Featured
With Jan. 6 case, the Supreme Court could take America down the dark road to dictatorship. By Thomas G. Moukawsher / Salon
At a crucial crossroads for American democracy, the Supreme Court slow walks Trump’s immunity issue
With the Supreme Court granting certiorari to Donald Trump on his immunity claims regarding the January 6th trial in Washington, we have reached a historic moment. The high court will now review the lower court ruling that a former president isn’t immune from prosecution for crimes he committed in office. but not until April. If the court agrees with Trump him, it could lead America down a dark road.
The court should be careful. It’s already certain to overturn the Colorado ruling disqualifying Trump from the state ballot. That would at least have political—if not legal—heft behind it. It would make the Supreme Court seem modest about its powers and supportive of the people’s right to choose their leaders. But if a favorable disqualification ruling were joined by a ruling for Trump on immunity, it would take a baleful bite out of the court’s already tattered reputation and the future of our democracy. Read more
Related: The Supreme Court Must Be Stopped. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
Political / Social
It Can Happen Here. By David Corn / Mothe Jones
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published the novel It Can’t Happen Here, which told the story of fascism triumphing in the United States. The book was a reaction to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and the spread of demagogic populism in the United States by Huey Long, the strongman governor of Louisiana, and Father Charles Coughlin, the wildly popular antisemitic radio preacher.
America did not succumb to the fascist wave. Long was assassinated. Coughlin was forced off the air. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into World War II led to the end of the America First movement that might have produced a demagogic alternative to Roosevelt. Over eight decades later, the ghost of It Can’t Happen Here haunts American politics. Donald Trump has often been compared to Windrip, and various commentators have harkened back to Lewis’ novel to explain the threat Trumpism poses to American democracy. Read more
Related: White Rural Trump Supporters Are a Threat to Democracy. By Michael A. Cohen / The Daily Beast
Related: Where does Trump stand with Black voters? What the polls show. By Sudiksha Kochi / USA Today
Trump’s claims of a migrant crime wave are not supported by national data. By and
An NBC News review of available 2024 crime data shows overall crime levels dropping in cities that have received the most migrants.
When Donald Trump speaks at the southern border in Texas on Thursday, you can expect to hear him talk about “migrant crime,” a category he has coined and defined as a terrifying binge of criminal activity committed by undocumented immigrants spreading across the country. Read more
Related: Trump’s threats against NATO and a new nuclear arms race. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
“Just Being Racist”: Biden & Trump Push Anti-Immigrant Policies in Dueling Border Visits. By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
Joe Biden and Donald Trump both visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday, where the two leading presidential candidates each pitched anti-immigration measures to further militarize the border and restrict asylum.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump: Instead of playing politics with this issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I’ll join you, in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together. Read more
Related: The Red-Blue Divide Goes Well Beyond Biden and Trump. By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT
Biden Is Still the Democrats’ Best Bet for November. By Jonathan V. Last / The Atlantic
No amount of wishful thinking is going to magically produce a winning Candidate B.
Let’s start with the obvious. The concerns about Joe Biden are valid: He’s old. He talks slowly. He occasionally bumbles the basics in public appearances. Biden’s age is so concerning that many Biden supporters now believe he should step aside and let some other candidate become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. That said, there’s another point worth noting up front: Joe Biden is almost certainly the strongest possible candidate Democrats can field against Donald Trump in 2024. Read more
Related: Why an Improving Economy Hasn’t Helped Biden. By Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic
Southern Democrat vs. MAGA Republican: Why NC governor race is a defining contest for 2024. Phillip M. Bailey and Savannah Kuchar / USA Today
On Super Tuesday, Democrat Josh Stein and Republican Mark Robinson are party frontrunners. Abortion looms as a top issue in the 2024 governors race. Robinson on the left, Stein on the right. Image by WUNC
Once a reliable Republican stronghold − long associated with the southern fried conservatism of the late Sen. Jesse Helms − the Tar Heel State has become more competitive largely because of diverse population growth. “I believe that the road to the presidency is going to go through North Carolina,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term limited, told USA TODAY in an interview. “And I believe that we can win this state for Joe Biden when you look at the momentum that’s occurring right now, and you look at how outrageous Donald Trump has become, even more so since his presidency.” Read more
Judge says he’ll rule whether to remove Fani Willis from Trump case within two weeks. By and
Willis was accused of misconduct by one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case, his former campaign staffer Michael Roman.
