On Sunday morning, five Black Harvard University alumnae jumped into a group chat to figure out how to build momentum around the school’s president, Claudine Gay, after she received backlash over her handling of antisemitism on campus. The sound bites floating around social media and reported in news outlets didn’t accurately reflect who Gay is, […]
Brandon Tensley
Brandon Tensley is Capital B's national politics reporter.
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Black Louisianans Grapple With a Climate Change-Denying Governor-Elect
Every 100 minutes, a football field-sized piece of Louisianan land is swallowed by rising seas. But the state, the second-Blackest in America, recently elected a governor who says that climate change is a “hoax.” Just a year removed from Louisiana’s release of its first climate action plan, Black activists fear that Republican Gov.-elect Jeff Landry […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
This Legislator Wants Black Floridians to Stay in the Fight
Angie Nixon has had a front-row seat to the attacks on Black Floridians this year, from the dismantling of a Black congressional district to the racist killing of three Black people at a Dollar General to the whitewashing of Black studies. But while Florida has become something like the ground zero of anti-Black bigotry, Nixon […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
The Case That Could Destroy the Voting Rights Act
A new federal court opinion in an Arkansas case that would restrict who can sue under the 1965 Voting Rights Act is one of the most alarming attacks on the law in recent years. It would effectively prohibit most efforts to protect Black people’s access to the ballot box and continue the long assault on […]
Posted inCulture, History
Black Tribal Members’ Battle for Citizenship Continues
Black Creeks’ quest for tribal recognition isn’t over yet, as the Muscogee (Creek) Nation appeals a decision that could open up a path to citizenship for hundreds of people. A judge for the tribe in Oklahoma recently ruled that Rhonda Grayson and Jeff Kennedy — two descendants of Black people who had been enslaved by […]
Posted inCulture, History
The Man Behind the March on Washington
When Bayard Rustin is remembered at all, he’s remembered as the architect of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. But the gay, pacifist radical — the subject of a new biographical drama that’s out on Netflix this week — was more than “Mr. March on Washington,” as he was affectionately called. His […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Flex Political Power in Some Key States
Tyronne Walker is working overtime to let Black voters know what’s on the line in Louisiana. The Urban League of Louisiana and its partners recently hosted a statewide registration day for Black and brown voters. Walker told Capital B that he and his colleagues’ primary goal is “to position [Black communities] to show their collective […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Why Fair Voting Maps Could Be Good for the Environment
Gullah-Geechee Corridor resident Taiwan Scott is angry. The South Carolina real estate agent, who focuses on supporting Black property owners, is in a battle with legislators as rising sea levels and more intense and frequent storms imperil Black Americans’ land and heritage across the approximately 12,000 square miles extending from North Carolina to Florida. “Black […]
Posted inCulture, History
This Book Uses Horror to Explore Florida’s Overlooked Civil Rights Movement
On their 25th wedding anniversary on Christmas night in 1951, Florida teachers Harry T. and Harriette Moore were fatally injured when a bomb exploded under their bed. It took more than half a century to identify the Ku Klux Klan members who had targeted the two civil rights advocates, who played a key role in […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Laphonza Butler Will Be Just the 3rd Black Woman Senator in U.S. History
Laphonza Butler’s appointment to the U.S. Senate to replace the late Dianne Feinstein of California will increase the number of Black senators serving at the same time to a record four. But Black Americans are still woefully underrepresented in Congress. The number of Black senators would need to at least triple to get to a […]
