A 100-year-old veteran of the country's only all-Black, all-female WWII unit was honored in her New Jersey hometown with a street-naming ceremony to recognize all her contributions.
Friends and family of Gladys E. Blount gathered in East Orange on Wednesday — 80 years after she left her home to help serve her country.
Raymond K. Boseman, a US army veteran with over three decades worth of service and a bachelor’s degree in business with an associate degree in criminal justice, has completed his new book “Things Black People Aren't Taught”: an eye-opening look at the world of financial planning and investing for Black Americans who have not been taught how to do so.
“As we grow up as Afro Americans, we are taught to go to school, work hard, get a degree, then get a good job, and put your money in the bank,” writes Boseman. “Well, that is fine, but most twenty-one-year-olds don’t even know the rate of inflation. They cannot understand how interest is compounded daily on a vehicle loan, or that an income tax refund is their own money that has been invested then given back to them after the government has used it all year and refunded it back at 0 percent interest.
“This is the reason I felt this book needed to be written for all people, no matter your age bracket, no matter your race or sex or who may not have learned the basics of investing, not living beyond their means, or just have maybe had unfortunate life situations happen to them. I heard this once, and it stuck. (You will get punched in the face during your life; it’s how you handle it is what matters.) You can sit there and take the hard life jab, or you can roll with the punches. I have also heard that when you get knocked down, you want to fall face up so you can get back up.”
Published by Page Publishing, Raymond K. Boseman’s informative guide demystifies the world of investing and takes the confusion out of understanding how to use one’s money to generate more capital. Through his well-paced and thorough advice, Boseman shows how to network and work with what one has access to move up in the world and create a better life for oneself despite the failures and temporary setbacks that might lie in wait along the way.
Readers who wish to experience this informative work can purchase “Things Black People Aren't Taught” at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.
Clark Atlanta University (CAU) has announced that actor, author, columnist, commentator, and sought-after speaker Joseph C. Phillips has joined the University as a professor in Theatre and Communication Studies.
Phillips-Headshot.jpg“Joseph brings a wealth of awe-inspiring talent, meaningful engagement in the community, and a portfolio of informed, decisive commentary to the University,” said President Dr. George T. French Jr. “We anticipate that he will inspire independent thinking, civic responsibility, and a passion for interdisciplinary learning in our students—which aligns perfectly with our mantra to “lift our community by lifting our voices.”
Phillips received the BFA in acting in 1983 from the acting conservatory at New York University after transferring from the University of the Pacific as a communications major. He has served as a fellow at the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian College; the Abraham Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute; and the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, where he designed, wrote the curriculum, and taught a seven-week course titled “Black Conservatism in America.”
A prolific actor perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Martin Kendall (the husband of Lisa Bonet’s character) on the hit series “The Cosby Show,” Phillips played Col. Greg Davis in four seasons of the Netflix award-winning series “13 Reasons Why,” which concluded in 2020. He is a three-time NAACP Image Award nominee for his portrayal of Attorney Justus Ward on “General Hospital” and has had guest starring roles on several television dramas, including “How to Get Away with Murder,” “NCIS” and “Good Trouble.”
His feature film credits include starring roles in “Strictly Business,” “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and “Midnight Blue.” Among his theatrical credits are starring roles in the Broadway production of “Six Degrees of Separation” and the Kennedy Center and American Playhouse productions of “A Raisin in the Sun.” He created the title role in “Dreaming Emmett,” Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison’s only theatrical play.
Phillips is the author of “He Talk Like a White Boy” and for eight years, wrote a widely syndicated weekly column titled “The Way I See It” that promoted conservative views such as traditional family, limited government, and a return to America's founding principles. He was also a regular commentator for NPR and American Urban Radio Network.
For ten years, he served as a director on the State Board of the California African American Museum, where he chaired the accessions committee, which was responsible for approving all art or artifacts for the museum’s collection.