The judge presiding over the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants said Friday he hopes to rule on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the case in the next two weeks — a move that if granted could upend the racketeering case against the former president. Read more
Racial Turnout Gap Has Widened With a Weakened Voting Rights Act, Study Finds. By Nick Corasaniti / NYT
The Black share of the electorate had been on the rise for decades, but in some counties, a Supreme Court decision in 2013 changed that, according to a new analysis.
When the Supreme Court knocked down a core part of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. argued that some of the law’s protections against racial discrimination were no longer necessary. He wrote that the once-troubling turnout gap between white and Black voters in areas with histories of discrimination at the polls had largely disappeared, and that “the conditions that originally justified” the civil rights law’s attention to these places, mostly in the South, no longer existed. But a new, yearslong study by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan think tank focused on democracy and voting rights issues, suggests otherwise. Read more
Related: John Lewis Voting Rights Act Reintroduced Before Bloody Sunday. Editor at NewsOne
National Urban League Releases ’24 State of Black America Report. By Sharelle Burt / Black Enterprise
The report is broken into three sections: Overview of the 2024 Equality Index, Biden Progress Report, and the attack on the Civil Rights of 1964.
“This year marks the 60th anniversary of that landmark legislation, but the journey toward racial justice in the United States is older than the nation itself and nowhere near complete,” President and CEO Marc H. Morial wrote. “No issue in history has met with more resistance in the United States Congress than civil rights.” Read more
Map: See which states have introduced or passed anti-DEI bills. By and / NBC News
Republican lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills this session to quell diversity and inclusion programs at colleges, industries and the government.
Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the national protests that followed, schools, companies and individuals sought more solutions to become more racially and socially inclusive. But those efforts have invited a backlash, with conservative media outlets, politicians, lawyers and social media influencers now countering DEI efforts in several industries, from higher education institutions to airlines. Read more
Related: DEI Is Not the Way to Settle the Caste Debate. Shareen Joshi / Chronicle of Higher Education
Ethics / Morality / Religion
What Alabama’s IVF ruling reveals about the ascendant Christian nationalist movement. By Carter Sherman / The Guardian
Supporters of the idea that the US should be a Christian country have a foothold in politics – and are growing bolder
In the Alabama state supreme court case that dubbed embryos “extrauterine children” and imperiled the future of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the state, the first reference to the Bible arrives on page 33. For experts, Parker’s words were a stunningly open embrace of Christian nationalism, or the idea that the United States should be an explicitly Christian country and its laws should reflect that. Read more
Related: “Better than Jesus”: How far will the cult of Trump go? By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Related: Four Ways of Looking at Christian Nationalism. By Ross Douthat / NYT
Related: Where Did Evangelicals Go Wrong? By Peter Wehner / The Atlantic
Hakeem Jeffries’ Black church cultivated his House leadership style. By The Grio and AP
Hakeem says being an usher at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn taught him “how to count, engage and serve.” Image New Republic
Jeffries spoke in depth with The Associated Press about his religious upbringing, which was centered at Cornerstone Baptist Church in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. He declined several invitations to comment on present-day dynamics in the House, including the lingering cross-party tensions brought on by Donald Trump’s presidency and his efforts to contest the 2020 election. Read more
A decade after Reverend Ike’s death, his son writes about his impact on Black church. By Fiona Andre’ / RNS
Reverend Ike preaches at United Palace Theater in Harlem, New York, in the 1970s. (Photo courtesy Winston Vargas/Flickr/Creative Commons)
For 40 years, Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, or Reverend Ike as he would come to be known, preached prosperity from the pulpit of the United Palace Theater in Harlem, New York. Every Sunday, the popular preacher distilled his secrets for attaining financial success to a congregation of 5,000 mostly Black people. “Close your eyes and see green … Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money, and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool,” he said during a 1972 sermon. He was a “cheeky man,” joked his son Xavier Eikerenkoetter, who wrote “Reverend Ike: An Extraordinary Life of Influence” with the motivational speaker Mark Victor Hansen. Read more
The deep Biblical spirituality of Bob Marley’s music is being overlooked. By John Blake / CNN
Today, as Marley’s life is celebrated in a new hit movie, MacNeil and others make a bold claim: Marley’s spiritual impact is as significant as his musical legacy. The two are, in many ways, inseparable. These Marley fans and scholars say it’s time to stop glossing over or editing out Marley’s “subversive spirituality.”
