Featured
Still Essential, Still Elusive: Brown v. Board of Education at 70. By R. Shep Melnick / Education Next
The court-ordered desegregation of American schools was a triumph, but what the mandate means today is far from clear
May 17 marks the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education. There is ample reason to celebrate Brown: not only did it mark the beginning of the end of the racial caste system in the South, but also it reinvigorated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Its implications reach far beyond race and education, as important as those matters remain.
At the same time, it is remarkable how many of the legal and policy questions raised by Brown remain unresolved. Consider some of the issues many school systems now confront: Read more
School segregation is worse than it was in the 1980s. By Fabiola Cineas / Vox
Seventy years after the Brown decision, many students are divided by their race and socioeconomic status.
Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Southern California found that racial segregation in the country’s 100 biggest school districts, which serve the most students of color, has increased by 64 percent since 1988. Economic segregation, or the division between students who receive free or reduced lunch and those who do not, increased by 50 percent since 1991. The study primarily focused on white-Black segregation, the groups that the Brown decision addressed, but found that white-Hispanic and white-Asian segregation both also more than doubled since the late 1980s in the large school districts. Read more
Related: Racial Segregation in North Carolina Schools Roars Back. By Rob Schofield / The 74
Related: New Data Shows Charter Schools Increase Segregation. By Carol Burris / The Progressive
Political / Social
Michael Cohen’s Testimony Exposes the Ugly Lunacy of the Trump “Cult.” By Greg Sargent / The New Republic Podcast
A former federal prosecutor explains how Donald Trump’s lawyers are committing serious mistakes—and why Trump’s demand for cultlike devotion may be what’s driving them.
Trump’s own lawyers have seemingly designed their strategy around flattering Trump as much as serving his legal needs. We talked to Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor and senior writer for Politico Magazine, who explained how Trump’s lawyers are making serious mistakes that are rooted in his demand for absolute devotion. Listen here
Biden’s weakness becomes bigger and bigger worry for Democrats. By Al Weaver and Amie Parnes / The Hill
Democrats are growing increasingly worried that President Biden’s brutal swing-state numbers could drag down their candidates in the Senate.
Biden has been trailing former President Trump in most of the swing states likely to determine the race for the White House, several of which will be important if Democrats are to retain their Senate majority. “Let’s cut through the BS, on the three top issues — inflation, immigration and the war in Gaza — he’s in the toilet,” one Democratic strategist said of Biden. “The polls show he’s not doing well with some of the key voting blocs: young voters, Black voters, Hispanic voters. Read more
Related: The more voters know, the more they like Joe Biden. By Kerry Eleveld / Daily Kos
Angela Alsobrooks wins Maryland’s hotly contested U.S. Senate primary. By Erin Cox , Teo Armus and Lateshia Beachum / Wash Post
The Prince George’s County executive defeated a three-term congressman and now shoulders the responsibility of holding the deep-blue state’s seat against popular two-term former governor Larry Hogan (R).
Alsobrooks presented voters with a historic opportunity to send the state’s first Black person to the U.S. Senate, where only three Black women have served. A little-known local official, she built an influential coalition of the state’s top Democrats to introduce her statewide. Read more
Ex-Capitol officer Harry Dunn loses congressional primary in Maryland. By Joan E. Greve / The Guardian
First-time candidate, who lost after pro-Israel group spent millions supporting another Democrat, defeated by state senator Sarah Elfreth
Dunn, a first-time candidate who gained national attention after publishing a book about his experiences protecting lawmakers during the January 6 insurrection, lost to the state senator Sarah Elfreth in Maryland’s third congressional district. Read more
Right-wing states attacking diversity erase, repeat our ugly history of discrimination. By David R. Hoffman / Kansas City Star
The United States Supreme Court has significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act and all but eliminated affirmative action in higher education — a ruling that has, in turn, ignited a politically opportunistic backlash against DEI. And it should not be surprising that many of the states that have variously outlawed or weakened DEI were once slave-holding states and had post-Civil War Jim Crow laws.
