Featured
Deion Sanders’ one consistent rule emerges in Colorado’s upset of TCU. By William C. Rhoden / Andscape
Nearly an hour after his unranked Colorado Buffaloes pulled off the first major upset of the college football season, head coach Deion Sanders walked into the interview area. His “walk-in music” was the trash talking that would set the tone for a 25-minute session with reporters
When one reporter pointed out that Sanders’ son, Shedeur, had broken a Colorado passing record, Sanders interrupted. “For real? Shedeur Sanders? From an HBCU? The one that played at Jackson last year. The one who you asked me ‘Why would I give him the starting job?” Sanders put the reporter on the defensive, before finally answering the question.
A reporter asked Sanders about Travis Hunter, the sensational sophomore who played on offense as a wider receiver and on defense as cornerback. The reporter wondered whether Sanders thought Hunter could keep up the pace. “Can he?” Sanders said. “I tried to tell you, but you didn’t want to believe me. Read more
Related: Deion Sanders’ hype train drives massive attention, money to Colorado. By Jarrett Bell / USA Today
Political / Social
Watch “Destroyed! Sen. Cory Booker Obliterates Sen. Tim Scott & Repubs For Lies About Voting Rights.” By Roland Martin / You Tube
South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott and New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker debate voting rights legislation and the proposal to change Senate rules to make the filibuster a “talking. Watch here
Biden calls Jacksonville shooting a `terrorist act’ driven by racial hatred. By Maureen Groppe / USA Today
President Joe Biden on Saturday called the fatal shootings of three Black residents in Jacksonville, Florida, last week a “terrorist act” that must be denounced.
“Silence is complicity,” Biden said during a trip to Florida to view the damage of Hurricane Idalia. “We must not, we will not, remain silent.” Read more
When I Tell You Nikki Haley Is Pathetic, That’s an Understatement. By Frank Bruni / NYT
Past Haley, present Haley, future Haley: They’re all constructs, all creations, malleable, negotiable, tethered not to dependable principle but to reliable opportunism. That’s the truth of her. That’s the hell of her.
I could trace all her zigs and zags since early 2016: her initially ardent opposition to Trump’s candidacy, her speedy capitulation, her stint in his administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and so on. But they were covered in an excellent essay in The Times by Stuart Stevens early this year, and a span of mere months, from December 2020 to April 2021, tells the saga of her signature spinelessness just as well. Read more
The Limits of Vivek Ramaswamy’s Racist Con Game. By Jett Heer / The Nation
While the emerging GOP star benefits from the right’s version of affirmative action, his ugly response to the Jacksonville shootings shows the cost—and constraints—of his strategy
Being in a tight race for distant second might seem like a trivial achievement. But Ramaswamy’s rise means DeSantis’s chances of credibly challenging Trump are rapidly diminishing. That alone changes the dynamics of the race. Further, Ramaswamy now has a plausible chance to be Trump’s running mate—as well as a major GOP power player in future races. Read more
Related: Ramaswamy embraces populist playbook in 2024 bid. By Hanna Trudo / The Hill
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Rebuffs Calls To Punish Or Remove Fulton County DA Fani Willis. By Lydia O’Connor / HuffPost
“We are going to follow the law and the Constitution regardless of who it helps or harms politically,” Kemp, a Republican, said.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) shot down demands that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis be censured or removed her from her position, saying Thursday that the process some members of his party are calling for could be unconstitutional. Kemp’s remarks at a press conference follow demands from some Georgia Republicans that the state’s General Assembly call a special session to punish or fire Willis or defund her office, after she oversaw a fourth indictment against former President Donald Trump. Read more
Clarence Thomas’ ethics report puts worst Supreme Court votes in new light. By Daylia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern / Slate
In filing his delayed 2022 financial disclosure forms, the justice—who has failed to disclose dozens of private flights, luxury vacations, loans, gifts, and several real estate deals for the bulk of his time on the court—belatedly reported three 2022 trips on the private jet of his friend Harlan Crow
One thing is clear: Scanning the eye-popping number of corrections, updates, and amendments to Thomas’ filing induces a simultaneous sense of wonder and despair. Wonder at the sheer quantity of oopsies, covering millions of dollars’ worth of insurance policies, bank accounts, assets, luxury travel, and ultra-high-end transportation that the justice mysteriously forgot to include in past disclosures; and despair at the entitled and indignant tone of both the disclosure itself and the unhinged letter accompanying it. Read more
Related: Even Clarence Thomas’s Law Clerks Can’t Defend His Conduct. By Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine
‘Where learning goes to die’: DeSantis’s rightwing takeover of a liberal arts college. By Joseph Conteras / The Guardian
A view of the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota, Florida. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images. Small liberal arts college is being steadily eroded by a DeSantis-aligned board, in ominous sign for higher studies in a country torn by culture wars.