On Phillips’s extensive roster of civic engagements are his work as a motivational speaker with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s “VIDA” program designed to redirect the lives of at-risk youth; the Special Olympics, and The Green Chimneys Foundation, of which he was an advisory board member; The Red Cross; Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles; the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America; the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission; and Project Alpha, a partnership of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and the March of Dimes designed to address teenage pregnancy, sexual and physical abuse, and sexually transmitted disease.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, has announced the 2022-2023 class of fellows.
“We are happy to welcome our next cohort of distinguished and dynamic W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellows,” says Gates. “We look forward to an extraordinary range of artistic and scholarly work next academic year. A poetry collection, a musical, a transnational history of the Seminoles, belonging and justice in Caribbean visual and literary cultures, an album on Hiphop as an educational tool, a study of the slave market of colonial Guadalajara, artistic representations of Black grief, amateur ministrelsy, and the 1866 cholera epidemic and origin of public health as a field are among the innovative projects which the 2022-2023 Class of Fellows will be pursuing at the W. E. B Du Bois Research Institute, housed in the Hutchins Center.”
The twenty-three 2022-2023 W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellows and their projects are as follows:
• Aabid Allibhai is a Doctoral Candidate in African & African American Studies at Harvard University. In residence as a Dorothy Porter & Charles Harris Wesley Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Allibhai will be at work on the dissertation Belinda Sutton’s World: Slavery, Legal Activism, and Abolition in Revolutionary New England.
• David Augustine is a Hiphop Artist in New Orleans, Louisiana. In residence as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Augustine will be at work on the album Hip Hop Saved My Life – Examining Hip Hop as a Teaching Tool Inside the Black Community.
• Rhae Lynn Barnes is Assistant Professor of American Cultural History at Princeton University. In residence as a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Barnes will be at work on the book Darkology: When the American Dream Wore Blackface, about amateur blackface in the U.S., and Fugitive Sounds, a digital database of the descriptions of voices and music of enslaved and self-emancipated Americans recorded for use by blackface performers.
• Celeste-Marie Bernier is Professor in American Cultural History and Atlantic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. In residence as a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow for the Spring 2023 semester, Bernier will be at work on the book “Why not we endure hardship that our race may be free? The Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass Family Papers and Douglass Family Lives: The Biography.
• David Bindman is the Emeritus Durning-LawrenceProfessor of the History of Art at University College London. In residence as the Image of the Black Archive & Library Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Bindman will be at work on the volumes The Image of the Black in Latin America and Caribbean Art and The Image of the European in African Art.
• Kimberly Juanita Brown is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. In residence as the Richard D. Cohen Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Brown will be at work on Black Elegies, a book-length study of artistic representations of Black grief within and beyond the genre of poetry.
• Panashe Chigumadzi is a Doctoral Candidate in African & African American Studies at Harvard University. In residence as a Dorothy Porter & Charles Harris Wesley Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Chigumadzi will be at work on the dissertation The Israelites and the Ethiopians: Dylann Roof, the AME Church and the Transatlantic Apartheid.
• John J. Clegg is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Economic History at Lund University. In residence as a Hutchins Family Fellow for the Fall 2022 semester, Clegg will be at work on the book From Plantation to Prison, co-authored with Adaner Usmani, which situates American mass incarceration in comparative and historical contexts.
• Jorge Delgadillo Núñez is a Chancellor’s Advance Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. In residence as a SlaveVoyages Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Delgadillo will contribute information on the slave market of colonial Guadalajara to the Slave Voyages Database and be at work on a study of the internal slave trade in the Spanish Empire.
• Jim Downs is the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Era Studies and History at Gettysburg College. In residence as a Shelia Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Downs will be at work on a history of the field of public health and the 1866 cholera epidemic, Deadly Water: A New Origin of Story of Public Health.
• Reighan Gillam is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern California. In residence as a Mark Claster Mamolen Fellow for the Fall 2022 semester, Gillam will be at work on the book Diasporic Agency: Transnational Racial Leverage and Challenges to Exceptionalism which examines Afro-Brazilian engagement with African American culture, performance, and community.