“The Bible was as important to Marley’s music as his guitar,” MacNeil says. “You really need to know the Bible to understand Marley’s message.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
Rare audio of formerly enslaved people connects history to the present. By Terri Martin, Melia Patria, Brianti Downing, and Kiara Alfonseca / ABC News
’10 Million Names’ project uses ancestry research to shed light on U.S. history. In a 1974 recording, a 114-year-old woman named Celia Black recalled picking cotton in Texas as a child born into slavery. Courtesy Curtis Royal
Genealogists and researchers are tracking down archival documents from across the country to piece together the family ancestry of Black Americans in a vast effort to identify the more than 10 million men, women, and children who were enslaved before 1865 in the present-day United States – most of whom have long remained anonymous to history. ABC News is the exclusive media partner of the historic “10 Million Names” project, a moonshot endeavor that aims to use ancestry research to put a name to each enslaved person to not only acknowledge their dignity, but to connect their living descendants with their family history. Read more
Related: Black Families Can Now Recover More of Their Lost Histories.
Black historical interpreters fight to keep history alive as some work to erase it. By Donna M. Owens / NBC News
Millicent Sparks and Darius Wallace are historical interpreters who embody a variety of larger-than-life historical figures, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. André Chung for NBC News
It’s a bright, balmy February day, and a young man dressed in Civil War regalia cuts a dashing figure while striding down U Street, the historic epicenter of Black arts, culture and heritage in the nation’s capital. Marquett Milton is clad in a replica of a Union Army uniform, complete with a navy wool sack coat, light-blue pants and a kepi cap covering his locs. While his 19th-century attire elicits a few quizzical looks from passersby, it’s clear from Milton’s swagger that he is proud. Read more
America’s oldest living person, at 114, may also be the fifth-oldest person on Earth. By Anna Kaplan / Today
Elizabeth Francis is now the fifth oldest person in the world at age 114.
A 114-year-old Houston woman has become the oldest living person in the U.S., according to LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks human longevity across the globe. Elizabeth Francis is now the oldest living American at age 114 and 217 days after Edie Ceccarelli, the previous oldest living American, died at age 116 on Feb. 22 in California, according to LongeviQuest. Read more
These giants of Black history were rivals, but time knits them together. By Theodore R. Johnson / Wash Post
From left: Booker T. Washington in 1894 and W.E.B. Du Bois in 1949. (AP)
The Washington-Du Bois debate captures the essence of a nation in way that is particularly American and particularly Black. It is a shared history. Washington chastised Du Bois’s approach as elitist, scoffing that it’s better to “earn a dollar in a factory” than “spend a dollar in an opera-house.” Du Bois responded that a people not educated in the systems of democracy and justice would never get much of either, no matter how much they sweat. How can Black people best find the America that others enjoy? It was a question to the people as much as to a country. Read more
The Essential James Baldwin. By Robert Jones Jr. / NYT
He wrote with the kind of clarity that was as comforting as it was chastising. Here’s where to start.
