Posted inEducation, K-12

GOP States Are Targeting AP Black Studies. Here’s How Kids Can Learn It Outside of School.

This story has been updated. At least four Republican-led states are considering whether a new African American Studies course is in compliance with its laws that restrict lessons on race, following Florida’s ban on the proposed course last month.   Officials in education departments in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Virginia are reviewing the advanced placement […]

Posted inHealth, Reproductive Health

The Reading List: Maternal and Reproductive Health in America

As racial disparities in maternal health complications rise and unequal access to comprehensive care continues, American women face potentially life-threatening health outcomes — and the outlook is particularly frightening for Black women. They are three times more likely to die due to pregnancy related causes than white women. In the United States, Black maternal mortality […]

Posted inHealth, Mental Health

The Reading List: The Mental Health Crisis Affecting Black America

Editor’s note: This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, free resources are available. Please see our list below. The mental health crisis in the United States is growing, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which isolated Americans from friends and family and spiked feelings of anxiety. More Black […]

Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing

The Reading List: Black Lives Matter and Policing in America

Ten years ago, in February 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman while walking home in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman’s subsequent acquittal sparked outrage, protests, and catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement.  BLM was founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, who describe the organization and its work as “an ideological and […]

Posted inPolitics & Policy

The Reading List: The Policy Discussions Black Americans Should Be Following

In that past decade or so, Black Americans have been particularly hard hit. There was the massive recession that hiked unemployment and decimated homeownership and personal finances—ruining the economic safety of Black people in particular. Then a rise in white nationalism during the Trump presidency. A seemingly never ending wave of police shootings of Black […]