Stevie Wonder’s new album, Hotter Than July, had been burning up the charts for months by Jan. 15, 1981. But something bigger than music was on the artist’s mind that day. Along with other Black cultural giants, the 30-year-old was leading a rally of approximately 100,000 people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Years […]
Brandon Tensley
Brandon Tensley is Capital B's national politics reporter.
Posted inNews
Claudette Colvin, Whose Defiance Helped End Bus Segregation, Dies at 86
Nearly 10 months before Rosa Parks’s famous act of defiance, a 15-year-old Black girl named Claudette Colvin had already refused to surrender her seat on a segregated bus on March 2, 1955. Even as the police arrived, the high school student refused to move, holding her ground. “History had me glued to the seat,” Colvin […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Public Safety
Calls for Justice Grow After ICE Shooting of Minneapolis Mom
Jacob Davis suspected that nothing positive would come from the Trump administration’s announcement on Tuesday that it had deployed some 2,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. One day later, Renee Nicole Good was dead. The mother of three was in her car when a U.S. Immigration and […]
Posted inHistory
As Federal Sites Remove Black History, Communities Organize to Fight Back
It all started with a QR code. When Gerry James learned this summer that signs had been posted at National Park Service sites encouraging visitors to use a QR code to report information that could be considered “negative about either past or living Americans,” he wanted to change the conservation. He felt as if the […]
Posted inFederal Overhaul, Politics & Policy
A Growing Warning From Black Veterans: The Military Isn’t Safe for Us
Federal Overhaul is a multipart series that explores the impact of the Trump administration’s restructuring of the federal government on Black communities. ARLINGTON, Virginia — “Not right now, baby girl. Now’s not the time for you.” That was the advice that Tavorise Marks, who served in the U.S. Army for 15 years, recently had for […]
Posted inHistory
National Parks Drop Free MLK Day and Juneteenth Entry, Further Erasing Black History
Alan Spears remembers visiting Gettysburg National Military Park with his parents in the 1970s. They wanted something educational, free, and fun to do with their only son, and the park was an obvious choice, given Spears’ interests — his favorite television show as a child was The Rat Patrol, about soldiers during World War II. […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
‘We Don’t Want Voices Silenced’: Black Voting Power at Risk in Redistricting Battle
When Marsha Mitchell’s racial solidarity organization, Community Coalition, participated in Day of the Dead celebrations this month, she honored her grandparents. They were born in the Jim Crow South, in Arkansas, and didn’t enjoy the same rights that she grew up with, like the right to vote. Mitchell, who lives in South Los Angeles, wanted […]
Posted inEducation, HBCUs, Politics & Policy, Student Loans
Fate of HBCU Funding Uncertain as Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department
In a move that could have disproportionate impacts on Black students and families, the Trump administration announced this month that it will relocate certain responsibilities out of the U.S. Department of Education in an effort to strip the agency of much of its authority. This includes plans to transfer several key programs — including those […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Supreme Court Case Threatens Mail-in Ballots for Black Voters
For Mississippians, there’s been no escaping the attempts to dilute Black political power. Two Black Democrats won special elections on Nov. 4 to break the Republican supermajority in the Mississippi Senate. Then, six days later, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Republican-led challenge to mail-in voting. Johnny DuPree and Theresa Gillespie Isom both […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Virginia’s History-Making Governor’s Race Win Is About More Than Representation
ARLINGTON, Virginia — Democrats secured victories in key races in Virginia on Nov. 4. Abigail Spanberger, 46, won the governor’s race and will be the first woman to enter the state’s Executive Mansion in the role. She defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, 61. And Jay Jones, 36, overcame a scandal involving violent text messages. He defeated […]