James Baldwin would have turned 100 on Aug. 2 this year. His final works were published almost 40 years ago, just two years before his death in 1987. Yet his writing is as imperative as ever. He wrote with the kind of moral vision that was as comforting as it was chastising — almost surely the influence of the pulpit he once occupied as a child preacher in his native Harlem. Read more
‘We have a real impact’: oldest Black college newspaper in US turns 100. By David Smith / The Guardian
Howard University’s the Hilltop chronicles one of the US’s most storied HBCUs and is helping a new generation of journalists navigate institutional racism
The paper known as the student voice of Howard University has just turned 100. It held a gala celebration in February at the National Press Club in Washington with the Hilltop alumni Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste. It was a moment to reflect on the paper’s standing as chronicler of one of America’s most storied Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and, in an election year, its role in helping a new generation navigate a racially divided nation. Read more
Jeffrey Wright is finally in the Oscar hunt. He’s ready. By Ann Hornaday / Wash Post
In ‘American Fiction,’ Wright claims his most celebrated big-screen role since his breakout title performance in ‘Basquiat’
His performance in “American Fiction” has been lauded by festivals, critics and industry groups, a flurry of recognition capped by Wright winning the Film Independent Spirit Award for best lead performance; a week and a half after the AFI lunch, he learned he had been nominated for his first Oscar. Read more
Hustlers, grifters and greed: How Jam Master Jay met his tragic end. By Rich Schapiro / NBC News
The DJ found fame and fortune with the trailblazing rap group Run-DMC. But his close ties to unsavory figures from his old neighborhood led to his 2002 murder.
Last week, two men from Mizell’s old neighborhood were convicted in the slaying after a trial that laid bare the difficult predicament he found himself in prior to the murder. With Run-DMC’s popularity fading, large paydays became more elusive for Mizell, who was known for showering cash on his family, friends and even acquaintances from his old haunts in Hollis, Queens. So he leveraged his old contacts from the neighborhood to carry out drug deals, according to courtroom testimony, a decision that ultimately led to his killing. Read more
Beyoncé brings new audience to country music and highlights the genre’s Black roots.
This week, Beyoncé continued her reign at the top of the country charts. Last week she became the first Black woman to hit number one with her banjo-infused bop “Texas Hold ’Em.” The song has brought a new audience to the genre and reminded music fans of country music’s deep African and African American roots. Amna Nawaz has a closer look for our arts and culture series, CANVAS. Read more
Related: Beyoncé releasing country album sparks backlash among prominent conservatives. The Reidout / MSNBC
Sports
LeBron James becomes the first NBA player to eclipse 40,000 career points. By Jovan Buha / The Athletic
LeBron James has become the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points, eclipsing the plateau with a left-handed layup at the 10:39 mark of the second quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ matchup against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.
Play continued until the Lakers called a timeout with 9:16 remaining in the half. The team honored James’ accomplishment on the jumbotron. Read more
Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes is just getting started. By Jason Reid / Andscape
The proud HBCU graduate believes the door will open for more inclusive hiring partly because of his success in Detroit
With Holmes, a proud graduate of a historically Black university, picking the players, coach Dan Campbell guiding them and both men working together to change the organization’s culture, the once-woebegone Lions moved into the NFL’s elite last season. For the first time in 32 years, the Lions (12-5) won at least 12 games during the regular season. What’s more, they finished atop a division for the first time since the 1993-94 season and won their first playoff game since the 1991-92 season. Read more
Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game: Why are some saying pics or it didn’t happen? By Paul Farhi / The Athletic
The greatest single performance in NBA history — maybe in all of professional sports — took place in a drafty arena built for ice hockey in Hershey, Pa., on March 2, 1962. Using his repertoire of fadeaway jumpers, finger rolls and “Dipper dunks,” Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game between his Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks.
More than an eye-popping statistical milestone, Chamberlain’s 100-point game focused new attention on the NBA, then a secondary attraction struggling to recruit fans. Oscar Robertson said the game, and Chamberlain’s 50.4 point scoring average that season, generated so much interest that it saved the league from extinction. Read more
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