Although these anti-DEI policies are disingenuously advertised as combating “reverse discrimination,” the truth is far more sinister: Federal politicians are, in reality, hoping to reduce the economic and political power of African Americans, while state politicians are hoping that these policies will drive current African American residents away, and dissuade others from moving to their states by making them inhospitable places to work and live. Read more
Far-Right Group Recruits Followers To Overwhelm Election Offices With Voter Roll Challenges. By Khaya Himmelman / TPM
True the Vote is enlisting private citizens to help it overwhelm under-staffed and under-resourced election offices with voter roll challenges ahead of election day.
True the Vote, experts told TPM, is not merely trying to “work on the voter rolls” — states already have systems in place to ensure accuracy. Rather the group is attempting to arm regular citizens who likely don’t have much familiarity with voter list maintenance, with a tool to patrol fellow voters and mount baseless challenges to election officials. Read more
Hate Crimes Targeting Black People Still On The Rise 2 Years After Racist Buffalo Shooting. By Bilal G. Morris / Newsone
It’s been two years since a white supremacist tragically killed 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarket in one of New York state’s worst mass shootings.
According to ABC News, of the more than 8,500 hate crimes reported nationwide between 2020 and 2022, Black people were targeted in 52.3% of the offenses. Between 2021 and 2022, the numbers rose from 2,217 to 3,421, making Black people four times more likely to be targeted than the overall U.S. non-Hispanic Black population. Hate crimes targeting Black people under the age of 18 rose 10% in 2020, 12% in 2021 and 14.6% in 2022, according to ABC News. Read more
Related: Memorial to be built in honor of Buffalo massacre victims unveiled. By Bill Hutchinson / ABC News
White House sends official to Morehouse to address concerns ahead of Biden’s speech. By and
Steve Benjamin, who heads the White House Office of Public Engagement, met with a group of students and faculty a week before Biden is set to give the school’s graduation address.
During the meeting with Steve Benjamin, who heads the White House Office of Public Engagement, some of the students expressed concerns about Biden overshadowing their graduation, the White House official said. The official added that some students were worried in particular about the controversy surrounding Biden’s policy toward Israel and his handling of the war in the Gaza Strip taking center stage at Sunday’s ceremony. They also told Benjamin they do not want to hear a campaign speech, the White House official said. Benjamin, in turn, tried to assure the students that Biden’s appearance at their graduation would focus on celebrating their accomplishments and his hopes for their futures. Read more
Chris Edley, prominent affirmative action scholar, dies at 71. By Alia Wong Michael Collins / USA Today
Edley, a prominent civil rights scholar who held posts at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley and senior titles under some of the most prominent Democrats in the U.S., died Friday morning at the Stanford University hospital in California, according to his wife, Maria Echaveste. He was 71.
Christopher Edley Jr. was restless and impatient when working to expand access to education. He explained complicated concepts with clarity and often self-effacing humor. One former U.S. president remembered his brilliant mind and kind heart. Colleagues and students called him the most important mentor they ever had. Read more
Florida A&M president says ‘missteps were made’ in handling of purported $237 million donation. By
The president of Florida A&M University admits “misteps were made” in the handling of a purported $237 million stock gift to the school from a Texas businessman following concerns over the actual value of the donation.
Dr. Larry Robinson told the university’s board of trustees at a special meeting, “I wanted it to be real and ignored some warning signs along the way.” Robinson said he recommended last week that the university should cease engagement with the donor, Batterson Farms Corp. CEO Gregory Gerami. He also told the board of the school’s financial arm, the Florida A&M Foundation, that the school was pausing on the gift. Read more
World News
Kenya Rallies Police Officers Ahead of Haiti Deployment.
The East African country is preparing to send hundreds of police officers as the first wave of a multinational force aimed at stabilizing the chaos-ridden Caribbean nation.
Hundreds of Kenyan police officers have been training since late last year to embark on the deployment of a lifetime: helping lead a multinational force tasked with quelling gang-fueled lawlessness in Haiti. The deployment has divided the East African nation from the onset. It touched off fierce debate in parliament and among officials in at least two ministries about whether Kenya should lead such a mission. Read more
UN Officials Describe “Absolutely Catastrophic” Conditions in Gaza. By Julianne McShane / Mother Jones
The warnings contrast with a federal report released Friday that cleared Israel of restricting aid.