• Mandy Izadi is a Broadbent Junior Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute & St. Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford. In residence as a Hutchins Family Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Izadi will be at work on the book Born of War: Seminoles and the Making of America, a transnational history of the Seminoles from the mid-18th century to the 21st century.
• Nancy Jacobs is Professor of History at Brown University. In residence as a Hutchins Family Fellow for the Spring 2023 semester, Jacobs will be at work on The Global Grey Parrot, a book-length study at the nexus of African, environmental, economic, and Animal-Human histories.
• Rashauna R. Johnson is Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago. In residence as a Hutchins Family Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Johnson will be at work on the book Strange Roots: Black Intimacies in the Global Plantation South, which weaves together family and regional stories to reveal a history of global assemblage in the rural plantation South.
• Stevie Johnson is a Hiphop artist and scholar. In residence as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow for the Spring 2023 semester, Johnson will be at work on Little Africa on Fire, Still, a scholarly and personal study which situates the album Fire in Little Africa as an intervention in post-Civil Rights Black identity and discourse around the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
• Tamary Kudita is a fine art photographer. In residence as a J. M. D. Manyika Fellow for Spring 2023, Kudita will be at work on the project Locating the Self Within the Black Photographic Archive Whilst Mapping the Postcolonial Terrain Across Different Geographies.
• Shirley Moody-Turner is Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, Penn State University. In residence as a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow for the Spring 2023 semester, Moody-Turner will be at work on the book “Courageous Revolt”: Anna Julia Cooper, An Interpretive Biography.
• Jeffrey Murray is Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Cape Town. In residence as a Mandela Fellow for the Fall 2022 semester, Murray will be at work on a history of classical scholarship and education in Natal, Classics in Natal, 1843-2000.
• Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer, editor, and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at University West London, Brentford. In residence as a Hutchins Family Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Parkes will be at work on a new approach to African and Diaspora studies called The Remainder Project. His primary output will be a collection of poems entitled s(ang'st)ill.
• Antonia Gabriela Pereira is a Coordinator at "Biblioteca e Centro Cultural Preto Casa Futuro," Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In residence as a Mark Claster Mamolen Fellow for the Spring 2023 semester, Pereira will be at work on the book Being Strong in Black Diaspora: Black Women's Bodies, Racial Violence, and Community Activism of Black Fighter Boxer Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Faith Smith is Associate Professor of African and African American Studies, and English, Brandeis University. In residence as a Hutchins Family Fellow for the Fall 2022 semester, Smith will be at work on DreadKin, a book-length study of literary and visual cultures that map belonging and justice in the context of the Caribbean’s complex experiences with sovereignty in the global present.
• K’Naan Warsame is a poet, writer, and musician. In residence as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Warsame will be at work on the musical The Storyteller and the novel Frog Legs.
• Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is Associate Provost and North Star Distinguished Professor at Case Western Reserve University. In residence as a W. E. B. Du Bois Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year, Zeleza will be at work on the book The Long Transition to the 21st Century: A Global History of the Present and the memoir Navigating the Ivory Tower: A Transatlantic Memoir.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced more than $3 million in grants to eight organizations for a new initiative to demonstrate policy effectiveness to promote Black youth mental health (BYMH). This three-year initiative will help identify health and wellness policies that are successful in improving BYMH, including suicide prevention.
“Over the past decade, Black children under age 13 years are twice as likely to die by suicide compared to their White peers,” said RDML Felicia Collins, M.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health. “With this new initiative, we intend to identify specific policies that exhibit a meaningful impact on mental health for Black youth and to spread the word about these effective policy efforts.”
Awardees are expected to use a policy assessment framework to identify existing policies that they expect to promote mental health in Black youth. Awardees subsequently will test the impact of these policies on Black youth mental health in varied settings, such as schools, faith-based organizations, community centers, health centers, or other community agency settings.
