Big donations for HBCUs, medical racism, Sonny Rollins at 95
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What I’m Reading
How HBCUs plan to spend MacKenzie Scott’s money, Inside Higher Ed
There’s been a lot of talk online about MacKenzie Scott and the staggering amounts of money she has given to the nation’s HBCUs. School leaders are overjoyed, using the newfound funds to bolster previously meager endowments, push advances in technology, research ventures and scholarships.
The philanthropist has donated more than $700 million to the chronically underfunded colleges and universities, with Howard University receiving the largest gift of $80 million.
Tell students the truth about American history, The Atlantic
Clint Smith wrote about his experience visiting schools in Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia — all states where critical race theory has been restricted. Many of the students he met wondered why they hadn’t heard both sides of American history.
“We owe it to Americans of all ages to be honest about the country’s past, including its contradictions,” Smith writes.
An Interview with Saxophonist Sonny Rollins, WABE
The term “living legend” is thrown around far too loosely. But for Sonny Rollins, it almost doesn’t fit. Now 95 years old, the saxophonist embodies the true spirit of jazz. He sat down with WABE to discuss his life and career.
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: Tuskegee University has settled a dispute with the American Veterinary Medical Association and is dropping a federal lawsuit…
District of Columbia: The African American Civil War Memorial Museum recently honored Black troops, but its official reopening was delayed further, Jonathan Forney reports...
Florida: Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has been indicted on charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds…
Georgia: A federal appeals court upheld the hate crime convictions of three white men who chased Ahmaud Arbery with pickup trucks before one of them killed him with a shotgun…
Illinois: “Five years ago, a prominent letter rippled through the theater community, sparked by outrage at the murder of George Floyd. It put an industry in the spotlight, but did it make a difference?”...
Indiana: Mercedes Wells’ family claims she was wheeled out of a hospital in active labor, forcing her to give birth on the side of a road…
Michigan: and Hannah Stephens spoke with more than 150 Black Michiganders and local leaders about what their communities need for Brookings…
Mississippi: Reporting from Jackson for Capital B, Christina Carrega is covering the national nonprofits that are stepping up to fund community safety...
Missouri: In the Kansas City Defender, a federal civil rights and RICO case accuses “Westport’s power brokers of a coordinated conspiracy to keep Black-owned businesses out”…
New York: Zohran Mamdami signed a pledge to champion policies that would create reparations. asks: Is it hype or a real possibility?...
North Carolina: The Gaston County, NC Dems “condemn this racist behavior” of Ranlo mayor Lynn Black after he lost to Corey Creech, the Black candidate who won by 81 votes…
Ohio: Lawmakers are considering a bill to honor Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells transformed modern medicine…
Tennessee: Kamala Harris made an unexpected appearance on the campaign trail in Nashville, her first since last year’s presidential election…
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia is ending its DEI standards for government contracts with businesses throughout the city, Gerren Keith Gaynor reports…
Utah: Jacob Wood has been elected as Vineyard’s youngest and first Black City Council member…
Virginia: Virginia Commonwealth University altered a scholarship program intended to benefit students descended from enslaved people to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI agenda…
What’s Happening
Rev. Jesse Jackson remains in stable condition and has been moved out of the ICU, according to an update from the Rainbow Push Coalition…
The Trump administration is further dismantling the Education Department, another critical blow to the Black federal workforce. Eyebrows were raised at the news that management of K-12 and higher education is moving to the Department of Labor…
The state department is proposing to suspend 38 universities, including Harvard and Yale, from a federal research partnership program because they haven’t dropped DEI hiring practices…
A new report finds that local opposition to data centers skyrocketed in the second quarter of this year…
Howard University’s Dr. Stanley Andrisse went from prison to becoming the first formerly incarcerated Black man to earn tenure at a medical school…
In the wake of layoffs, Black women are reclaiming their identity beyond work, Eman Bare writes for ESSENCE...
WDET: “When Danielle Brown asked Black communities in states like Michigan if they trusted the media, she discovered that they have their own trusted messengers for news”…
The Nation: The Black Americans who are relocating to Mexico are a new kind of “expat,” a word they refuse to call themselves…
For MS NOW, wrote about the viral TikTok video showing a Black pregnant woman in visible, active labor, crying out in pain while a white nurse ignored her…
ProPublica: “When Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old from Texas, asked doctors about terminating her high-risk pregnancy to save her life, they assured her she had nothing to worry about. Then she died of preeclampsia”…
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation has completed the full rehabilitation of Nina Simone’s childhood home…
Mississippi Today: “Two newly discovered videos taken inside a Mississippi jail show officers mocking and laughing at an intellectually disabled inmate, the same man guards had filmed days earlier being shocked in an electrified vest after he asked for a Coke”…
Nine Black women allege they were kicked out of a Virginia restaurant over a fight they had nothing to do with, and were told it was “because you all like to fight”…
Residential property tax bills are rising fastest in Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago…
High prices and rising interest rates are making it harder for Americans to buy a home – and in many places, an even bigger barrier is emerging: access to mortgages, reports…
Dr. Ben Chavis is being honored for his activism — and it’s bringing a new focus on environmental justice and the toxic targeting of the Black community…
Fewer Black men earning college degrees means lower wages, less social mobility, and weaker leadership pipelines, writes Henri A. LaSane for U.S. News & World Report…
wrote about the way Black women are protecting one another as federal support shrinks and inequities continue to widen…
Entertainment News
wrote about Pharrell’s refusal to take a political side when he was asked his thoughts about politics and the attacks on DEI…
Longtime “Grey’s Anatomy” star James Pickens Jr. says he’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer…
Chadwick Boseman was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week. Watch the full ceremony here…
is covering Megan Thee Stallion’s trial in her defamation lawsuit against an online commentator. Here’s the latest…
interviewed the popular YouTube star Ms. Monica…
My colleague Njera Perkins talked with showrunner about her forthcoming “A Different World” sequel at Netflix…
On the “Reliving Single” podcast, “Living Single” creator Yvette Lee Bowser revealed the real men behind Kyle and Overton, and how her love life appears in the show…
Justine Lindsay, the NFL’s first out trans cheerleader, claimed that she was cut from the Carolina TopCats because of her gender…
A “Babyface” documentary is reportedly in the works…
Issa Rae opened up about struggling to feel successful when she doesn’t have a show on air…
ESSENCE: “Women & Words, a unique ESSENCE partnership with Penguin Random House and Storehouse Voices, champions fresh literary talent”…
GQ’s Frazier Tharpe spent the day with Max B after the rapper was released from prison after 16 years…
NYT: “Fats Waller wrote music for the World War II hit “Early to Bed,” which was running when he died at 39. Two concerts will bring its songs back to life”…
Victoria Monét can’t prove AI-powered R&B “artist” Xania Monet was trained on her music or image—but “it’s not ideal,” she says…
Obituaries
Sydney Hardeman, who went viral for her reaction to Beyoncé’s ‘Homecoming’ performance, has died. She was 25…
Roy Hardemon, a former Florida state representative and community activist, has died. He was 63…
Jon White, the longtime head football coach at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, has died. He was 43…
Oliver Beamon, Lansing, Michigan’s first Black gynecologist, has died. He was 88…
Marshall Thomas, the legendary Saginaw High School coach, teacher, tutor, counselor, administrator, deacon and community volunteer, has died. He was 78…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 30 seconds…
Listen to “Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story,” the podcast about how the once cookie king lost it all…
Capital B’s Aallyah Wright, one of the most important Black journalists covering the South right now, was featured in Amplify the Sip...