Humanitarian officials are warning of increasingly dire conditions in Rafah as the Israeli army orders tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate the city in advance of further operations in the city. The situation is “absolutely catastrophic,” UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told ABC’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week” Sunday. Approximately 300,000 people have fled Rafah this week, Ingram said, “piling onto donkey carts, trucks, busses, possessions, people.” Read more
Related: The View from Palestinian America. By Zaina Arafat / The New Yorker
‘It’s deeper than slavery’: Lisbon street project reclaims Portugal’s unseen black history. By Ashifa Kassam / The Guardian
Plaques in city now mark the places where its African community has lived, worked and transformed the city. A statue of the Marquês de Sá da Bandeira, a noted abolitionist, in Lisbon. But Portugal’s black history has been less visibly commemorated until now. Photograph: Maria Abranches/The Observer
“This is Portuguese history,” said Djuzé Neves of Batoto Yetu, as he pointed to the small, ivory-coloured plaque near the church that tells of the black brotherhood and its efforts to advance the rights of black people in Lisbon. “This is history that has been erased, silenced, ignored and whitewashed.” Believed to be one of the first projects of its kind in Europe, the plaques offer a glimpse into the mark left by a community whose presence in the city stretches back centuries. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
What the Methodist split tells us about America. By Laura Bullard / Vox
For the last five years, the United Methodist Church has been fighting over its stance on LGBTQ members.
Throughout the 19th century, as the United States grappled with the notion of Black personhood and the reality of chattel slavery, so too did the Methodists. In 1844, 40 percent of Methodist congregations split off to form a pro-slavery splinter congregation. The Methodist church became a sort of bellwether for larger national sentiment, and this extended beyond racial politics. Read more
Devout Christian Mike Johnson Shows Up to Hush Money Trial to Defend a Guy Accused of Cheating on His Wife With a Porn Star. By Bess Levine / Vanity Fair
House Speaker Mike Johnson describes himself as a Christian before anything else. He has said his “faith informs everything I do.” He has told people curious about his views to “pick up a Bible.” His wife reportedly runs a counseling service whose operating agreement, which he himself notarized, states, “We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery…is sinful and offensive to God.” He has said he and his son use a software program called Covenant Eyes to ensure neither is looking at porn.
Given all this, you may think that Johnson would not be comfortable showing up to a criminal trial to defend a guy who allegedly had an affair with an adult film star. Read more
Shunned for centuries, Vodou grows powerful as Haitians seek solace from unrelenting gang violence. By
Amid the spiraling chaos, numerous Haitians are praying more or visiting Vodou priests known as “oungans” for urgent requests ranging from locating loved ones who were kidnapped to finding critical medication needed to keep someone alive.
Vodou was at the root of the revolution that led Haiti to become the world’s first free Black republic in 1804, a religion born in West Africa and brought across the Atlantic by enslaved people. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Mary McLeod Bethune, known as the ‘First Lady of Negro America,’ also sought to unify the African diaspora. By Ashley Bobertson Preston / The Conversation
By reading her letters, diary entries and notes from various meetings, I noticed that Bethune was awarded honors in Haiti and Liberia. I decided to take a closer look at her work abroad for my dissertation, and I found that she was more connected to the diaspora than I and many others had thought.
That experience ultimately laid the foundation for my 2023 book, “Mary McLeod Bethune The Pan-Africanist.” Bethune embodied ideals of Pan-Africanism throughout the course of her life. Read more
The 12 Black women behind Brown v. Board often go unrecognized. A new exhibit aims to change that. By Kalyn Belsha / Chalkbeat
To unearth the forgotten history of the Kansas women who served as plaintiffs in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, Donna Rae Pearson had to dig. Without published scholarship to go on, Pearson and two other researchers hunted down the women’s obituaries, cross-referenced their details against Census records and city directories, and pored over newspaper clippings, oral histories, and court transcripts. Parents and children represented in the lawsuit.
It was no easy feat: Some women’s names had changed, and some had moved as far away as Oregon. The result of their work is “The Women of Brown,” which recognizes the lives and contributions of the 12 Black mothers who signed their names, alongside Oliver Brown, to the lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court. Read more
How America tried and failed to stay White. By Eduardo Porter / Wash Post
100 years ago the U.S. tried to limit immigration to White Europeans. Instead, diversity triumphed.
