Tremane Wood clemency, digital Blackface is back, Jesse Jackson hospitalized
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What I’m Reading
Black-owned farms fill gaps left by SNAP funding delays, Capital B News
Even though the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history has come to an end, some Americans still may face delays in receiving needed SNAP benefits. Black-owned farms have been working to fill in those gaps. Read the latest from Aallyah Wright for Capital B News.
Related: Capital B News launched its three-year strategic plan to expand access to trustworthy news for Black communities across the country. If you’ve been wondering how you can support Black-owned news, here’s a great place to start!
As Trump recasts history, a civil rights museum sticks to a messy past, The New York Times
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is expanding how it explores this country’s racial dynamics at a moment when the Trump administration is working to dismantle DEI and “promote a sunnier version of America’s story.”
Digital blackface is back in the form of Black AI influencers, Teen Vogue
“bell hooks once suggested that American culture and mainstream culture is ‘obsessed with Blackness.’ This evolution of digital blackface is in fact just a continuation of the obsession of which she spoke,” Zeba Blay writes.
What’s In The News
Across America
California: California is the latest state to advance a proposal that could affect Black Americans’ ability to influence elections, Brandon Tensley reports for Capital B News…
District of Columbia: Student journalist Imani Liburd wrote about the lack of hair supply stores and salons that Black women at Georgetown University can choose from for their specific hair care needs...DuWayne Portis, a journalism major at Howard University, wrote about how his school is grappling with the rapid gentrification surrounding it…
Florida: Congratulations to Samuel Issac Nelson, III, a Jacksonville student who just received one of the nation’s highest honors for high school seniors…
Georgia: Since the Biolab explosion, via legal action, community organizing, and advocacy, the predominantly Black and working-class community of Conyers is demanding more than just cleanup or containment, Tyra Douyon writes for Scalawag…
Illinois: Aurora University football player Brook Williams said he quit the team following racist slurs from his own teammates…
Maryland: Baltimore Beat’s Sydney Allen recapped an exhibition at The Peale museum honoring Black Panther History Month and the late former Panther Eddie Conway…
Massachusetts: Nearly two centuries after David Drake created thousands of ceramic pots as an enslaved man, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has granted ownership of two of his large vessels to his descendants…
New York: Amy Cohen became the first-ever person with sickle cell anemia to run a marathon, achieving her “lifelong goal”...
North Carolina: The Chicken Hut, one of the oldest restaurants in Durham, gave away 400 meals to those who showed their EBT card…
Oklahoma: Tulsa has found itself in the middle of a statewide data center race, Phillip Jackson reports...
South Carolina: The annual Penn Center Heritage Day Parade in South Carolina draws hundreds to celebrate the Gullah Geechee people. But a new route has Black residents feeling as if their legacy is vanishing…
Texas: The Texas A&M Board of Regents voted to approve a new policy that will require each campus president to sign off on any course that could be seen as advocating for “race and gender ideology”…
Virginia: For the first time, Black veterans laid to rest at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Manassas received special recognition on Veterans Day…
What’s Happening
Tremane Wood was set to be executed for a killing his brother admitted to. He was granted clemency at the last minute. A major shoutout to my colleague Jessica Schulberg for her relentless coverage…
Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader and former presidential candidate, has been hospitalized in Chicago…
Teen Vogue’s closure isn’t a sign of what’s to come in the media, but a reminder of the crisis already here, Taylor Crumpton writes…
Damon Landor is seeking damages after Louisiana prison officials cut off his dreadlocks in violation of his religious beliefs. The Supreme Court appears skeptical about the devout Rastafarian’s religious rights claim…
For Veterans Day, Barack Obama welcomed an Honor Flight honoring veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War…
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate Texas Southern University after a new state audit found evidence of poor bookkeeping and financial mismanagement…Supporters of the HBCU are concerned Republican leaders will use the allegations to strip the school of its independence…
Officials in the Netherlands are demanding answers after panels honoring Black vets at a World War II cemetery were taken down…
Boyz N The Wood is an organization that encourages more Black men to experience the wonders of nature and aims to make the great outdoors more accessible to all…
The Monitor: Across the United States, scholars are working to preserve the history of the Black press before the brittle pages are lost forever…
Vanity Fair just made two big hires: Ta-Nehisi Coates will join the magazine as senior staff writer, and Adrienne Green joins as executive editor…
Equal Justice Initiative: An interracial kissing case involving kids in 1958, left two Monroe, North Carolina boys locked up, beaten and barred from seeing their parents…
Julia Craven explores how we can learn valuable lessons from Black histories of sustainability to pull forward into the current day…
For the Washington Informer, Sam P.K. Collins wrote about how educators, students and artists reflected on Assata Shakur’s legacy…
A jury ordered a TikTok influencer to pay $1.75 million to her manager’s ex-wife after the woman accused her of sparking the end of their marriage…
Entertainment News
André 3000 and Big Boi of OutKast were officially inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. GQ was on the scene for an exclusive look into their afterparty…
Salt-N-Pepa used their induction speeches at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony to call out Universal Music Group for not being allowed to reclaim their masters…
Niche Harlem-based rapper Max B has been released from prison after more than 15 years…
Chadwick Boseman will be posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next Thursday…
The New York Times has an awesome visual feature about the Black artists who have been shaping the form of musical theater for over 200 years…
De La Soul officially announced their new album, “Cabin in the Sky,” will be out on November 21. Stream the first single here…
Set in early 1900s Oklahoma, “Sarah’s Oil” tells the real story of Sarah Rector, the Black girl who became one of America’s first millionaires. Watch the trailer here…
For LitHub, Brittany Allen compiled five novels to read if you’re fascinated by the Black bourgeoisie…
Ty Cole sat down with Eddie Murphy about his new Netflix documentary, “Being Eddie,” and he shared a key piece of advice for longevity in Hollywood…
In an expansive interview with The Guardian, Morgan Freeman dishes on being the voice of “God,” meeting Nelson Mandela, and his six decades on screen…
The California Court of Appeal has affirmed Tory Lanez’s felony convictions and 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, Meghann Cuniff reports…
Sammy Davis Jr. had an astonishing, confounding career. For The Atlantic, Ahmir Thompson wrote about what he learned from the great showman…
“Faith Ringgold,” an exhibit honoring the late artist’s work, opens today and continues through January 24 in New York City’s Jack Shainman Gallery…
A sequel to the classic sitcom “A Different World” has been ordered to become a series at Netflix…
For Andscape, David Dennis Jr recently went to an NBA YoungBoy concert to see what all the fuss is about. He called it one of the best rap concerts he’d ever been to…
Obituaries
Lenny Wilkens, a former Seattle SuperSonics star who would later become one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, has died. He was 88…
Michael Ray Richardson, a four-time NBA All-Star who was banned from the league for drug use, has died. He was 70…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 43 seconds…
The film premiere of “The Beat Goes On: The Story of Baltimore Beat” takes place this Saturday at Baltimore’s Parkway Theatre…
WUNC podcast “The Broadside” asks: Where have all the Black farmers gone?...
Sauvamemte created an Octavia Butler collection that includes her books and essays for the public…
This was an amazing lineup and I learned a lot!
that Octavia Butler collection at the end of this newsletter is a treat!