[UPDATE] The champ is here, strike September, the man who became Uncle Tom
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What I’m Reading
19-year-old Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open, making her the youngest American to win the tennis competition since Serena Williams did in 1999. Much of that success is due to her father, Corey, who works as her primary coach. This year, however, he had to make one of the most critical decisions in his daughter’s career — he had to take a step back.
How Coco Gauff and her father plotted a new route to US Open glory, The Guardian
Brace yourself for a remarkable essay that you’ll need to sit with for a moment after reading. Jenisha Watts, a senior editor at The Atlantic, penned a moving piece on what it was like growing up in poverty in Kentucky with an addicted mother.
I Never Called Her Momma, The Atlantic
Harriet Beecher Stowe said Josiah Henson inspired her most famous character — Uncle Tom. But Henson longed to be recognized by his own name and for his own achievements, Clint Smith III writes.
The Man Who Became Uncle Tom, The Atlantic
The national media has underplayed the LA hotel strike. Nor has it covered the episodic violence aimed at the striking workers at several of these hotels, with incidents that include wedding guests at one venue throwing punches at the picketers.
The Hugely Important Strike You’re Not Hearing Enough About, The Nation
What’s In The News
Across America
California: Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood is closing its maternity ward as the family of April Valentine calls for justice…
Florida: Some Black churches in Florida are stepping up to teach Black History, saying the state has "watered-down” versions taught to students…
Georgia: Descendants of enslaved people on Sapelo Island are protesting a vote for lifting protective laws, which threaten a 230-year-old heritage…
Louisiana: A federal judge has ordered Louisiana to remove all youth from the largest max security prison in the U.S. and to relocate them within a week…
Massachusetts: Signs with the website of a white supremacist group were posted recently outside two Black-owned businesses on Martha's Vineyard…
North Carolina: *One* parent is responsible for a book ban in North Carolina…
Oregon: A man sentenced to death for a 1998 murder is now free, two years after the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the conviction…
Texas: A Texas school district has suspended a Black student over his hair length, saying it violates dress code despite a new law banning race-hair discrimination…
Features
More than 200 people have died at Lake Lanier since 1994 and while some experts point to excessive alcohol use, many Georgia residents claim the lake is haunted due to its eerie history. Marquise Francis got to the bottom of things for Yahoo News…
When a Black ten-year-old took her own life, residents of North Salt Lake battled over whether the child’s death was a tragic but isolated incident, or caused by a pattern of racist Birmingham'
Sequaya Coleman, a mother of two, described how a year of guaranteed income changed her life…
Decades of no or limited access to banks has had major financial ramifications for Black and Brown Americans, who are the most underbanked and unbanked groups in the country, Daryl A. Carter writes...
You may remember Mo’ne Davis’s rise to stardom at the Little League World Series nine years ago. As she begins graduate school at Columbia, she is still charging ahead…
What’s Happening
The United Auto Workers union has gone on strike against Detroit’s three automakers for the first time in its 88-year history…
With more than 8,000 members around the country, the 40+ Double Dutch Club movement has become a popular pastime for women of all ages and races in cities and suburbs…
Sixty years ago, four Black girls died inside Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. The survivors of that bombing are fighting to stop that history from being erased in schools…
Ex-NFL reporter Jim Trotter filed a discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and NFL Media, alleging that he was let go by the league because he publicly challenged its “record of race discrimination and lack of diversity.”…
HBCU Classics are more than just competitions; they are a gathering point for fellowship and to celebrate the rich history tied to Black colleges, Alanis Thame writes…
Speaking of HBCUs, a coalition of them just received $124 million to increase enrollment, graduation rates and employment rates for the schools’ graduates…
Patients need doctors who look like them. Can medicine diversify without affirmative action?…
You’ve probably heard about that weird ashy alien on your social media timeline. You can tell your friends to stop sharing it: It’s not real…
An AJC investigation found that Georgia has seen a 100% increase in its number of juvenile lifers since 2012, when the Supreme Court ruled that the sentence should be reserved for the rarest of cases…
Entertainment
“The Color Purple” is returning to the big screen, but this time as an adaptation of the musical. Here’s a first look at the long-awaited film starring Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, and many more…
Tarell Alvin McCraney, one of the most accomplished dramatists of his generation, has been named artistic director of the famed Geffen Playhouse…
From Zito Madu: Stephen A. Smith remade himself, and the field of sports journalism, through resentment and provocation, and in doing so, he’s become one of the highest-paid sports media personalities as well as one of its most loathed…
Ava DuVernay became the first African-American woman to compete in the 91-year history of the Venice Film Festival…
From 2010 to 2022, teams chronically underrated Black quarterbacks in the draft, according to a new statistical analysis…
Jonathan Majors is due back in court on September 15…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1:35…
Morris Chestnut has partnered with Oprah Winfrey Network to produce a six-part docuseries, “Rebuilding Black Wall Street,” that will air on September 29 at 9 pm EST…
The official trailer of Matthew A. Cherry’s “Young Love,” starring Issa Rae and Kid Cudi, is now on YouTube…
In “Silver Dollar Road,” documentarian Raoul Peck profiled a Black North Carolina family and the iron will it took to hang on to their property…
Watch the trailer for “Donyale Luna: Supermodel,” which highlights the life of the first Black model to grace the cover of both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue…
I absolutely loved the feature on Mo’ne Davis! Thanks for sharing it. I used to work in sports & tagged a bunch of people on Twitter who I think would enjoy it & maybe can connect her with people.
Also, thank you for all the fantastic work you do!!