Tag: African American

Washington, D.C. was long ago dubbed Chocolate City in recognition of its significance as a place where Black residents built communities, elected leaders and created a cultural legacy that has shaped America for decades. But under President Donald Trump's second term, a new wave of battles over who controls the capital continues to rock residents and visitors alike. D.C. has long struggled with its lack of statehood, which many fear has opened the floodgates for the federal government to meddle in local affairs.

Our students are not running from. Our students are running toward. They are running toward Historically Black Colleges and Universities to belong before defending their belonging in the larger world becomes a daily test. That is the story of HBCU enrollment surging, and it's a story that deserves to be told without a foil. They are not settling for us; they are selecting us.

For more than four decades, one name has divided America, inspired activists and kept Philadelphia at the center of one of the nation's most polarizing criminal cases: Mumia Abu-Jamal. To supporters, the former journalist and Black Panther is a political prisoner whose unjust conviction is a clear example of racial bias, prosecutorial misconduct and the failures of the criminal justice system. To others, including the family of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and many in law enforcement, he is a convicted cop killer whose conviction has withstood decades of appeals. The debate has never truly ended. Now, Abu-Jamal's legal team has taken his fight beyond U.S. courts, petitioning the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to weigh in on his incarceration.

It may only be mid-summer, but HBCU homecoming chatter is already taking over the timeline! On July 17, North Carolina A&T officially launched its 100-day countdown to the legendary "Greatest Homecoming on Earth," when a record-breaking 200,000 visitors are expected to flood Greensboro for the university's historic centennial celebration, setting the stage for one of the biggest Black cultural events of the year. From NC A&T's landmark 100th anniversary celebration to massive citywide takeovers at Howard University and Jackson State, HBCU homecomings continue to generate multi-million-dollar footprints, evolving into major corporate marketplaces year after year.

Black youth face a mental health crisis with suicide rates rising 53 percent over a decade. In Brooklyn, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health addresses this through barbers and stylists trained in Mental Health First Aid. These trusted community spaces provide safe conversations where people often suffer in silence. The Beyond the Stigma program also recruits youth peer leaders and engages community elders. Dr. Marilyn Fraser emphasizes that suicide prevention doesn't always require a therapist's office—sometimes it begins with conversations between people who already know and trust one another.

The 250th anniversary of America arrives as historians confront the full truth of the American Revolution and Black soldiers, spies and petitioners whose stories have been pushed to the margins. Around 5,000 Black men fought on the Patriots' side, while thousands more fought for the British. From double agents at Yorktown to Dunmore's Proclamation, Black contributions were vast and often crucial to victory.