In October 2020, HHS released a report to Congress on African American Youth Suicide. The report analyzed National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) data between 2014–2017, to examine the risk and precipitating factors in non-Hispanic Black children and non-Hispanic White children aged 10 to 17, who died by suicide. The report also examined youth suicide demographics and epidemiology, risk factors associated with higher suicide rates among Black compared to White youth, and evidence-based interventions to prevent youth suicide ideation and behavior.
The eight new BYMH awardees will conduct their projects across eight states, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, and Rhode Island. The project period for the Demonstrating Policy Effectiveness to Promote Black Youth Mental Health initiative begins on September 30, 2022.
The awardees are:
| Award Recipient | Award Amount |
|---|---|
| The Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board for Montgomery County | $400,000 |
| The Amelia Ann Adams Whole Life Center | $350,201 |
| Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona | $350,000 |
| Board of Regents, Nevada System of Higher Education, on behalf of The University of Nevada, Reno | $350,000 |
| Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies | $400,000 |
| Minnesota Department of Health | $400,000 |
| Morehouse School of Medicine, Inc. | $399,799 |
| Rhode Island Department of Health | $350,000 |
| Total: | $3,000,000 |
For more information about OMH, visit www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov.
The HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities. Through its demonstration projects, OMH supports the identification of effective approaches for improving health outcomes with the goal of promoting the dissemination and sustainability of these approaches.
By George L. Cook III African American Reports
The Woman King starring Viola Davis opens this Friday and is expected to open #1 at the box office, but only with a $15 million opening per Variety.
That is simply not good enough if we wish to see different African American or Black stories told on the big screen. Black people, we need to show up at the theater this weekend and support this movie!
I read all the time on social media how many in the Black community love Viola Davis. I read how great of an actor many believe she is. I read how everyone is proud and supports her work to support women and Black people in the entertainment industry.
I read how many African Americans are tired of comedies and "gangsta" movies featuring a majority Black cast. I read how you want to see different stories featuring Black people! I read how you would love to support different and something that was a quality motion picture.
If all of that is true then those same people who love Viola Davis on social media should show up to the movie theater this weekend and help The Woman King gross over $25 million.
Don't just show up because the cast is majority Black (although if that's your reason I ain't mad at you), show up because the reviews are excellent and The woman King currently holds a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Go see it because many reviews say that it's a rousing action adventure.
Most importantly go see it if you truly want to see different Black stories told!
Support The Woman King!
Coco Gauff reached the quarter-finals of the US Open for the first time on Sunday with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over China's Zhang Shuai.
The 18-year-old 12th seed from Atlanta advanced to a last eight meeting with France's Caroline Garcia after prevailing in 1hr 57minutes.
Prior to this season, Gauff had never gone further than the third round at the US Open.
In the last eight she will face one of the most in-form players in the draw in 28-year-old Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia.
Coco ➡️ #USOpen Quarterfinals pic.twitter.com/dt79TzYLSI
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2022
BRONX NY - Nala Diop Thomas is missing.
It was reported to police that the missing was last seen on Saturday, August 13, 2022, at approximately 1100 hours, leaving her residence.
The missing is described as a 15-year-old female, Black, approximately 5’05” tall, weighing 120 lbs., with dark skin complexion, brown eyes and black hair.
She was last seen wearing a black shirt, black shorts and a black hat.
Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to call the NYPD‘s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1–800–577–TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1–888–57–PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers‘ website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
A museum dedicated to the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson opened in New York City on Tuesday. Located at 75 Varick Street in Hudson Square, the 19,380-square-foot Jackie Robinson Museum celebrates both Robinson’s baseball achievements, as well as his role in the civil rights movement, and encourages a conversation about race and social issues.
Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group is buying the Black News Channel, with plans to revive the bankrupt cable news outlet and significantly grow its distribution footprint.
Allen’s company is acquiring “substantially all” of BNC’s assets for $11 million, with a bankruptcy court in Tallahassee, Florida, formally signing off on the sale.
