Election Day approaches, Black men and HBCUs, Young Thug freed
Friday, November 1, 2024.
What I’m Reading
This is the last edition of my newsletter before Election Day. As it draws near, I want to remind you to please exercise your right to vote!
Here are some other big races I’m watching: Democratic Rep. Colin Allred and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz are facing off in the Texas Senate race…Democrat Shomari Figures aims to win his congressional race in Alabama…The Maryland Senate race between Larry Hogan and Angela Alsobrooks could determine which political party leads the Senate for the next four years…
Sixty years after the unwinding of Jim Crow, a historic US election, Reuters
2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. To commemorate this, Reuters’ Donna Bryson went to Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee to speak with nine Black Americans about the end of Jim Crow and how they feel about this upcoming election.
Black Americans’ solidarity with Gaza, The Atlantic
Vann Newkirk II explored the solidarity many Black Americans feel with the Palestinian people in his latest piece for The Atlantic. “Black people see what is happening to Palestinians, and many feel the tug of the familiar in their heart,” he writes.
Fewer Black men are enrolling in HBCUs. Here's why and what's being done, NPR
“All Things Considered” host Juana Summers spoke to Howard University Assistant Provost Calvin Hadley about why fewer Black men are enrolling in HBCUs and what is being done about it.
“Come because we need you. Come because you're important. Come because without you, our community is hurt,” Hadley tells young Black men considering HBCUs.
Louisiana students who solved the Pythagorean theorem discover nine more solutions to it, NOLA.com
New Orleans students Ne’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson, credited with solving the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry, discovered nine more solutions to the problem. I failed algebra in high school, so I’m living vicariously through them!
What’s In The News
Across America
Connecticut: New Haven rejected plans for a Black college in 1831, and attacks on Black residents and their homes followed. Generations later, the city's leaders are considering an apology…
California: My colleague Jessica Schulberg talked to formerly incarcerated people working to pass Proposition 6, which would eliminate the state's constitutional provision that allows involuntary servitude…
Delaware: For The 19th, Candice Norwood profiled Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is all but certain to become the third Black woman elected to the Senate…
District of Columbia: Howard University is anticipating classification as a Research-1 institution this spring, which would open the door to more research grants and resources…
Georgia: Sen. Raphael Warnock has garnered over $22 million to ensure that more residents have access to technology, internet and digital literacy programs…
Louisiana: An ex-Louisiana state trooper who faced felony charges in the 2019 killing of Ronald Greene is avoiding jail time after pleading no contest…
Minnesota: After several days, Minneapolis police arrested and charged a white man suspected of shooting his Black neighbor, Davis Moturi, while he was trimming a tree. "We failed this victim," the police chief said…
North Carolina: The family of Shanquella Robinson has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the individuals she traveled to Mexico with in 2022…
Pennsylvania: 50 years ago, Philly prison officials ended a medical testing program on incarcerated people, largely Black, that had spanned decades. Now, survivors of the program and their descendants seek reparations…
South Carolina: The state is preparing to place a statue honoring former U.S. representative Robert Smalls on its Statehouse lawn, its first individual monument for a Black American…
Wisconsin: After being overlooked in recent elections, Milwaukee’s Black residents are being courted by the candidates for president, Malaika Jabali writes…
What’s Happening
The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have been bleeding subscribers since both newspapers recently decided not to endorse a presidential candidate. Michele Norris was one of several employees of the Washington Post who decided to resign from the newspaper over the decision…My current editor-in-chief, Danielle Belton, penned an op-ed explaining how “democracy dies in broad daylight”…
“America, Read. Black. Newspaper. Coverage. Of. These. Campaigns. We are on the ground and aren’t bought and paid for. Just sayin,” said Atlanta Voice editor-in-chief Donnell Suggs in response…ICYMI: Beyoncé campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris during a rally in her hometown of Houston…Harris plans on spending election night at Howard University, NBC News reports…
Black-owned news outlets The Grio and the Philadelphia Tribune have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president…Three new polls show a surge in support for Kamala Harris from Black male voters…My colleague Stephen Crockett Jr. penned an op-ed warning against the scapegoating of Black men if Trump wins…
The Wall Street Journal reports that the National Archives Museum has been whitewashing its narrative of American history, by removing references to Martin Luther King Jr, Native Americans and more…
More digital Blackface: “Black Insurrectionist,” the anonymous social media account responsible for some of the biggest and outlandish conspiracy theories about the 2024 election, were traced to a white man from upstate New York…
Kamilah Moore, chair of California’s first-in-the-nation reparations taskforce, talked with The Guardian about what’s next for the movement…
My people: It’s time to throw out your black plastic spatula. It could be harmful to your health…
South Carolina is preparing to execute Richard Moore today, even though a state justice has called his sentence “invalid”...
