing. By Kathryn Shihadah / Patheos
Confirmation hearings began this week for President Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
Dozens of progressive, faith, and human rights groups on Monday sent a letter to U.S. Senate leaders and the top lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urging them to oppose the nomination of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. The letter called him “unfit” and cited his “extreme views supporting the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
The Untold Story Of The Black Pilgrims Of Plymouth Colony. By Bilal G. Morris / Newsone
In the tapestry of American history, the narratives surrounding Black pilgrims are often hidden deep inside the crevasses of time, waiting to be unfurled. From the early days of colonization, Black people have been interwoven into the fabric of this nation, shaping its cultural, social and even religious landscape.
In 1981, historians announced that they had found evidence that an early pilgrim settler was of African descent. According to the Washington Post, the man’s name was included in a 1643 record listing the names of men able to serve in the Plymouth, Mass., militia. The man was identified as “Abraham Pearse, blackamore.” Read more
Jan. 23, 1873: Jonathan C. Gibbs Named Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction / By Zinn Education Project
Born in Philadelphia in 1821, Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs went on to become a minister, an abolitionist, and one of the most prominent Black officeholders in Florida during the Reconstruction era.
On Jan. 23, 1873, Gibbs was appointed the Superintendent of Public Instruction by incoming Florida Governor Ossian Bingley Hart, the sole Black cabinet member to be appointed. Gibbs held this position until his death in August 1874. Read more
Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving WWII paratrooper, has died. By Hallie Golden / AP
Sgt. Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving World War II paratrooper and a member of the U.S. Army’s first all-Black parachute infantry battalion, has died. He was 108.
Harris was among the last surviving members of the historic 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. The battalion helped protect the U.S. from deadly Japanese balloon bombs, according to Robert L. Bartlett, a retired Eastern Washington University professor who specializes in the 555th. Read more
Trump Commutes Ozy Media Founder’s Sentence Just Before His Surrender. Danielle Kaye, Maggie Haberman and Tyler Pager / NYT
President Trump on Friday commuted the sentence of Carlos Watson, a co-founder of the now-defunct digital media company Ozy Media, on the day he was set to surrender to prison, three people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Watson was sentenced in December to almost 10 years in prison for trying to defraud investors and lenders by lying about the company’s finances. He was sentenced after a federal jury last summer convicted Mr. Watson and Ozy Media of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. Read more
White House Correspondents’ Dinner cancels plans to host Amber Ruffin. By Jay Stahl / USA Today
White House Correspondents’ Association president Eugene Daniels announced the change Saturday in a note to press colleagues first shared by CNN’s Brian Stelter. No comedian will be featured this year, Daniels said.
Daniels, who left Politico last month to join cable news network MSNBC, is the current president of the WHCA. “At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” he continued. Read more
Sports
Deion Sanders Lands $54M Extension At Colorado, Making Him One Of Country’s Highest Paid Coaches. By Daniel Johnson / Black Enterprise
The University of Colorado has secured Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders with a five-year, $54 million contract after he transformed the football program from a struggling team into a playoff contender. Signed on March 28, the deal will pay Sanders $10 million annually, making him one of the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the nation.
According to The Athletic, Sanders had two years remaining on his initial contract, and his brief flirtation with taking the previously open Dallas Cowboys job likely gave him some leverage in the discussions he and University of Colorado Athletic Director Rick George had been having since at least the tail end of 2024. Read more
Steph Curry scores a 3-book deal, starting with a “personal reflection” on his life and career. By Hillel Italie / AP
Steph Curry has a deal with a Random House Publishing Group imprint that you could call a 3-point play.
The NBA superstar has agreed to release three books through One World, beginning Sept. 9 with “Shot Ready,” which Curry is calling a “personal reflection” on his life on and off the court. The book also includes more than 100 photographs. Read more
George Foreman changed his persona and made boxing history. By Branson Wright / Andscape
The former heavyweight champion, who died March 21, became a pastor, philanthropist and a lovable spokesman
The first iteration of George Edward Foreman was posed as the second-coming of the contemptuous former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Liston, a terror in boxing before losing his title to Muhammad Ali in 1964, was an ex-con and bouncer for the mob. And once Liston’s former trainer took on Foreman, he pushed the same menacing philosophy onto his new fighter. The “mister mean” attitude produced a heavyweight crown, but Foreman would quickly lose his title, change his persona and regain more than anyone could have ever imagined when he became a pastor, philanthropist and a lovable spokesman. Read more
Taxpayers’ Tab For Trump’s Second-Term Golf Excursions Crosses $26 Million Mark. By S.V. Date / HuffPost
American taxpayers have now spent more than $26 million in Donald Trump’s second term so the president can play golf at one of his own courses. Read more
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