RIP Hydeia Broadbent, Who TF Did I Marry, Beyoncé tops country charts
Friday, February 23, 2024.
What I’m Reading
Young Black Farmers Energized Despite Land Loss and Racist History, Capital B
From 2017 to 2022, the United States lost 7 percent of all farms. However, Black folks lost nearly 13%, the highest decline among all other racial groups. The bleak outlook for Black farmers hasn’t stopped a new generation from entering the profession despite land loss, racism, and discrimination, Aallyah Wright reports for Capital B.
How the “Who TF Did I Marry” series took over TikTok, The Washington Post
By now, I'm sure you've at least heard about the "Who TF Did I Marry" series that is currently going viral on nearly every social media platform. If you haven't had a chance to watch all 52(!) parts of Reesa Teesa’s epic, Samantha Chery wrote about the key takeaways of the saga. Prepare yourself.
After inheriting ancestral land, these Black families are defying the odds to keep it, NBC News
Black families who have passed their land on to heirs through word-of-mouth are often easy prey for predatory developers. The lack of clear ownership on paper has created headaches and, at worst, opened families up to land theft.
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: A white former Montgomery police officer convicted in the 2016 shooting and killing of a Black man will soon be getting out of prison…
Florida: Tallahassee has gifted the Prime Minister of Funk, George Clinton, with a key to city…
Maryland: One of the six police officers charged after the killing of Freddie Gray has been tapped to oversee the Baltimore Police Department's Public Integrity Bureau, a unit that handles misconduct investigations…
Massachusetts: Sephora made headlines after a video went viral showing three girls wearing what appeared to be blackface at one of the chain’s Boston locations…
Mississippi: Former Rep. Alyce Clarke was the first Black woman elected to the Legislature, and now she is the first Black person — and first woman — to have a portrait on display in the state Capitol…
New York: Remember the “Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead? The disgraced preacher called Mayor Eric Adams the “key” to his financial success…
North Carolina: A family is demanding action against illegal dumping on their historic family cemetery where both veterans and Black people born during slavery are buried…
Ohio: An ex-sheriff’s deputy charged in the killing of a Black man remained free after a jury couldn’t agree on a verdict and the judge twice declared a mistrial…
Tennessee: The woman accused of posting her child waxing nude women on social media has been arrested and charged, according to Memphis police…
Texas: A Black high school student’s punishment by his school district for refusing to change his hairstyle doesn’t violate a new state law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, a judge ruled…
Wisconsin: The first Black superintendent of the Green Bay Area Public School District has resigned in the wake of comments he made during a radio program...
What’s Happening
HIV/AIDS survivor, activist, and educator Hydeia Broadbent has died, according to her father. She was 39…
Black people make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population. Many of them are wondering what it would be like to be part of a majority, and are moving to Africa to find out…
CNN: Members of Congress pressed the CEO of the nation’s largest credit union for answers about racial disparities in its mortgage lending but said they left dissatisfied with her responses…
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin says if anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation passes, he would urge athletes to leave Alabama…
My colleague Phillip Jackson wrote about the Shelby County jail in Tennessee, and how it has grown more deadly than the infamous Rikers Island…
What: A Fox News pundit says Trump's sneaker line will help him connect with Black voters because "they love sneakers"...
The Marshall Project: Mississippi is known as one of the worst states for public defense. In one lower court, most defendants went without any lawyer before indictment…
Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States. Here are three who grew their side hustles into successful businesses…
Black drivers in Memphis are more likely to receive a ticket with multiple citations than white drivers, according to a report…
A state law passed by the Texas legislature is now “being used to question the qualifications of three Black women running for Harris County judicial positions in the March primary,” the Houston Chronicle reports…
Madam C.J. Walker's descendant is working to keep lies about her great-great-grandmother’s legacy out of the public record…
Two homes in Jackson, Mississippi, have exploded, killing one and spurring a federal investigation…
Philanthropist and Morehouse alum Dale E. Jones announced the establishment of a $2.5 million endowed scholarship to help struggling students at the HBCU…
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, more than half a century later, has opened its second survey of Black art, this one called “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism”...
SMH: A small group of neo-Nazis marched in downtown Nashville, drawing a few vocal opponents and ultimately leaving following a "challenge," police said…
Elizabeth Gloucester’s story “serves as a reminder that many wives and mothers who deserve to be seen as women’s rights pioneers never climbed the steps of a speaker’s platform,” Brent Staples writes…
Entertainment
Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, according to her care team…
“Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum Porsha Williams has filed for divorce from Simon Guobadia after 15 months of marriage…
Two must-reads from Black women on Beyoncé: Brooklyn White-Grier interviewed Beyoncé and Tina Knowles for the March/April cover of Essence. Taylor Crumpton wrote about how Beyoncé doesn’t need white validation to classify her country. The singer is also now the first Black woman to nab a No. 1 hit in the history of Billboard's Hot Country Songs…
Beyoncé’s sister isn’t sitting idly by, either. Kaitlyn Greenidge interviewed Solange Knowles for Harper's BAZAAR about her next projects, and her own legacy…
For Refinery29, Njera Perkins wrote a deep dive into artificial intelligence’s impact on Black artists and their music…
What? A lawyer for one of the co-defendants in the YSL racketeering conspiracy case was arrested on gang-related charges…
The Black Girls Rock! Awards will return to TV this year, following a five-year hiatus and a switch from BET to Lifetime…
LeVar Burton is set to release two nonfiction books — an inspirational memoir about his life and another about the importance of the written word…
Luther Vandross’ albums, “Luther” and “This Close to You” are set to be reissued for the first time in 40 years…
After 54 years, nine gold albums and a string of hits, including “Before I Let Go,” Maze frontman Frankie Beverly is announcing his farewell tour…
WATCH: Regina King stars as Shirley Chisholm in the first trailer for the upcoming Netflix film “Shirley”...
Dionne Warwick traced her roots back to her great-great-grandparents on "Finding Your Roots"...
Paramore called out elected officials in Tennessee for “blatant racism” when they pulled the honor for Allison Russell, a Black country singer…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute and 30 seconds…
Two Howard University students formed the first figure skating team at an HBCU. The team makes its competition debut this weekend…
The lineup for the 2024 Roots Picnic has been released, and will include Lil Wayne, Nas, Victoria Monet and Jill Scott as headliners. Andre 3000 will also perform…
The new podcast, “What Is Owed?,” aims to unpack the history, tensions, precedents and current movement around reparations…
On this week’s episode of Vox’s “The Weeds,” Jonquilyn Hill discussed how racism ages Black people with Dr. Uché Blackstock…
Wazzup, Wazzup, Wazzuuup! “Martin” is coming to Netflix on March 31st…
Beyoncé’s BEYGOOD charity and CÉCRED haircare line are funding $500,000 annually for cosmetology school scholarships and hair salons in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. See if you qualify…
Young Jeezy visited NPR to record his Tiny Desk Concert. You can watch it here…
Got a story to tell? Monkeypaw is seeking pitches from short genre filmmakers, and the prize is a $50,000 grant. Deadline is February 29th!…