Allen says that his company “will deliver a best-in-class network to serve the underserved African American community and the advertisers who want to reach this extremely valuable audience.
“Also, we appreciate the opportunity to provide cable operators, satellite companies, telcos and digital platforms diversity of ownership, voices and viewpoints on their programming lineups by having a 100 percent African-American-owned network,” he added.
Allen says that his company “will deliver a best-in-class network to serve the underserved African American community and the advertisers who want to reach this extremely valuable audience.
“Also, we appreciate the opportunity to provide cable operators, satellite companies, telcos and digital platforms diversity of ownership, voices and viewpoints on their programming lineups by having a 100 percent African-American-owned network,” he added.
First, she made news when she was admitted to Arizona State University at just 12 Years old! But now at the age of 13 Alena Analeigh has been accepted to medical school at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Civil Rights icon, educator, author, philanthropist, humanitarian and women's rights activist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune will be honored Wednesday when a statue of her likeness is unveiled at Statuary Hall. Her statue will represent her home state of Florida.
The statue of Dr. Bethune marks the first time in U.S. history that an African American will represent a state in the Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
The Young & the Restless star Mishael Morgan became the first Black artist to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the Best Lead Actress category in Pasadena Friday night.
"I was born on a tiny island in the Caribbean, and I'm now standing on an international stage and I am being honored regardless of the color of my skin, regardless of my passport, for being the best at what I do," Morgan said as she accepted her statuette.
"Now there are little girls around the world and no matter what the industry, the vocation ... they can strive to be the best."
The actress also thanked viewers for their support since she joined the soap opera in 2013.
,p>"I am so immensely proud of our generation," she said. "We are breaking glass ceilings left right and center and I am so honored to be a vessel and to experience this moment. Everybody out there today, we can do this thing called equality and unity together."
At 95 years old, Opal Lee is showing no sign of stopping. Her life's story — including her famous trek from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to call on lawmakers to make Juneteenth a national holiday — has since become legendary, earning her the name "Grandmother of Juneteenth.". Watch her discuss her work yo make Juneteenth a national holiday.
Since the first person climbed Everest in 1953, there have been 6,000 successful summits. Of those summits. Only 8 Black climbers have reached the top.
A seven-member all Black Everest expedition team summited the world’s highest mountain on Thursday and made history in the process.
Known as “Full Circle Everest,” the team is the first-ever all-Black team to make it to the top of Mount Everest. And by successfully getting seven people up the mountain -- no small feat for any team -- Full Circle nearly doubled the number of Black climbers to summit Everest.
Among the summit party were Manoah Ainuu of Bozeman, Montana; Kenyan climber James Kagambi; Rosemary Saal of Seattle; Desmond “Dom” Mullins of New York City; Abby Dione of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Eddie Taylor of Boulder, Colorado; and Thomas Moore of Denver.
Penn State will observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Juneteenth National Independence Day as official University holidays beginning in 2023, the University announced today (May 6).
“Making these two significant days official University holidays is part of our continuing efforts to align Penn State’s policies with our values in diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Penn State President Eric J. Barron. “Having these recognized as official University holidays will provide students, faculty and staff the opportunity to observe and honor these holidays in their own unique manner.”
For a number of years, Penn State has observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day by canceling academic instruction to allow students and faculty to participate in service activities, observances and festivities. The holiday recognizes the birthday, life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and is celebrated on the third Monday of January.
Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19 and is sometimes called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, recognizes the end of slavery in the United States and commemorates the freeing of 250,000 African American slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865. The holiday has been celebrated in the African American community since 1866. It was officially made a federal holiday in 2021 and became an official Pennsylvania holiday on June 19, 2019.
“These are important holidays for all of us to reflect on Black experiences in American history and celebrate the progress that has been made and those who have made that progress possible,” said Marcus Whitehurst, vice provost for Educational Equity. “We still have work to do, and I hope that by celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth in the Penn State community we can continue to work together to advance the ideas that they commemorate.”
