Tennessee state Sen. Charlane Oliver grew angry when she learned about the raid this month on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington, D.C. This was another example of “the misogyny, the gender dynamics that are at play right now,” she told Capital B. They’re dynamics that she also has had to grapple with recently. […]
Politics & Policy
Posted inFederal Overhaul, Mental Health, Politics & Policy, The Workplace
‘I Had to Get My Mind Right’: The Challenges to Loving Relationships After Being Laid Off
This story is a collaboration between MindSite News, Capital B, The 19th, and The Nation, and was edited by MindSite News. Photos by Kuwilileni Hauwanga On April Fool’s Day last year, Philadelphia federal worker Darlene Tart-Scott arrived at work only to find out she had been laid off. Minutes later, she was on a train […]
Posted inFederal Overhaul, Mental Health, Politics & Policy, The Workplace
A ‘Gut Punch’: Black Women Fired by DOGE Work to Overcome Shame and Self-Blame
This story is a collaboration between MindSite News, Capital B, The 19th, and The Nation, and was edited by MindSite News. Photographs by Kuwilileni Hauwanga When Sharon Davis opened her email at 5 a.m. on April 1, 2025, she learned that she had been fired from the Food and Drug Administration after 24 years of […]
Posted inFederal Overhaul, Mental Health, Politics & Policy, The Workplace
The Unseen Toll: Depression, Anxiety Plague Black Women a Year After DOGE Layoffs
Part 1 of a three-part series, FIRED: The DOGE Layoffs Hit Black Women Hard, a collaboration between MindSite News, Capital B, The 19th, and The Nation, edited by MindSite News. Photographs by Kuwilileni Hauwanga Darnese Foster remembers the day she learned she was fired from her federal government job. “I was off that Friday, which […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Health, Politics & Policy
In LA, Some Black Residents May Soon Receive Environmental Reparations
As a child in the 1950s and ’60s, Regina Martin became so used to the oil pumpjacks near her home that she assumed every child lived beside them. Everyone was made “sick to [their] tummy” by the sulfurous, rotten-egg smell that never seemed to leave, she thought. Only until she was grown did she begin […]
Posted inHigher Education, Politics & Policy
The Slow Disappearance of Black Studies on College Campuses
For Northwestern University alumna Keala Uchôa, the university’s recent decision to restructure its African Studies program and cut two staff positions is hardly surprising. The move isn’t isolated. Over the years, the university and students have clashed over protests, a faculty member has sued over not getting tenure, and some current and former students – […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
Smithsonian’s Leader to Step Down Amid Trump Efforts to Reshape Black History
Photographs by Kuwilileni Hauwanga/Capital B Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian Institution’s first Black secretary, is stepping down after more than a year of escalating attacks from the White House over how the institution presents U.S. history. “I have spent nearly half of my life working at and being part of the Smithsonian family, and […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Kansas City’s Black Voters Keep House Seat as Missouri and U.S. Supreme Court Block GOP Map
In a setback for Republicans hoping to retain their hold on the House in the midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court once again rejected Missouri congressional maps backed by President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked the state from returning to its 2022 congressional map for the November election. The […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
College Student Dies Amid ICE Crackdown on Haitian Immigrants
Last month, Pierre Damas Bel started his first year at Wright State University with the kind of future his family had crossed borders to imagine. The 20-year-old, an honors graduate of Springfield High School in Ohio and JROTC member who emigrated from Haiti in 2024, planned to study neuroscience, play soccer, and eventually attend medical […]
Posted inEconomic Development, Politics & Policy
A Data Center Promises Jobs in This Black Town, but Residents Aren’t Convinced
CLARKSDALE, Mississippi — Rumors of a potential data center had loomed over Voneshay Walker like a cloud for months. She’d heard the whispers and seen reports of other centers popping up in small towns across the South. She didn’t expect it to hit so close to home. Walker is a native of Tutwiler, Mississippi, a […]
