Howard reinstates hundreds, Mumia Abu-Jamal appeal, Jovita Moore mural returns
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What I’m Reading
Between Tuskegee University’s ban on bonnets and durags and Howard University’s disenrollment of students, HBCUs have been at the top of the conversation this week. Here’s the latest.
Recently, the institution canceled the enrollment of nearly 500 incoming freshmen. “A considerable number of students have been reinstated after meeting the payment and documentation requirements,” Howard University said. Still, not every student who was disenrolled will be able to attend this upcoming school year. Read Capital B’s latest.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that any New Yorkers impacted can seek admission at the City University of New York and the State University of New York for the fall 2026 semester. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore followed up with support as well.
Donovan X. Ramsey tried to make sense of the crisis, and Saida Grundy wrote an op-ed in The Guardian about the impact this has had on the students…
Over in Alabama, Tuskegee University President Mark A. Brown has sparked an online conversation with a letter sent to students regarding expectations on student attire, cellphone use and attendance. There’s been a ton of discourse, but very little of it focused on the students. So I talked with several of them to hear their perspectives.
Meanwhile, Coppin State University President Anthony Jenkins is getting props for his Maryland HBCU implementing a program offering in-state tuition to students from states with no HBCUs. Gov. Moore responded to my post about this story…
A Jim Crow voter suppression tool is back, Brennan Center for Justice
Until recently, mass voter challenges have just come from outsider activists. But now, with election deniers joining the Trump administration, these baseless challenges may get federal support, Sean Morales-Doyle explains for the Brennan Center.
How a network of pink-slime news sites and conservative activists went after campus DEI, CJR
A host of right-wing activists pretending to be news sites filed thousands of FOIA requests and used hidden-camera videos to target universities, leading to the firing of faculty and staff. Read the latest in the Columbia Journalism Review.
What’s In The News
Across America
California: Sacramento’s historic Hackett House site has been added to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom list of significant sites…
Colorado: The “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History: Aurora” exhibit will be on display at the Aurora History Museum through Nov. 7…
District of Columbia: The American Black Film Festival is coming to the District from September 25th to the 27th…
Florida: Community members recently gathered to discuss the future of Eatonville, one of the country’s first self-governing, all-Black towns…
Georgia: A nonprofit is working to protect a historic Black cemetery located near a massive data center project under construction in Henry County…
Illinois: Southern Illinois University Carbondale is pushing to permanently establish the African American Heritage Center to preserve Black history in the region…
Kentucky: Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr, who was lauded for defending a young girl from sexual harassment earlier this year, was shot and killed....
Massachusetts: The sale of a Martha’s Vineyard home associated with Uncle Nearest has hit a snag as the whiskey brand company faces legal troubles...
Michigan: State Rep. Donavan McKinney is hoping to restore Black representation to Detroit by unseating Congressman Shri Thanedar…
Mississippi: Gov. Tate Reeves is blaming Ben Crump and Al Sharpton for “stoking division” in the Nolan Wells case…
New York: Wu-Tang Clan icon Ol’ Dirty Bastard was honored with a street named after him in Brooklyn…
Pennsylvania: Mayor Cherelle Parker’s former DEI chief is suing the city for discrimination in a tell-all lawsuit…
Rhode Island: Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon have donated $1.2M to a community center named after the actor’s mother…
South Carolina: Community members gathered in remembrance of the Hamburg massacre, which took place 150 years ago…
Tennessee: Between 1995 and 2019, 163 children were sentenced to die in prison by the state. Most were prosecuted under a little-known aspect of state law, known as “the felony murder rule”...
Texas: Protesters marched through downtown Austin this week demanding justice for Anthoneil Williams II, the unarmed 17-year-old killed by police…
Wisconsin: Mandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor, has dropped out of the Democratic primary for governor…
What’s Happening
Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson sat down with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for a wide-ranging conversation on their podcast. Watch above…
Ben Crump gave an update on the Nolan Wells case at the National Urban League’s annual conference…
Republican attempts to dilute Black political power in the South are driving Black Americans to the polls in larger numbers, according to a new analysis…
The TRiiBE published “Out West: In search of my ancestral home,” a work of literary nonfiction by Tiffany Walden that follows her journey to her grandmother’s birthplace in the Mississippi Delta…
31 colleges recently became “Black-serving institutions.” But what does that mean?...
