BAVUAL The African Heritage Magazine Spring 2023

ROMANCE ISSUE

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

BAVUAL ®

BLACK LOVE

RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH TIME

BLACK AND LATINO

A Melding of Two Cultures

THE PLAY'S THE THING Black Experience Defined in the Theater

AN ELEGANT STAY

The Top 10 Black-Owned Hotels in the World

WHERE WE WORK 21st Century Jobs

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THE ABORTION DEBATE Pro and Con

IN THIS ISSUE

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7

MY TAKE Love, Marriage, Then Family

THE DRIFT Does America Need a Black Political Party?

20

Should Abortion Be Abolished?

30

Update on Stories in the Spring 2022 Issue

BLACK LOVE (COVER) Relationships Through Time

ONE YEAR LATER 9

PRO AND CON

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THE CULTURE 5 Iconic Plays Depict the Black Experience

FAMOUS SPRINGS 10

The landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, 1954

DESTINATIONS 60

Top 10 Black-Owned Hotels in the U.S. and the World

70

AFRICAN FACES OF THE WORLD

TRUE GRIT 14

16

Social Justice Warriors Justin Jones and Justin Pearson

THE TIMES

Black and Latino: A Melding of Two Cultures

Forbidden Fruit: What's Behind Florida's Attempt to Erase Black History?

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IN THIS ISSUE

BAVUAL MEETS 77

He Flies With the Tuskegee Airmen to Thwart a Nazi Victory

JOCKS 80

Star Athlete Inc.: Player-Moguls Go for the Gold; Super Bowl Quarterbacks

NEXT ISSUE

AMERICA IN 2033: THE UTOPIAN VIEW

THE HUSTLE 86

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Bank on Black: Black-Owned Financial Institutions Vie for Your Savings

JUST THE FACTS Black Employment in America: What They Do, How Much They Make

roll of honor Flowers in Spring

98

benediction Why People Hated - and Loved Kevin Samuels

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BAVUAL

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

Bavual Vol. 2 Issue 2 Spring 2023

Editorial Earl A. Birkett Editor Rick D. Bowers Deputy Editor Stephen G. Hall, PhD, Special Editor Associate Editors Kristen Jones Lorraine Jones Design & Illustrations Debasish Sarma Editorial Advisor Myeshia C. Babers, PhD

BAVUAL: Swahili for "power, strength, force"

Marketing Multitrends International earl.a.birkett@gmail.com

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New York, NY 10004 Phone: (212) 419-5831 Email: eab@bavual.com

Published Quarterly by Birkett Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Earl A. Birkett President Contents copyright © 2023 Birkett Communications, Inc.

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MY TAKE

Earl A. Birkett

LOVE, MARRIAGE, THEN FAMILY When it comes to family, I am a great believer in tradition, and for one overwhelming reason: Family is the cornerstone of civilization. Every race, every culture, every religion that I have studied seems to agree with me.

As this is a truism, it also stands to reason that marriage is the surest route to familial strength. It binds spouses to each other and provides an example of strength, stability and, hopefully, love and commitment to their children.

Although I am a lifelong bachelor with no children, I have personally benefitted from the love and support that a devoted mother and father can give. Earl and Queenie Birkett gave me and my siblings all of the advantages available to pursue my dreams. Having themselves been denied the advantages given to other children due to their race and lack of money, they felt it important not to deny it to their own progeny.

As a result of my personal experience, I believe in the tradition of family. I believe that when a couple find compatibility and love, they should get married, after which they should proceed to have and raise children in a household that is nurturing and full of love. This does wonders to a child's self-esteem and attitude toward others, for when it is grown, it will most likely take the example of its parents and replicate it with its own spouse and children, thereby forming the building blocks of a civilized and progressive society.

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THE BIRKETT FAMILY IN 1992 (LEFT TO RIGHT): EARL, SISTERS ERLANDA AND GLORIA, MOTHER QUEENIE, FATHER EARL, NEPHEW CLIFFTON

Do we have such a society in 2023? For the most part, yes. Most people are decent and want the best for their spouse, their children and the social fabric as a whole. Others, sadly, do not. It is to these people, thankfully still a minority, that I address my commentary.

Please be mindful that whatever you do in front of your children, they will see it, soak it up like a sponge, likely take it as gospel, and seek to imitate it because "Mom and Dad are never wrong." Unfortunately, at times, Mom and Dad are wrong, and the result is a society that is meaner, more ignorant, more unjust, and ultimately regressive.

As the 21st century progresses, the human race as a whole yearns to advance and not repeat the mistakes of the past. To do so requires a foundation with the nuclear family, but with love and understanding.

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THE DRIFT

DOES AMERICA NEED A BLACK POLITICAL PARTY? Let me start off by stating the obvious: A third political party, much less one greared toward the concerns of African Americans, cannot win a presidential election. But that is not necessarily the point.

Really since the birth of political parties around 1800, only two parties have had a shot at the White House. The names have changed over time, but it is still basically a contest between the Democrats and the Republicans.

