#black-excellence

#black-excellence

Karen Batchelor's discovery of her eligibility for the Daughters of the American Revolution was surprising, given the organization's long history of racism and elitism.

Tonika Lewis Johnson's Folded Map Project connects residents known as 'map twins' who live on the same street name but miles apart, revealing structural inequality and personal commonality.

When the optimism of the early movement had begun to fade, and leadership had begun to fracture, and when the country seemed to have grown bored, gotten weary of the idea of justice and equality, and moved on to other concerns, Obama said, Reverend Jackson rose above despair, and kept that righteous flame alive.

Not so long ago,I found myself staring at my laptop screen, unemployed for the third month straight. The media industry cuts had claimed another victim, and that victim was me. At first, I told myself it was just a temporary setback. But as rejection emails piled up and freelance gigs barely covered my rent, I started wondering if this was less of a speed bump and more of a dead end.

In a region that prides itself on progress, women who built institutions, changed laws, fought segregation, defended bodily autonomy and reshaped culture have largely vanished from the public record. Their names are missing from monuments, street signs, statues and textbooks. Their work survives, but their stories do not.

Black History Month is a time to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and courageous acts of people of African descent in the United States and around the world. This year, Black History month celebrates its 100th anniversary. And yet, Black History Month has failed to fully acknowledge or celebrate the contributions of Black LGBTQ+ people. Just as Pride Month remains overwhelmingly white in its representation, Black History Month continues to be deeply homophobic in its omissions.

Betty leaves behind a powerful legacy for all of us and certainly within the National Park Service. Her thoughtful, introspective musings about the Civil Rights movement and the women's movement and how they intersected are some of the unique moments that I will always treasure...Thanks to Betty we've learned that we can hold multiple conflicting truths at the same time.

Oprah Winfrey has spent years turning her private health journey into a public conversation - and, at times, a lucrative business. The billionaire, real-estate mogul, talk-show host, journalist, actor, and producer has just released her 12th book: "Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like To Be Free." The book, which she co-authored with Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff, a doctor and professor at Yale's School of Medicine, dives into the role of GLP-1 drugs to facilitate weight loss.

This writer that I admired so much also turned out to be such a gifted and devoted teacher. She has given me a real example of a life of passionate devotion to more than one calling.

When Michelle Obama ceased to be the First Lady of the United States, the fashion press, which had been watching her closely for eight years, began to notice two new phenomena: she no longer straightened her hair and her dress style became increasingly relaxed. Although she continued to convey a message of aspirational power, she no longer shied away from daring fashion choices that she would never have dared to make before.

As U.S. job growth in 2025 reached its lowest point since the pandemic in 2020, Blacks have been hit extra hard. Their discharges stem from rollbacks in the federal government, DEI pullbacks, and large layoffs in areas such as education, health services and social assistance. Now, nearly two-thirds of Blacks in the U.S. are looking for a new job in 2026. Yet, 75% feel unprepared for the job search ahead.

Thanks to Betty, we have learned to lean into and seek out the hidden stories that go beyond the popular narrative. Before taking on that job, Soskin helped influence the stories told there as a field representative to two congressmembers, ensuring the museum also reflected the lived experiences of Black and Asian Americans at the time.

She remembers walking with her big brothers down a sidewalk fractured by the roots of old oak trees while children played hopscotch on the playground. She remembers going outside and clapping erasers together so that plumes of chalk dust rose above her head. And she remembers being told that she was attending a school that many white parents had taken their children out of just a few years earlier because they didn't want them sitting in class with Negroes.

By the mid-1980s, the AIDS epidemic had completely gripped the nation. Its victims, primarily queer men, were dying by the thousands. Fear and misinformation reigned supreme, and our government refused to respond to the crisis. Reverend Charles Angel, a community leader and activist who was living with HIV himself, recognized that queer men of color faced additional disparities due to cultural norms and societal inequities.

Earlier this month, Morris Brown College's Board of Trustees abruptly laid off the historically Black college's president, Kevin James, after seven years at the helm. James took to social media and decried the board's actions, noting that the college regained accreditation during his tenure and the institution couldn't afford instability with an upcoming meeting with the accreditor. A week later, the board announced his reinstatement, even as allegations against James surfaced in local media.

One year ago this month, Howard University in Washington DC landed the coveted title of an R1 research university - the highest US research designation conferred by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The achievement - attained when a university spends at least US$50 million on research and awards at least 70 research doctoral degrees each year - is making Howard attractive to funders, faculty members and students, says its interim president, Wayne Frederick.

If you know anything about the basic origins of Black History Month then you know that we weren't given' anything. The question of who owns and authorizes Black History Month holds particular relevance now, in its centennial year, and at a time when efforts to celebrate, preserve, and acknowledge Black people's past in this country are under attack.

Actor BD Wong, who originated Song Liling on Broadway in 1988, visited Harvard for two days in 2020 as part of the Office for the Arts' Learning from Performers program. Wong did a master class with students, spoke to an English class, and attended an "M. Butterfly" rehearsal. He ended up helping Cheng workshop the first love scene between the two main characters.

To be Black in the U.S. has such an expansive meaning that traces back to Europeans deciding who got to be "white." While some people, like the Italians and Irish, earned their way into "white-ness," those with even a drop of Black in their heritage were relegated to the lower rungs of the racial ladder.

U.S. president Donald Trump shared a racist video on his Truth Social account in which former American president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama were depicted as apes. I was unsurprised, yet nonetheless disgusted. U.S. senator Jon Ossoff also found the video unacceptable. He said during a rally in Atlanta that Donald Trump was "posting about the Obamas like a Klansman."

What should be stories about innovation, resilience, market disruption, and leadership have increasingly been flattened into a single, repetitive narrative: DEI. Not the company's business model. Not the founder's vision or entrepreneur journey. Not the problem being solved or the customers being served. Just DEI. And it's often framed through the lens of rollbacks, political backlash, or cultural controversy.

The park will "honor our greatest Americans, including black icons like Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Coretta Scott King, Muhammad Ali, and many others," the action reads.

When Norman Sylvester was 12, long before he garnered the nickname "The Boogie Cat" or shared a stage with B.B. King, he boarded a train in Louisiana and headed west, toward the distant city of Portland, Oregon. He'd lived all his life in the rural South, eating wild muscadine grapes from his family's farm, fishing in the bayou and churning butter at the kitchen table to the tune of his grandmother's gospel singing.