When Nicholas Clarkson submitted his letter of resignation as an assistant professor of gender studies at New College of Florida (NCF) on 17 August, he became the 41st faculty member who has chosen not to return to its Sarasota campus during this year’s fall semester. Read more
DeSantis Florida redistricting map is unconstitutional and must be redrawn, judge says. By AP and NPR
State Sen. Kelli Stargel looks through redistricting maps during a Senate Committee on Reapportionment hearing on Jan. 13, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla.
A Florida redistricting plan pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution and is prohibited from being used for any future U.S. congressional elections since it diminishes the ability of Black voters in north Florida to pick a representative of their choice, a state judge ruled Saturday. Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh sent the plan back to the Florida Legislature with instructions that lawmakers should draw a new congressional map that complies with the Florida Constitution. Read more
Related: Texas Judge Rejects State Law Aimed at Controlling Progressive Cities. By J. David Goodman / NYT
Related: Republicans see an opportunity with Milwaukee Latino voters. By Franco Ordonez / NPR
What the End of Race-Conscious College Admissions Could Mean for HBCUs. By Sarah Wood / US News
The Supreme Court ruling may lead to higher enrollment and more partnerships with highly selective colleges.
While college enrollment has declined overall in recent years, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic, some historically Black colleges and universities have seen an influx of applicants – a trend experts say is likely to continue in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling ending race-conscious admissions. “HBCUs in particular have been creating opportunities for African Americans and other people of color for almost 200 years now,” says Tony Allen, president and chief executive officer of Delaware State University. “And we do believe that there is a unique opportunity for us to attract more students as a result of this decision.” Read more
Related: The wave of college presidential departures hits HBCUs. By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel / Wash Post
Andrew Lester, the white man who shot Black teen Ralph Yarl for ringing wrong doorbell, will stand trial, judge orders. By , and Li / NBC News
Andrew Lester shot Ralph Yarl on April 13 in Kansas City, Missouri, in an incident that sparked another national conversation about use of force against Black people.
A judge Thursday ordered a white man to stand trial and face charges in the shooting of a Black teenager who rang his doorbell after having gone to the wrong address. Andrew Lester, 84, is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting April 13 in Kansas City. His arraignment is set for Sept. 20. Read more
Philadelphia’s Fight Against Gun Violence, Poverty, and Crime. By Menika Dirkson / AAIHS
From 1970 onward, the police’s budget continuously increased, ballooning to over $150 million by 1976 as spending for public welfare declined.
In 1969, the New York Times named Philadelphia the “gang capital” of America when the city had the highest rates of gang-related violence in the country: 45 murders and 267 injuries. By 1970, over 50 juvenile gangs operated in Philadelphia and most homicide victims were youth and innocent bystanders like seven-year-old Antoinette Williams, who was killed by a stray bullet that struck her in the face as she sat on her North Philadelphia stoop occupied with her coloring book. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
What Happens When Americans Stop Going to Church. By Daniel K. Williams / The Atlantic
People hold on to their politics when they stop attending church.
Millions of Americans are leaving church, never to return, and it would be easy to think that this will make the country more secular and possibly more liberal. After all, that is what happened in Northern and Western Europe in the 1960s: A younger generation quit going to Anglican, Lutheran, or Catholic churches and embraced a liberal, secular pluralism that shaped European politics for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. So, as church attendance declines even in the southern Bible Belt and the rural Midwest, history might seem to suggest that those regions will become more secular, more supportive of abortion and LGBTQ rights, and more liberal in their voting patterns. But that is not what is happening. Read more
Southern Baptist seminary slavery plaque criticized as being ‘hidden.’ By Andrew Wolfson / USA Today
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, was founded 164 years ago by four men who all owned enslaved people.
But unlike other institutions of higher education, including Columbia University and the University of Cincinnati, which removed the names of slaveowners from its campus buildings, Southern’s president, R. Albert Mohler Jr., has refused to do the same. He has called the seminary’s four founders “titans of their faith” and said two of them were “consummate Christian gentlemen, given the culture of their day.” Without them, he has said, there would be no seminary. To make amends, Mohler and the seminary’s board promised to erect a “major marker” on campus that acknowledges the “sin of American slavery and the contributions made to this institution by countless slaves.” Read more
Unearthing racism’s Christian roots: How far-right Christianity quietly fueled Jacksonville shooter. By Serene Jones and Rev. Dr. Lakeesha Walrond / Salon
A shooting in Jacksonville is the latest example of overt, growing, and gruesome anti-Black violence
We’ve heard from our leaders time and time again that we need to end racism. But we can’t just keep giving the issue lip service. To create true change, we need to peel back the layers, understand how we got here, and defeat the forces that have allowed violence against Black bodies to proliferate. For us, as people of faith, that means acknowledging the perverse role of a distorted Christianity in fueling rampant racism. Read more
Black Muslims will play a big role in the next election. Join us. By Salima Suswell / RNS
Black Muslims helped elect Joe Biden president and are gearing up for 2024.
