Across the country, Black children and youth are twice as likely as the general population to die by drowning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this crisis is compounded by the fact that their parents are 20% more likely to be non-swimmers, creating a cycle that perpetuates the problem across generations, […]
Culture
Posted inHistory
New National Park Signs Threaten the Future of Black History
WASHINGTON — A few years ago, Blake Spencer explored the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington with two of his friends. The Howard University graduate wanted to check out the area and learn more about the abolitionist who, some 150 years ago, had been a towering figure on the school’s board of trustees. Their […]
Posted inCourts, Health, LGBTQ, Politics & Policy
7 Supreme Court Cases That Black Americans Should Track This Summer
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday issued a number of blockbuster rulings that have implications for everything from President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order to the future of LGBTQ books in schools. The justices punted a major Voting Rights Act case until next term, allowing time for further argument in the fall. In the […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Voices of Change
WorldPride 2025: Finding Joy During a Season of Political Backlash
On a cloudy June afternoon along 14th Street in Washington, baton-twirling marchers strutted in thigh-high boots and rainbow fans clacked and snapped in revelers’ hands. Hundreds of thousands had flocked to the nation’s capital — or, as D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently boasted, the “gayest city in the world.” Welcome to WorldPride, where for several days […]
Posted inHealth, LGBTQ, Partner Content
Inside HIV Activists’ Plan to Save Lives as Trump Guts Federal Funding
GREENVILLE, Miss. — Cedric Sturdevant woke up with “a bit of depression” but made it to church, as he does every Sunday. In a few days, he would drive from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., to join HIV advocates at an April rally against the Trump administration’s actions. It had clawed back more than $11 billion […]
Posted inEducation, History
The Forgotten Girls Who Desegregated New Orleans Before Ruby Bridges
This is the first story in our series chronicling the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In November 1960, three 6-year-old Black girls climbed 18 steps into history, forever changing the face of American education and democracy. While Ruby Bridges became a household name for integrating William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Gail Etienne, Leona […]
Posted inCulture, History
Despite Corporate Pullback, Black Americans Keep Juneteenth Traditions Alive
This story was originally published in 2022 and has been updated. Nearly four years ago, a year after the death of George Floyd, corporate sponsors and business poured money and support into celebrating the Juneteenth holiday. They’ve since scaled back its efforts, as the political climate has changed in some parts of the country, and […]
Posted inCulture, History
South Carolina’s Gullah Geechee Are Denied Their Right to Bury Their Loved Ones
For generations, Mary Mack’s family has offered free burial plots to the bereaved families on St. Helena Island. It’s an ancestral calling and a tradition. Spanning 64 square miles, the island on the coast of South Carolina is home to one of the largest remaining Gullah Geechee communities in the southeast U.S. Surrounded by creeks, […]
Posted inCulture, History
Meet the Man Who Created the Juneteenth Flag
This story was part of a special Juneteenth project originally published in 2022 with Vox that explored the ongoing struggle for freedom for Black Americans. As the Juneteenth holiday approaches, you’ll start to see various symbols of Blackness across the country. Front lawns, apartment balconies, and clothing with the pan-African flag, “Black Power” fist, and […]
Posted inCulture, Politics & Policy
For Some Black Angelenos, ICE Raids Reopen the Wound of Displacement
When federal immigration agents swept through Los Angeles’ Fashion District, Boyle Heights, and Pico-Union neighborhoods last week, arresting dozens of migrants in coordinated raids, Bryant Odega was transported back into his childhood memories. In elementary school, Odega’s first airport visit was to watch his father, an immigrant from Nigeria, get deported back to his birth […]