Landmark prison labor lawsuit, Biden at Morehouse, Kendrick No. 1 on Billboard
Friday, May 17, 2024.
What I’m Reading
Corporate America Never Really Quit Forced Labor, Bloomberg
Incarcerated persons do billions of dollars of work for companies and governments each year. A landmark lawsuit alleges many are being kept in prison because the business is just too good. The suit said it seeks “to abolish a modern-day form of slavery.”
Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control, TIME
Black women said that doctors pressured them into long-term birth control in order to limit and engineer who can reproduce in America. A TIME investigation found that doctors are more likely to push IUDs and implants on women on Medicaid and women of color — a form of “soft sterilization.”
André 3000 Is At Peace (For Now), THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
For THE BITTER SOUTHERNER, Hanif Abdurraqib talked with André 3000 about his newest project “New Blue Sun,” being at peace, and why the flute?
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: Reginald Burks of Skipperville faces the choice of apologizing to the officer who pulled him over or going to jail for up to 30 days…
California: San Francisco has quietly become a top candidate for HBCUs looking to grow, making the idea of one opening a satellite campus downtown not as fantastical as it once seemed…
Colorado: The Black former police chief of a small town says he was the victim of racial discrimination and fired when he was forced out even though he was cleared, according to a federal lawsuit…
Florida: Dr. Shawnta Friday-Stroud, the vice president of university advancement for FAMU, has resigned from her role amid crisis over dubious $237 million gift…
Illinois: The Gus Giordano Dance School has created a full merit scholarship in honor of Jayden Perkins, the 11-year-old killed while trying to protect his mother from a serial domestic abuser…
Louisiana: New Orleans shaped a growing subculture of music for the rest of America — and the next generation is ready to take it over…
Maryland: The Baltimore Banner profiled Mayor Brandon Scott, who described his return to therapy, the personal toll of youth homicide and why his work isn’t done. He also won his primary for mayor…
New York: Plans have been unveiled for a permanent memorial honoring the 10 Black victims of a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, community and elected leaders announced…
North Carolina: Michael Jordan made a surprise visit to his hometown of Wilmington for the grand opening of a medical clinic he funded with a $10 million donation…
Oklahoma: The Senate is considering a bipartisan bill to grant national monument status to Greenwood, also known as “Black Wall Street”…
Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon to a former Army sergeant convicted of murder for killing a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020…
Virginia: A Virginia school board voted to restore the names of Confederate officers to two schools, reversing a decision made after the killing of George Floyd…
What’s Happening
On Sunday, May 19, President Joe Biden will deliver the commencement address at the Morehouse College Commencement in Atlanta. It has sparked debate among students and faculty at the HBCU…
More on graduation season: At 83, Marie Fowler is Howard University's oldest doctoral graduate… 82-year-old Arline Taylor Flournoy returned to Central State University to complete her degree… Cur’Dericka Rice, a high school valedictorian in Louisiana, has received nearly $1 million in scholarships from 13 universities… Dorothy Jean Tillman II walked in her commencement ceremony after she earned her doctoral degree at the age of 17… MSNBC President Rashida Jones spoke about the power of journalism to graduating students at the University of the District of Columbia…
The Biden administration officially moved forward with a proposal to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous substance…
Friday is the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, but school segregation has increased in the past 30 years…
Angela Alsobrooks clinched the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maryland, defeating liquor store magnate David Trone, who spent over $61 million trying to beat her…
The House Oversight Committee fell into chaos after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who in turn pointed out Greene’s “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body”…
The Biden-Harris 2024 reelection campaign is turning to a former staffer from President Joe Biden’s 2020 operation to lead its efforts in focusing on the Black vote…
Fort Mose, the first free Black settlement, was first built in the 1700s in Spanish St. Augustine, Florida. Now, a life-size reproduction will soon open…
Beauty influencers are criticizing Youthforia, saying the brand didn’t adequately test the darkest shade of its Date Night Skin Tint Serum Foundation…
“In hundreds of deaths where police used force meant to stop someone without killing them, officers violated well-known guidelines for safely restraining and subduing people — not simply once or twice, but multiple times,” an Associated Press investigation found…
Ten student newsrooms at HBCUs will receive nearly $200,000 to help improve campus newsroom technology, business operations, audience engagement and reporting…
The DEI is in the details: George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth universities are dropping DEI course mandates after an unusual intervention by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and board members… The Board of Trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted to redirect the $2.3 million that funded DEI programs toward public safety…
A North Carolina father is on a mission to break the cycle of violence in his community…
The nationwide surge in accidental drowning deaths early during the pandemic was disproportionately worse for Black people, the CDC reported. Paulana Lamonier is working to ensure more Black people learn how to swim…
Lanny Smoot, the inventor of over 100 patents, is a pioneer. He talked with CBS’s Skyler Henry about being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame’s class of 2024 and his latest inventions…
Entertainment
Music corner: Kendrick Lamar’s Drake-diss “Not Like Us” showed up at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100… For NPR Music, Sheldon Pierce wrote about what the “whirlwind rise of 4batz, a Drake signee with a head-turning look and sound, means for the genres he lies between”… Chief Keef is not only back with the second installment of “Almighty So,” but he explained why he’s "better now than I ever was"...