Immigration was perceived as a problem a century ago, too. Large numbers of migrants from Eastern and Southern Europe flocked to the United States during the first two decades of the 20th century, sparking a public outcry over unfamiliar intruders who lacked the Northern and Western European blood of previous migrant cohorts. On May 15, 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, which would constrain immigration into the United States to preserve, in Smith’s words, America’s “pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock.” Read more
Stevie on the Wonder of becoming a Ghanaian citizen. By Thomas Naadi / BBC
Signed, sealed and delivered: Stevie Wonder was all smiles as he was granted citizenship by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo (R)
Legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder is officially Ghanaian. On Monday – the US musical icon’s 74th birthday – he was granted citizenship of Ghana by the nation’s president. “This is it, congratulations!” Nana Akufo-Addo told a beaming Wonder, handing the Grammy winner a certificate at a ceremony in the presidential palace where he was also presented with a birthday cake with a Ghanaian flag iced on top. Wonder told the BBC that gaining Ghanaian nationality on his birthday was an “amazing thing”. Read more
In Virginia, these Confederate names have a power all their own. By Nicole Hemmer / CNN
The rollback of the reckoning with America’s racist past and present has proceeded with alarming speed in recent years. Corporations have slashed their funding for diversity and inclusion initiatives, and Republican state governments have forced universities to downsize or eliminate their diversity and inclusion offices. Books by Black authors have been banned in dozens of schools, and teachers in some districts have been barred from mentioning structural racism.
In light of these policies, this re-renaming of two schools may not seem like much. But in restoring the Confederate names, the school board has signaled that the politics of redemption have fully returned, and that no part of the reckoning of the last decade will go unchallenged. Read more
Georgia Tech’s First Black Graduate, Ronald Yancey, Presents Granddaughter With Diploma For Master’s Degree In Electrical And Computer Engineering. By Samantha Dorisca / AfroTech
It was a special day for Ronald Yancey, Georgia Institute of Technology’s first Black graduate.
CNN reports Yancey presented his granddaughter Deanna Yancey with her diploma for a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at the school’s commencement ceremony held on Friday, May 3, 2024. Read more
New Releases Make Old Jazz Young Again. Richard Brody / The New Yorker
Rediscovered archival concerts—and one recent one—offer important revelations.
By now, most of the great jazz artists from the mid-century crucibles of bebop and its avant-garde successors are gone, and most of the rest, in their eighties and nineties, have retired from performing. Yet there are still troves of unheard treasures to be unearthed—from radio-station vaults, concert-hall storage rooms, musicians’ archives, and collections of bootlegs made by enthusiasts. Some are unreleased and others circulate in unauthorized versions, but a diligent and devoted community of producers working at specialist record labels has made a small but mighty industry of high-quality rediscoveries and reissues, often collaborating closely with musicians and their estates. Read more
Sports
The WNBA’s progress needs to be seen. By Ari Chambers / Andscape
Representation matters in the league’s continued growth, starting with broadcasting
I think back to 2001 and smile at the progress the WNBA is making: visibility, investment, marketing. I think forward to the next few years and get excited at the possibility: a new collective bargaining agreement, new network deals, growing fandom. I think on May 11, and am sad that only 13,507 people got to experience the homecoming of one of the world’s best basketball players. Read more
Bronny James Medically Cleared By Physicians To Play In NBA. By Cedric Thornton / Black Enterprise
Bronny James passed a hurdle in his quest to join his father, LeBron James, in playing in the NBA as the league has medically cleared him after an examination.
Bronny will be under scrutiny after having an underwhelming freshman season at the University of Southern California (USC) after he suffered a cardiac arrest on July 24, 2023. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where it was revealed that a congenital heart defect was the probable cause for the health scare. Read more
Darryl Strawberry wanted to quit baseball at 19. These two Mets brought him back. By Tim Britton / The Athletic
He was a black man playing in a southern city in Virginia. So when he struggled on the field, he heard it from the Carolina League crowds. Home games, road games, any games — Strawberry heard the worst of it.
“They were calling me all kind of names and saying negative things,” Strawberry said. “You’re talking about the deep south. I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ I grew up in Southern California and we never had to experience that growing up.” By early May, Strawberry wanted to take his bat into the stands, he said. Instead, he took his bat home. “I just checked out,” he said. “I did go AWOL.” Read more
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