The updated policy will give Penn State students faculty and staff the day off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, and will not impact other University holidays or breaks.
Recognizing that many Hampton University students and their families have continued to experience financial hardships and have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. William R. Harvey, Hampton University President, has announced there will be no increase in tuition, fees, room and board for the 2022-2023 academic year. In addition, all outstanding student account balances for the Spring 2022 semester will be erased.
“In keeping with the University’s efforts to help our students, there will be no increase in tuition, fees, room and board for the 2022-2023 academic year,” said Dr Harvey. “In addition, on behalf of the University, I am pleased to announce that all outstanding balances for the Spring 2022 semester will be erased. We hope that this action will continue to assist our students and their families at our Home by the Sea.”
This is the latest example of Hampton University assisting its student body financially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualified students received distributions under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund and those who had an outstanding balance at the completion of the Spring 2021 semester had their balances paid off. The University also issued a $200.00 book scholarship to all enrolled students for the Spring 2022 semester. In April of 2020, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey made a $100,000 matching donation of their own money to a $100,000 gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to provide each on-campus student $100 to assist with travel costs to retrieve their belongings from campus or to return to school in the fall. In May, Hampton University provided each graduate in the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2021, who had a federal student loan, the sum of $500 toward repayment of that loan. These payments were sent directly to the U.S. Department of Education loan servicer that was the holder of the student loan. Those students who did not have student loans were reimbursed their graduation fee of $150.
By George L. Cook III African American Reports.
Last week we saw the historical confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court.
She was confirmed by a 53-47 vote with only three Republicans supporting her. Those three were Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah.
Many African Americans were disappointed but not surprised that Tim Scott, the junior Senator from South Carolina chose not to support this historic nominee.
Now, let's be clear Tim Scott has the right to vote however he wants, and it's obvious by the lame excuses he gave for not supporting Jackson that he also has one hell of an imagination. That or he attends the alleged drug-fueled orgies that Madison Cawthorne was talking about and that has affected his better judgment.
But, to me not supporting Jackson is not where he failed her. He failed her by not speaking up for her as a person and as a Black woman.
After Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, and Marsha Blackburn showed blatant disrespect during the confirmation hearings he said nothing afterward.
Scott could have spoken up by publicly saying that although he was ideologically opposed to Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation, she deserves respect and that his fellow Republican senators were wrong in their treatment of her.
Scott has a mother and I'm assuming aunts, cousins, and nieces that are also Black. He wouldn't want anyone treating them as Jackson was treated. He should have thought of those Black women in his life and spoke up not as a senator but as a Black man.
In my opinion, nothing but cowardice and ambition stopped him from speaking up.
Scott has gone on Fox News lamenting how he was treated by the left after not supporting Jackson. He should stop whining and think about how Jackson felt after being attacked for hours during those hearings.
During that time she showed more grace, bravery, integrity, and calm under fire than Scott ever will.
Sadly, Senator Tim Scott has forgotten where he came from, but we won't forget what he has shown himself to be.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is proud to present the next page from Our American Story, an online series for Museum supporters. We offer these stories to honor and celebrate the African American experience, share an immensely rich history and culture, and inspire and sustain our community as we move toward the future together.
The Second Great Awakening, an early 19th-century religious revival in the United States, marked an era of transformation for America and a new path forward for Jarena Lee. Born into a free Black family in Cape May, New Jersey, in 1783, Lee navigated the intense religiosity and social reformation of her time to emerge as the nation’s first African American woman preacher and the first woman to be recognized as an evangelist in the male-dominated African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
Lee’s journey to Christianity began when she moved to Philadelphia as a young adult in 1807. Like many Americans of her time, Lee struggled with changing cultural beliefs on human nature, morality, and the path to salvation. In search of answers, she sought out a personal connection to the gospel and heard the teachings of Bishop Richard Allen, a renowned preacher in Philadelphia. Inspired by his powerful sermons, Lee decided to join the church and get baptized.
