Black parents rally in Washington, D.C., to demand change in schools
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., mothers in coats, gloves, and yellow scarves gathered to demand change in the United States’ current education system.
From the rally’s podium, speakers and organizers called for solutions, advocating for schools safe from shootings and bullying, the dismantling of the school-to-prison pipeline, and more options for families when it comes to school choice.
“Our whole purpose is to bring mothers together from across the nation, from all walks of life, to address our concerns about what’s going on in our schools,” Janelle Wood, founder of Black Mothers Forum, told theGrio.
5 Exhibits You Have to Catch at Cleveland Museums in 2023-2024
Lovers of art, culture and history rejoice! There’s always something amazing on display when you hit Cleveland’s magnificent museum scene, and this year is no different. Explore historical artifacts from a bygone age or learn about the impending solar eclipse in these exhibits coming through Cleveland Museums in 2023 and 2024.
Explore the history of the Underground Railroad and Trail of Tears this holiday season
It’s the holiday season; a time to hopefully connect with family and celebrate another year together. As you sit with parents, grandparents, and maybe even great-grandparents, there is often that trip down memory lane and perhaps even a few family secrets spilled. What if you could stand in that history; walk on a path where ancestors fled to freedom?
Sure, Black History Month will return in February, and Native American History Month (November) is coming to a close. But with Underground Railroad and Indigenous American historic markers, museums, and sites all over North America, your holiday (or other) travels could be an ideal opportunity to take time to get connected to America’s roots — and quite possibly your own. These off-the-beat and independent locations might be closer to home than you think, so check out a few — they might just bring you closer to your own history.
View from the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico
The Day I Just Got On A Plane Going Somewhere
I was supposed to be on a flight to Nairobi for a press trip. But I made it to the Cleveland airport three hours late after a sudden midwestern snowstorm, which derailed my connection, and I found myself in JFK, frantically trying to rearrange my plans — until I finally just quit running and threw in the towel.
I called my kids’ dad to let them know what happened. He told me to just come home on the next flight back to Cleveland. As the people around me came and went, I scanned the list of outgoing flights with my duffel bag, camera, and laptop at my feet. I could return to the snow, the duplex that needed renovating, and the two toddlers I’d watched on my own for 10 days straight.
Housing Discrimination and the Poverty Trap
Home ownership is a huge part of what makes families able to maintain and grow wealth over generations. But even decades after the civil rights movement, people of color are disproportionately locked out of this path, keeping families, neighborhoods, and even whole cities economically depressed. Only 44% of Black Americans own their homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, compared with 74% of white Americans.
Black Americans overall are greatly disadvantaged in building wealth. Black families especially face systematic barriers to getting out of previously redlined neighborhoods and build wealth at the same rate as their white peers. It isn’t for lack of trying. It’s a long, complex history and intertwined cycle of poverty that creates hurdles that people of color must overcome before they can reach the goal of home ownership.
Find your next favorite read with the best of Black BookTok
If you hope to tuck into a great book this season, here are 10 Black BookTokers to follow.
Want to make the most of some much-needed downtime this holiday season? Snuggle up with a book or two (hot cocoa optional). If you’re not sure what to dig into, skip browsing the shelves or wasting precious time reading the backs of a thousand books; hop over to #BookTok, where TikTok meets book recommendations — and sometimes, in-depth literary discussions or short summaries of the buzziest titles. BookTok is for nerds, dreamers, romancers, and those in the know. These are the readers who have done the legwork for you and sorted all the classy (and trashy) literature coming out. BookTokers are your own personal librarians, and just like there’s a book for everyone, there’s a Black BookToker for every interest and personality.
The Root and the case for culturally competent Black media
The Root — a digital website that boasts that it provides news with a Black perspective for Black people — has lost more than two-thirds of its writers, journalists, popular and noted columnists, and content producers, an analysis of the masthead shows.
In April, the site's former celebrated editor-in-chief, Danielle Belton, left to take a position at The Huffington Post. Last month, the site’s prolific heavy-hitters Michael Harriot and Stephen Crockett said their goodbyes after tenures of five and more than 10 years respectively. And now sources say the Very Smart Brothas column, co-founded by Damon Young and Panama Jackson, will disappear from The Root.
What if the DC rioters had been Black? I think we know the answer
I said this would happen. I knew that Trump’s dog-whistling rally speeches would incite actual, en masse violence if they continued unchecked. During the count of the electoral college votes for the 2020 presidential election today, “protesters” broke through barricades and went into the Capitol building after a “Save America” march presided over by our president.