Have you heard of the “Corridor of Shame”? NPR traveled to the “rural stretch of South Carolina with some of the worst health outcomes in the nation.” The United States has yet to address racial disparities in key health indicators, disproportionately impacting Black Americans in the South…
Civil rights activist Oretha Castle Haley's home will not be turned into a museum in New Orleans after fierce opposition from her descendants, who claimed exploitation against their wishes...
From the Associated Press’ Matt Brown: A decade of racial justice activism transformed politics but landmark reforms remain elusive…
Two civil rights protesters arrested after they sat at a whites-only lunch counter in South Carolina in 1960 finally had their arrest records cleared…
For NBC BLK, Maya Eaglin chatted with That Gun Talk, an organization working to teach young people in Philadelphia what responsible gun ownership can look like…
Entertainment News
After nearly two and a half years, Young Thug has been released from jail after pleading guilty in Georgia’s longest-running criminal trial. He avoided prison time with 15 years probation, but he could end up behind bars if he violates the terms of his sentence. Quamarvious Nichols, a co-defendant, also took a plea deal this week. Two more defendants accepted plea deals as well…
Chicago rapper Lil Durk was scheduled to take a private jet to Italy before he was arrested in Florida, according to a criminal complaint. He was arrested by federal agents while on his way to the airport in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot…For Rolling Stone, Andre Gee wrote “the world’s biggest drill rapper may spend the rest of his life behind bars — and no one should want his crown”...
My colleague Candice Frederick wrote about how the '90s launched an era of Black horror films, but it was never meant to last…
Jazz aficionados are all too familiar with the love Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong had for trains. The elegant Pullman sleeping car provided them a “home away from home,” Larry Tye writes in The New York Times…
ICYMI: Megan Thee Stallion filed a lawsuit against a blogger “after years of enduring harassment, the publication of false narratives and more”...
For ESSENCE, Kia Turner chatted with Andre 3000 about his newest album “New Blue Sun,” and finding peace in simplicity…
They’re back! The Wayans Brothers are reuniting for the first time in 18 years for a “Scary Movie” reboot with Miramax and Paramount…
Atlanta music icon Rico Wade will be honored with a monument in the city’s East Point neighborhood…
Nick Cannon opened up about the insecurities he felt while he was married to his ex-wife Mariah Carey…Keke Palmer broke her silence on her “unhealthy” relationship with her ex, Darius Jackson…
Dwyane Wade has seen your jokes about the new statue outside of the Miami Heat arena. He said keep ‘em coming…
WIRED: ‘BBL Drizzy’ was the beginning of the future of AI music…
50 Cent says he turned down a $3 million offer to perform at former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden…
Happening in Hollywood: Regina Hall and her production company will be developing a new original series with MGM...BET+ has renewed KevOnStage’s comedy series “Churchy”...
The alleged gunman in the infamous 1994 shooting of Tupac at New York’s Quad Studios has been released from prison after nearly three decades…
Toni Braxton is the latest cover star of ESSENCE, and she talked with Shelby Stewart about coping with grief in the loss of her older sister, Traci…
Food activist Alexander Smalls talked with Esquire about his latest book, “The Contemporary African Kitchen,” that provides home cooking recipes from chefs throughout Africa…
Tina Knowles reached a deal with Random House Publishing Group for a forthcoming memoir “Matriarch,” which is scheduled for April 22…
Obituaries
DJ Clark Kent, the noted hip-hop producer who created hit tracks with Jay-Z, The Notorious BIG and more, has died. He was 58…
David Harris, the actor best known for playing Cochise in the 1979 film “The Warriors,” has died. He was 75…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 2 minutes, 52 seconds…
A group of Hampton University journalism students have created an Absentee Voting Guide explaining how voters can mail their ballots…
The African American Policy Forum is hosting "A Virtual Barbershop: Between the Media and the Scolding, What Black Men Are Really Thinking About the Election" today at 3 pm EST…
The Center for Cooperative Media’s South Jersey Information Equity Project is accepting applications from local journalists and media makers for their fellowship program! Deadline is Nov. 25…
Tell everyone! The Washington Association of Black Journalists is now accepting applications from DMV-based high school students for our 2025 Urban Journalism Workshop…
The National Park Service has added 14 new listings in 11 states to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. See if one is near you…