Major civil rights erasure, Megan Thee Stallion wins defamation case, new BET president
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What I’m Reading
How police harassed and infiltrated civil rights groups, The New Republic
When people think of law enforcement’s role in attacking the civil rights movement, they generally think of the terroristic police violence seen in Birmingham, or how the FBI targeted the Black Panthers. But that’s not the entire story. For the New Republic, Piper French reviewed a new book about local police surveillance of the civil rights movement.
America stares down erasure of Black history and progress, Axios
Delano Massey explored how federal, state and institutional decisions have wiped out major pillars of America’s civil rights protections, amounting to the largest rollback of civil rights progress since Reconstruction.
As the South goes, so goes the nation, Scalawag Magazine
For Scalawag Magazine, Aja Arnold spoke with four other born-and-raised Southern journalists and authors about the geographical bias in mainstream and legacy media against the South.
What’s In The News
Across America
University of Alabama shuts down student magazines for Black students, women students
Alabama: University of Alabama suspended publication of two student-run magazines, claiming they weren’t in compliance with federal guidance on DEI...
California: A growing number of Black residents, many of them elderly, are living alone in the Sacramento region…
District of Columbia: In the aftermath of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s announcement that she won’t seek reelection, the fight for D.C.’s future has begun…
Florida: About 400 books were removed from Florida public schools this school year, according to the state’s Department of Education…
Georgia: Atlanta’s iconic jazz station, Jazz 91.9 WCLK, is fighting to survive as it faces a financial crisis that threatens its future…
Illinois: West Side native Robert Townsend is hosting a pop-up film festival to support local charities this weekend…
Louisiana: Trump announced that National Guard troops will be heading to New Orleans in a few weeks…
Michigan: Big Sean and Usher have teamed up to invest $1 million in a new entertainment production facility for Detroit youth…
Mississippi: Byron De La Beckwith killed Medgar Evers in 1963. His “anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-immigrant and anti-federal government rhetoric have made their way into the mainstream,” Jerry Mitchell writes…
New York: Nikole Hannah-Jones is bringing a Black-owned literary salon and bar, The North Star + Bar, to Brooklyn next year...
Pennsylvania: “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson launches fund to provide free field trips to thousands of Philly students…
Tennessee: Tennessee State University has “exceeded several of its goals to reduce budget deficits and increase revenue”…
Texas: The Texas Comptroller has axed a program that aimed to give additional exposure to women- and minority-owned businesses…
Wisconsin: A Brookfield family is searching for answers after Tory Medley was found hanging from a tree at a golf course…
What’s Happening
An excerpt from “The Problem with Plastic,” a book Adam Mahoney helped write, is available in Capital B News. Louisiana’s Black communities are “fighting to survive in a battle where every breath, every drop of water, and every patch of land is at stake”...
Four-star admiral Alvin Holsey had concerns about the legality of boat strikes in the Caribbean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly asked him to retire…
Maurice DuBois, the co-anchor of CBS Evening News, is leaving the network…
Dillard University, the oldest HBCU in Louisiana, received a $19 million gift from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation. More: The massive donations to HBCUs reignited interest in MacKenzie Scott’s relationship with the late Toni Morrison…
Black patients face the steepest barriers to life-saving opioid use disorder medications amid Medicaid cuts and federal program delays, according to a new study…
In “The First Eight”, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina highlights the Black politicians who paved the way for him…
Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, talked with PEOPLE about his murder five years later…
AT&T said in a letter to the US telecoms regulator that it had committed to ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs…
Decades after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks’s legacy continues to inspire activists fighting for disability access today…
Urban food distributors across Los Angeles are a vital resource for communities in need…
Assassinated Black Panther leaders Mark Clark and Fred Hampton have been honored with a plaque in Chicago, 56 years after their deaths...
Across the country, state governance boards have begun to play an outsize role in the internal affairs of public universities. Former Dillard University president Walter Kimbrough emphasized the importance of this report for public HBCUs…
Longtime Boston resident Sister Beatrice Busby recently celebrated her 110th birthday…
Entertainment News
A federal jury sided with Megan Thee Stallion this week, agreeing that a blogger defamed and harassed the rapper. More: Vanity Fair reported on the contentious relationship between legal journalists and a growing class of courthouse livestreamers…
Buddy Guy talked to Rolling Stone about being “the last old man still walking and playing the blues”...More: A biopic about the life, music and legacy of the blues icon B.B. King is in the works...
Ryan Coogler went on “Good Morning America” to discuss “Black Panther 3” and the upcoming re-release of “Sinners”...
In “Black Social Television,” American University professor Sherri M. Williams explains how Black engagement on social media changed TV representation…
For Wirecutter, wrote about drinking Country Time Lemonade and playing Phase 10 with her grandmother…
Scott Mills, the longtime president and CEO of BET, is stepping down after 23 years. President of media sales Louis Carr is taking over the role.…
Huh: Leslie Odom Jr is set to adapt the Rolling Stone article that explored Sammy Davis Jr’s odd relationship with the Church of Satan into a horror movie…
Voice acting has emerged as one of the most unexpected creative lanes at Morehouse College…
The Hollywood Reporter shared its biggest revelations from the docuseries “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” and it’s no wonder the disgraced mogul is fighting to ban it…
Serena Williams appears to have swatted down the idea that she might be preparing to return to tennis…
“’BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’—the rich, multi-faceted feature directorial debut from Kahlil Joseph—is an immersion into Blackness,” film critic writes…
My colleague Njera Perkins talked with Jabari Banks, who is just getting started as he reflected on his journey after four seasons of leading Peacock’s “Bel-Air”...
Obituaries
Phil Upchurch, a famed guitarist who played with Quincy Jones, Donny Hathaway and Michael Jackson, has died. He was 84...
Willie Bell Gibson, a legendary English teacher in the Detroit Public Schools system who taught me and so many others, has died. She was 94…
James L. Wright Jr., beloved Washington Informer staff writer with more than three decades of experience reporting across the D.C. area, nation and worldwide, has died. He was 62…
Jo Ann Allen Boyce, who helped integrate one of the first public schools in the South, has died. She was 84…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 32 seconds…
ICYMI: The tallest monument in the U.S. honoring Black Americans was erected and dedicated in November…
The Root compiled a list of forthcoming books by Black authors they can’t wait to read this December…
For the CS Monitor, Ken Makin spoke with Bobby Donaldson about how Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Court icon as the documentary “Becoming Thurgood: America’s Social Architect” streams on PBS…
URL Media, a network of community publishers serving diverse audiences, has received a $5 million, three-year Knight Foundation grant…