The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum is celebrating more than four decades of culture and service in Baltimore…
The legal team of Mumia Abu-Jamal is appealing to the United Nations for support…
For the Mississippi Free Press, Dr. Duvalier Malone wrote about Nolan Wells and why Black Americans may be skeptical of the ongoing investigation…
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has a feature in The Atlantic that is getting a lot of buzz on social media…
The National Urban League has released its annual “State of Black America” report…
A Secret Service agent and two others have been charged after severely hazing a new fraternity member…
A mural honoring beloved television anchor Jovita Moore has returned to a Georgia coffee shop following community outcry…
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Ashley L. Jackson remembered her father, the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, discussed her conversion to Judaism and explored the relationship between Black and Jewish Americans…
A bipartisan bill would create a permanent memorial honoring the Tuskegee Airmen in the D.C. area…
A judge ruled that the recording of an interview the man accused of killing Tupac Shakur gave to police in 2008 may be used at his upcoming trial…
The outpouring of sympathy for Marie Marseille, whose dog was shot by LAPD, stands out at a time when even indisputable victimhood doesn’t guarantee universal support, Erin Aubry Kaplan explains…
Entertainment News
CBS Sunday Morning ran a feature on Derrick Adams, who is widely considered one of the most important artists of his generation. Watch above…
“Black Panther 3” is set to premiere on December 15th, 2028, Ryan Coogler announced. David Jonsson will take on the mantle of the titular character…
“Purple Rain,” a new musical based on Prince’s hit 1984 film, is coming to Broadway next spring…
ESSENCE Ventures has announced “a strategic investment” in Offscript Worldwide, the parent brand of REVOLT…
Phylicia Rashad received a standing ovation at the kickoff for the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem…
The trailer teaser “The Thomas Crown Affair,” starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan, is out...
ESPN has an inside look at how LeBron James decided to choose the Philadelphia 76ers…
Willow Smith talked with The New York Times about her desire to be known as more than just the daughter of a Hollywood power couple, and her new album, “The Thread”...
Shelby Stewart spoke with the iconic Mara Brock Akil about her literary debut, growing up with ESSENCE, and her career…
Whoopi Goldberg, Jenifer Lewis, Vanessa Williams and Vivica A. Fox are set to star in the Netflix comedy “Women Like Us”...
Alice Coltrane’s ashram tapes, which have long been unavailable to the public, will finally be released…
A judge ruled rap lyrics can be used as evidence in the high-profile murder-for-hire case the rapper known as Yella Beezy…
The wife of a Kansas City Chiefs coach was allegedly shot by the couple’s son at the family’s home…
Obituaries
Betye Saar, the pioneering California artist who confronted stereotypes about Black women with a variety of tools, has died. She was 99…
William Clair Turner Jr., a pastor and theological educator who shaped Duke Divinity School, has died. He was 78…
Hope Clarke, the actress, singer, and dancer who choreographed the 1990s musical “Jelly’s Last Jam,” has died. She was 85…
Mary J. Armstrong, an educator and longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers St. Louis (Local 420), has died. She was 73…
Carl Yelder, a Louisville legend best known as DJ Lil Carl, has died. He was 46...
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 50 seconds…
Authorities are asking the public’s help in locating Syncere Pshyra Evans, a missing teenager who was last seen in South Los Angeles…
Support the New Eyes Collective, a phenomenal group of Black cultural workers committed to impactful work…
If you’re in upstate New York, check out the 16th Annual Emancipation Day on August 1st at the Smithville Community Center in Peterboro…
More than 50 of your favorite Black authors will appear at Mahogany Books’ third annual Black Books Matter Fest on August 1 in Maryland...
A powerful play about the legacy of Black suffragists in Boston is running from July 18 to August 8 at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester…
I noticed this headline:
"Willow Smith talked with The New York Times about her desire to be known as more than just the daughter of a Hollywood power couple, and her new album, “The Thread”..."
In my opinion she did exactly that with her first hit "Whip My Hair" when she was 9. Would she have had that opportunity if she wasn't the daughter of Jada Pinkett and Will Smith? idk.
But it looks to me like she always had her own style.