Don Lemon arrested, Sonya Massey killer sentenced, RIP Ms. Shirley
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What I’m Reading
Independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested by federal agents following a protest that disrupted a church service in Minnesota. Lemon and Fort were both covering the protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work,” Lemon’s attorney said in a statement.
CNN reports that Lemon is expected to make a court appearance today. I’m still waiting to hear back from Fort’s publicist on a statement, but I was sent this video of agents at her door:
“The last living descendants of a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Athens, Georgia, came together to fight to preserve the memory of Linnentown and to seek redress for their family homes razed in a 1960s urban renewal program.” Watch the full film above.
How the National Park Service is deleting American History, The New York Times
You have probably seen the viral videos of workers removing slavery exhibits from a memorial park in Philadelphia. The city has sued the Trump administration because of it.
That’s just one example of how Park Service workers have begun taking down plaques, films and other materials that Trump believes “disparage Americans” or promote “corrosive ideology.”
What America lost when it lost Mother Fletcher, The Atlantic
For the Atlantic, Caleb Gayle wrote about Mother Viola Fletcher’s death and how this country celebrates “survivors of the harm the country allowed, not compensating for the misfortune it has caused.”
What’s In The News
Across America
California: What is the future of Black representation for Los Angeles City Council District 9?...
District of Columbia: Eleanor Holmes Norton, the 18-term delegate for the District of Columbia in Congress, announces her retirement…
Illinois: New SNAP work requirements could leave up to 340,000 residents without enough food…
Maryland: The state’s attorney general has cleared cops of wrongdoing in 95% of police-involved death cases his office is responsible for investigating…
Michigan: Aaron Foley wrote a definitive piece on Black Detroiters and their century-long love affair with fur…
Minnesota: Black-owned businesses across Minnesota participated in a strike to protest ICE operations…
Mississippi: João Victor wrote about how his church, Mount Zion Baptist, became a key place to organize against Jackson’s water crisis...
North Carolina: A group of students sued Republican state officials to restore early-voting sites on three college campuses across the state, including the country’s largest HBCU…
South Carolina: The state’s measles outbreak is the largest in the United States since measles was declared eliminated…
Tennessee: From Nashville Public Radio and the Tennessee Lookout, The Debt traces Tennessee State University’s decades-long fight for fair funding…
Texas: A San Antonio mural honoring people who were killed by local law enforcement was vandalized with black spray paint on Martin Luther King Jr. Day…
Virginia: Members of the Virginia General Assembly announced the launch of the Virginia Historically Black Colleges and Universities Caucus…
What’s Happening
Ex-Illinois deputy Sean Grayson has been sentenced to 20 years for shooting and killing Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help…
“As a Black man, I know firsthand how often state violence is used to perpetuate white supremacy in this country,” Robert Willis writes about ICE’s terror campaign in The Nation…A number of prominent sports stars have condemned the killing of a registered nurse, Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis....Rep. Ilhan Omar was sprayed with apple cider vinegar when a man attacked her at a town hall in Minneapolis…
As temperatures plunge, rural Black towns face days without power. Some are still rebuilding from the last catastrophe, Adam Mahoney reports for Capital B News…
Benjamin F. Chavis, president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association that represents the Black newspapers of the country, says they have “lost advertising revenue 80 percent over the last 12 months”...
The Joint Center analyzed unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2025 to show how Black Americans have been disproportionately impacted...