But Lee’s journey of faith would be difficult. Lee struggled to find a place for herself and her passion for the gospel within the male-dominated church—a battle that brought on depression and even thoughts of suicide. She also wrestled with the inherent conflict between her spirituality and a desire for “the vanities of this life.”
Despite these challenges, Lee remained determined to go beyond the church and share her faith in Christ with the world, a conviction that she carried back to New Jersey, where she moved with her new husband, Methodist Pastor Joseph Lee, in 1811. While in New Jersey, Lee was able to serve in an African Methodist congregation and nurture her faith—but she still couldn’t practice what she believed was her true calling: preaching.
Seven years into her marriage, Lee became a widow. The grief that followed her husband’s death only strengthened Lee’s conviction to “preach the word of God.” She returned to Philadelphia soon after, determined to advocate for women in the ministry.
Bishop Allen, who by then had founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, initially refused to grant Lee permission to preach because of the church’s ban on female ministers. But Lee, driven by the intensity of her faith, began delivering sermons wherever she could—in open fields, town squares, and her home.
One day, while attending a Sunday worship service at Bishop Allen’s church, Lee heard a guest preacher struggle with the delivery of his sermon. She sprang into action, picking up where he left off, and presented her own testimony. Bishop Allen was so impressed by Lee’s preaching and boldness that he publicly endorsed her. She was soon permitted to preach, and later became the first ordained woman preacher in the AME Church.
Lee’s evangelical career spanned multiple decades and intersected with her advocacy for equal rights and powerful leadership in the abolitionist movement. Lee also was the first African American woman to publish an autobiographical memoir, The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Colored Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel, which was first released in 1836.
“For as unseemly as it may appear now-a-days for a woman to preach,” Lee wrote, “it should be remembered that nothing is impossible with God. And why should it be thought impossible . . . or improper for a woman to preach?”
The relentless persistence of Jarena Lee, who died in 1864, helped break down barriers and pave the way for African American women to enter the ministry. Her achievements were especially remarkable, given that they occurred during a time when women’s contributions were often overlooked, ignored, or forgotten.
Like so many pioneers of her time, Lee’s story is one of resiliency, optimism, and spirituality—values that are deeply rooted throughout African American history and culture. Although Jarena Lee’s history is not widely known, her legacy as the first African American woman preacher represents an important example of women defying social barriers, transcending traditional gender roles, and touching the hearts, minds, and souls of many.
If you’d like to learn more about Jarena Lee’s incredible journey—or if you are interested in exploring other powerful but lesser-known stories in African American history—please visit our online Searchable Museum today. This groundbreaking—and 2022 CIO Award-winning—initiative by the Museum brings innovative, immersive digital experiences and evocative content directly into the homes of supporters like you.
The Museum’s exhibitions and digital collections help connect individuals with a deeper understanding of the African American story by sharing the lives of pioneers like Jarena Lee. Please help the Museum continue this critical work by joining the Museum or making a donation today.
To learn more about Jarena Lee and other influential figures in African American history, please visit our Searchable Museum.
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| Rep. Yusuf Hakeem |
As lawmakers take action to thwart Critical Race Theory teaching, a local Representative is touting his bill to highlight Black History in Tennessee.
The bill has passed the State House of Representatives, easily with bipartisan support.
Rep. Yusuf Hakeem says it would require the State Board of Education to come up with a course of instruction for 5th through 8th grades on Black history and Black culture.
And it would include multicultural diversity curricula for K-12.
He says it could include profiles of such figures as Samson Keeble, the first African-American legislator in Tennessee and Judge Bernice Donald, the first female African-American judge in the state.
“HB 2106 shows what can happen when we look beyond politics and embrace what is in the best interests of the children. We as a Legislative body demonstrated that working together works.”
The bill now goes to the Tennessee Senate.