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have some of the highest per capita Muslim populations on the East Coast, most of them avid voters. Pennsylvania has 168,000 registered Muslim voters. Philadelphia alone has 50,223 registered Black Muslims. Nationally, Black Muslims make up more than a quarter of the very diverse Muslim American community. They are an extremely influential voting bloc that in recent years has begun organizing itself in swing states across the country. Read more
Historical / Cultural
75 Years Later, the Lasting Impact of Executive Order 9981. By Liann Herder / Diverse Issues In Higher Ed.
In 1958, when Charles J. Brown graduated from high school as class president, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. “My family were very poor — they didn’t have scholarships or student loans back then — and my only way of getting out of Mississippi was through the U.S. Army,” said Brown
The Army presented a very different kind of life. By the time Brown enlisted, the U.S. armed forces had been integrated by Executive Order (EO) 9981, signed by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1948. Black troops served alongside white, Latinx, and Asian troops, training together and fighting together. But while EO 9981 mandated “equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin,” Brown said that when it came time for leave, fun, or socialization, the men he trained alongside all went their separate ways. Read more
A rare look at one of the “I Have A Dream” speech drafts. By Nicole Killion / CBS News Video
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech 60 years ago. Nikole Killion takes a look at one of the drafts of the speech to see how it differs from what King ultimately said on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Watch here
Since their foundings, HBCUs have been a white supremacist target. By Saida Grundy / The Guardian
The Jacksonville shooting is a reminder of the long history of terrorism against Black people, their colleges and their communities
After learning firsthand that Black political mobility and Black education stoked white resentment and violence, the seminarians fled to Atlanta. They strategically broke new ground for their institution on former Union army barracks; its location on a hill at the city’s highest elevation point gave them a vantage of any attempts upon it. Two decades later, the school was renamed Morehouse College, at the time one of the nation’s only colleges for Black men. A few years after that, Spelman College, a college for Black women, relocated less than a mile away from Morehouse, to achieve safety in numbers. Read more
White men have controlled women’s reproductive rights throughout American history – the post-Dobbs era is no different. By Rodney Coates / The Conversation
More than a year after the Supreme Court ended federal protection for abortion rights in the United States, disagreements over abortion bans continue to reverberate around the country.
Since that decision – Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – more than 1,500 state legislators, who are overwhelmingly white men, have voted for full or partial abortion bans. This is not the first period in U.S. history when white men have exercised control over women’s right to bear – or not bear – children, including during slavery. Then, it was a matter of numbers. The more people they enslaved, the more money white male enslavers could earn either from selling the enslaved or from the forced labor of the enslaved. White men controlled people’s reproductive rights during the 20th century, too, with the American eugenics movement. Read more
The inspiring story of the first Black Ivy League president. By Stacia L. Brown / Wash Post
Ruth J. Simmons’s memoir, ‘Up Home,’ is a love letter to everyone who helped her make her way out of poverty
In America, successful Black folks often hear the admonishment “Never forget where you came from.” But that warning rarely accounts for how wide the chasm can grow between your origins and your destination. When achievement catapults you far from where you were raised, keeping a foot in both worlds can require an instruction manual. In her debut memoir, “Up Home: One Girl’s Journey,” Ruth J. Simmons has written one. Read more
Bill Cosby & His Wife Learn To Move Forward Despite Their Struggles. By Simon Saunders / Family This
Bill Cosby spent the majority of his life in the public spotlight as “America’s dad”, but beneath his squeaky clean image, there are many hidden dark secrets. Now, Bill Cosby and his wife make an unexpected announcement.
Following the sinister allegations against her husband, Camille Cosby has continued to support him, joining him in the court room, and even calling the District Attorney, “heinous and exploitively ambitious,” and followed by saying that, “Truth can be subdued, but not destroyed.” The comedian’s wife of over 50 years has always been aware of his long history of infidelities, even seeking advice from Oprah has to how to handle them, but has ultimately decided to continue to stand by his side. Read more
Luther Vandross and Samara Joy sing across generations : It’s Been a Minute. By Corey Antonio Rose Jessica Placzek, Brittany Luse , Alexis Williams ,Liam McBain , Veralyn Williams and Barton Girdwood / NPR Video
Music is all about pushing the envelope, and no one knew that more than Luther Vandross. His rendition of “A House is Not a Home” is so beloved, many fans don’t even know it’s a cover. His sound also laid the groundwork for many popular artists today, from Jazmine Sullivan to Beyoncé. Host Brittany Luse is joined by Craig Seymour, author of “Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross” to discuss Luther’s impact and why his name isn’t often in conversation with other greats – even though it should be.