Martin Luther King Jr’s work with gang members in Chicago shows how much he valued the part played by young people in the Black freedom struggle…
Many Black women describe how they “have to become their own doctor” and navigate medical settings strategically just to survive…
Word in Black: A new report warns that the “chaos” of White House domestic policies is surging across Black America, and inequality is deepening…
The Supreme Court declined to stop a lawsuit against police from the family of Amir Locke, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police in 2022…
A new study offers insight as to why Black Americans continue to die earlier than their white counterparts, noting unequal exposure to stressors tied to discrimination and socioeconomic conditions plays a key role…
A policy meant to fight school segregation in Los Angeles was challenged in federal court by a conservative group that says it discriminates against white students…
“Black women started 2025 with an unemployment rate of 5.4%. By the end of the year, it had risen to 7.3% — a level comparable to white women’s unemployment during the worst moments of the Great Recession”…
Nearly 70 years after Tommy Lee Walker was executed, officials declared that he was innocent in the killing of a white woman in Dallas…
As Black men flood the podcast space, criticism has followed. But the backlash may say more about listening than about speech, Donovan X. Ramsey writes…
Entertainment News
Trailers I found interesting this week: The trailer for Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters,” starring Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, Demi Moore and LaKeith Stanfield…The trailer for “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It,” a music doc about the life and legacy of the legendary keyboardist who played with all of the greats…The trailer for “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” a docuseries about the controversial reality competition series…
“In 2019, the spaces for Black folk to rest and roost on the internet were plentiful. By 2025, those places blinked out like starlight.” Read an excerpt from Steven Underwood’s book, “Forever for the Culture: Notes from the New Black Digital Arts Renaissance”...
“Sinners” is still supporting Clarksdale, Mississippi, the community that inspired the film, Aallyah Wright reports in Capital B News…
Ye, fka Kanye West, took out a full-page in the Wall Street Journal to apologize to the Black community, and for antisemitism…
On Sunday, Lauryn Hill will lead a Grammy tribute to Roberta Flack and D’Angelo…At 85, Candi Staton is one of the oldest nominees at the Grammy Awards…
Nicki Minaj said she is Trump’s number one fan, “and that’s not going to change”...
Pharrell Williams is facing a new lawsuit from his ex-Neptunes partner Chad Hugo…
Quinton Aaron, the actor best known for portraying Michael Oher in the film “The Blind Side,” has been hospitalized after a fall…
Tennis star Coco Gauff donated $150,000 to the United Negro College Fund to support scholarships for student-athletes at HBCUs…
50 Cent’s G-Unit Audio is teaming up with Narratively for a podcast series about the rise of DMX…
J. Cole’s long-awaited album, “The Fall-Off,” is set to be released on Feb. 6. For Andscape, David Dennis Jr. describes his hopes for the rapper’s ambitious project...
Filmmaker Reginald Hudlin spoke with Robert Daniels about the pillar of Black cinema that is “House Party”…
Here’s the story behind William Greaves’ unreleased opus “Once Upon A Time In Harlem,” which finally debuted after 5 decades under wraps…
Pat McGrath Labs is filing for bankruptcy…
Barbie announced that Opal Lee, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” is getting a doll made in her image…
WIRED: “From Black vampires gobbling up Oscar nominations to gay pro hockey players dominating the culture, diverse stories broke through in an environment that’s increasingly hostile to them,” writes Manisha Krishnan …
Obituaries
In case you missed it, I attended Richard Smallwood’s Celebration of Life service and spoke with those who knew him about his legacy. I made a TikTok about the service as well…
Shirley Raines, founder of Beauty 2 The Streetz and known for her volunteer work serving homeless communities in Los Angeles and Nevada, has died. She was 58…HuffPost profiled her important work in 2020…
Gloria Wade-Gayles, a trailblazing scholar of African American literature and women’s studies, has died. She was 88…
Kirk Pressley, a ballroom icon known as Boom Balenciaga, has died. He was 36…
Pierpont Mobley, a White House appointee, veteran activist and champion of small businesses in Washington, has died. He was 88…
James Bernard, a founding editor and star writer of the seminal hip-hop magazine The Source, has died. He was 58…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 54 seconds!…
Applications are now open for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Summer 2026 internships. Details here…
A documentary on the untold story of Black librarians will be held at the Whitney Library Theater in Las Vegas on February 4 at 4:15 pm...
Applications are open for the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship at Harvard University…
NPR Code Switch explored what the quarter-zip sweater has to do with respectability politics and Blackness…
2 Chainz will hold an author talk for his new memoir, “The Voice in My Head Is God,” at the Tara Theatre in Atlanta on March 9th...
How about some music in these troubled times.
My music !
https://substack.com/@thegreatzenfromatlantis/note/p-186289705?r=6n4tis