It’s been a rough few weeks for Drake, but he leads nominations for the 2024 BET Awards. See the full list here…
“Mass incarceration is designed to exploit people who are incarcerated or for capitalistic gain,” Dr. Candacé King wrote in The Emancipator. “In the hit new Netflix reality series ‘Unlocked,’ even their private lives behind bars are cashed in for entertainment”...
Stevie Wonder went to Ghana on his 74th birthday, where the president of the country granted him citizenship…
Courtney B. Vance and award-winning psychologist Dr. Robin L. Smith have co-authored the book “The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power” to highlight the challenges Black men face…
Read about Nambi E. Kelley, the playwright behind “Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution,” which runs May 24 to June 16 at Chicago’s Court Theatre…
Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin are teaming up to produce faith-based films under a new deal at Netflix…
Media moves: Aria Hughes has been promoted to Editor in Chief of Complex…
Internet personality DJ Akademiks has been accused of sexual assault and defamation in a lawsuit…
Serena Williams will be hosting the 2024 ESPYS on July 11, ESPN announced…
For The Guardian, Derecka Purnell wrote about Beyoncé’s display of the American flag for “Cowboy Carter” and how her pride in the flag is “misplaced”...
“Abbott Elementary” star Tyler James Williams chatted with NPR’s Tonya Mosley about his character, working with child actors, and his health…
“The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat,” starring Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Sanaa Lathan, will be available to stream on Hulu on August 23…
Oprah Winfrey has apologized for contributing to toxic diet culture and playing a key role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets…
News in the world of sports: USC's Bronny James has been medically cleared to be drafted…WNBA Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson has a Nike signature shoe on the way — the Nike A’ONE…Florida A&M golf just won the HBCU National Championship…
Obituaries
Crystal Lynn Welch, a Mississippi College School of Law instructor who devoted her life to social justice work, was killed in a triple homicide. She was 42 years old…
Mariam Creighton, a talented member of the volleyball team at Albany State University, was killed in a shooting at an Atlanta lounge. She was 21…
The Rev. William “Bill” Lawson, a longtime pastor and civil rights leader who worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, has died. He was 95…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 2 minutes, 49 seconds...
Former Wall Street Journal Lee Hawkins has launched “What Happened in Alabama?,” a limited series podcast about the “intergenerational ripple effect of Jim Crow segregation on his family dating back to the 1600s”...
Netflix has partnered with The Blackhouse Foundation to launch the Netflix Nonfiction Producing Fellowship for creatives, and applications are now available. The deadline is May 19…
LinkedIn for Journalists is accepting applications for free access to LinkedIn Premium until May 23…
Attention HBCU alums: Applications for The 19th’s Frances Ellen Watkins Fellowship are open! Work in reporting, audience engagement, or product and technology. The deadline is May 31…
This says a lot about Biden. https://tinyurl.com/3d4ea6mp