Then, Brittany is joined by Grammy award-winning jazz singer Samara Joy. Samara talks about her album, Linger Awhile, and how she makes music that sounds timeless. Watch here
Little Richard documentary filmmaker talks capturing the joy and pain that was his life. By Lisa Respers France / CNN
Little Richard lived a vibrant life. “Little Richard: I Am Everything” will premiere Monday, September 4 at 9pm ET/PT on CNN.
The late rock and roll legend struggled with being a queer Black man in the Jim Crow era South and failed to earn the recognition he believed he deserved as one of the architects of the music genre with hits like “Good Golly Miss Molly.” The new CNN Film “Little Richard: I Am Everything” explores the late singer’s complexities and contributions. Filmmaker Lisa Cortés, who earned praise for her documentary about voter suppression and the work of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” is also the director of “Little Richard: I Am Everything.” Read more
Sports
What’s next for Stephen A. Smith? A life outside of sports can be in the future. By Jason Jones / The Atheletic
Stephen A. Smith takes many questions from listeners — the kind of questions some might not expect.
It’s part of what he does on “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” Someone wants to randomly know how Smith feels about a man dating taller women, and the long-time sports personality (many of those years with ESPN) provides an answer, openly and honestly. You’ll get so much more than sports from Smith these days, compared to the days of old. There’s political talk. More relationship advice. Commentary on pop culture and music. Is there sports mixed in? Sure, but you don’t listen to his show, formerly called “Know Mercy,” just for sports takes. There’s more to Smith’s life, and he wants to showcase his diverse interests. He has goals beyond debating the latest sports news. Read more
Cannon Street All-Stars, 1955 Little League World Series: How a team of 12-year-olds became civil rights pioneers. By Josh Levin and Evan Chung / Slate Podcast
In 1955, a team of Black Little Leaguers battled the white establishment in the Deep South.
The Cannon Street All-Stars dreamed of playing in the 1955 Little League World Series. Their biggest obstacle didn’t come on the field. In the year that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus, these Black 12-year-olds became unlikely civil rights pioneers—and faced the wrath of a white society that wasn’t ready to change. Listen here
Muhammad Ali Forced Michael Jordan to Face Harsh Reality of His GOAT Status, Reveals American News Veteran. By Rijin Varghese / Essentially Sports
The six-time champion is always the center of attention wherever he goes. Rather than being the greatest of all time in basketball, some refer to him as the greatest athlete ever. Michael Jordan is truly one of the most eye-catching individuals. The gravity of His Airness cannot be easily outmatched.
Laura Okmin is the third longest-tenured sideline reporter in NFL history. She shared one instance when Michael Jordan was on the floor warming up. She felt that the room was being tilted toward someone else. Laura said that as this person came into the arena, everyone focused on him instead. It was legendary boxer Muhammad Ali. Read more
Birmingham’s Rickwood Field is the best kind of monument: A real one. By Jerry Brewer / Wash Post
From the second you enter Rickwood Field, it feels as though a sepia filter has taken control of your eyes. A cellphone camera does not sufficiently portray America’s oldest professional baseball park, probably because such technology is far too modish to capture the imperishable wonder. Memorabilia on display inside the stadium includes a photo of a young Willie Mays. (Cary Norton/For The Washington Post)
Rickwood plods along now as a stadium without a true anchor tenant. The Birmingham Black Barons played there until they folded in 1960. The Birmingham Barons, the minor league team for which late owner and businessman Allen Harvey “Rick” Woodward built the ballpark in 1910, left for newer digs in 1987. For the past 35 years, it has been a struggle, but Rickwood keeps busy hosting Miles College home games, high school baseball and an assortment of tournaments and events. Read more
Frances Tiafoe Wants Fans at the 2023 U.S. Open to Get Loud. By Sean Gregory / Time
Annoyed spectators at the U.S. Open, a little consolation: Frances Tiafoe, one of America’s top hopes to win a first U.S. male Grand Slam title in two decades, feels your pain.
So what if someone walks into your line of sight during a serve? Basketball free-throw shooters often have to face hundreds of fans screaming in their faces during high-pressure situations, with no umpire there to shout, “quiet please.” Tiafoe wants tennis to modernize, and allow fans to scream and shout and have a great time the whole way through, just like they do at basketball and football and soccer games around the world. Read more
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