For most of its existence, elections in the U.S. have been held primarily for the benefit of one extremely privileged group: white male land owners. Gradually, over many years, elections have been reformulated to benefit the rest of us: ex-slaves, immigrants, women, the young, the powerless and the disadvantaged. In every instance, the franchise has been widened by exerting force outside the two-party system, especially by third parties not driven by the thirst for power and patronage.

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It has been said that the Republican Party is America's only successful third party (it took over factions of the dying Whig Party), but even if true, it quickly embedded itself as the only competition to the Democratic Party, where, like the Democrats, it has remained through generational loyalty and the structure of electoral laws. Why then should a third - a black political party - be formed? Because it is needed.

After more than four centuries, black Americans remain behind the eight ball, often dramatically so, in all key indicators: wealth, education, employment, equal justice, housing, social acceptance and respect. They have been asked to wait to achieve these gains, and when they are unmet, they have been forced to fight for a mere fraction at great physical peril and emotional stress. To be clear, the two-party system has produced some gains: the end of slavery; granting of full citizenship to blacks; and opportunities to buy land, enter

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professions, marry whomever they want, live in neighborhoods, join clubs and attend schools that were previously off limits to them. Still, the data indicates that it is not enough and that more needs to be done.

Both the Republicans and the Democrats have been forced to change and embrace the needs and desires of a wider circle of people by outside movements, especially third parties. The People's Party (also known as the Populist Party) laid the groundwork for farmers under FDR's New Deal, as did many of the reform policies of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive "Bull Moose" Party, Robert M. La Follette's Progressive Party, and even Norman Thomas' Socialist Party. The modern-day Republican Party appears to have been influenced by the racist elements of past third parties - the Dixiecrat Party in 1948, George Wallace's American Independent Party in 1968 - and the antiWashington populism of Ross Perot's Reform Party in 1992 and 1996.

Black political parties have been barely a blip on the screen in American history; the last one with any affect was probably the Black Panther Party, which lasted 16 years, from 1966 to 1982. Evidence suggests that the pressing needs of blacks for better schools, a livable wage, home ownership, reparations for slavery and segregation, an equal justice system, an end to gun violence, and access to capital and markets can only be addressed with their own political party, which, when allied with other long-neglected voting blocs, can bring pressure to bear on both Democrats and Republicans to be more inclusive of their agenda.

Will such a party be ready for 2024?

Probably not, but the time to lay out a program and organize - and find suitable candidates - for 2028 is now.

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WE NEED YOU AN APPEAL After more than one year of publication, BAVUAL has garnered a loyal and growing following of readers thirsting for relevant knowledge of our world from the Afrocentric perspective. Now, to help us grow, we need your help. We have launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep publishing and fund our circulation drive. Please visit our page and donate what you can to help us in our mission to educate and to edify. We are doing this for you.

ENTER TITLE AT GOFUNDME.COM: RAISE SEED CAPITAL FOR AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

BAVUAL THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

UPDATE

ONE YEAR LATER The Follow-Up to Articles That Appeared in BAVUAL's Spring 2022 Issue "MY TAKE": FOR MOM AT 99 Queenie Birkett, that remarkable black woman who chose to raise a great family over her own wants, passed away in February, three months before her 100th birthday. Among her many accomplishments, she leaves a son who founded BAVUAL. "THE DRIFT": THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH With inflation at one point at its highest in 40 years, African Americans, always the first to feel the brunt of an economic downturn, remarkably saw their unemployment rate fall to a record low 5 percent.

Alas, the rent is still too damn high and has led to a homelessness epidemic, especially in California.

"THE NEXT 10 YEARS": THE DECADE OF THE AFRICAN QUEEN One of our profile designees, Stacey Abrams, lost her race for governor of Georgia, but she is not out of the political game. This loss was balanced in part with Ketanji Brown Jackson's ascension to the U.S. Supreme Court, though Republican senators did their best to stop her. Societal progress for black women remains slow but steady.

"PRO AND CON": IS "WOKENESS" HELPING OR HURTING? The cultural phenomenon called "woke" has spread like wildfire since we first published this debate - and all for the wrong reasons. What is basically the Golden Rule - treat all people as you would treat yourself - has become a rallying cry for MAGA Republicans to let their bigoted freak fly. The disgusting vitriol appears directed at women and ethnic and racial minorities, especially at the LQBTQ+ community. Denial of abortion as health treatment, book bans, persecuted teachers, and other petty harassment in red states is the order of the day.

There appears to be no let-up, and, in fact, expect the awfulness to increase as the 2024 election approaches.

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The Spring Issue, our first special issue devoted to the decade of the 2020s and its emphasis on the rise of the African woman, was also our first 100-pager and the first to carry a commercial ad, from Generac Power Systems. Our cover featured the artwork of the talented artist, Angie Braun.

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FAMOUS SPRINGS

Where Past Is Present

SCHOOL SEGREGATION ENDS, 1954

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Propels a Movement and Launches a Legal Legend As Civil Rights leader Malcolm X said, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” But it’s not only “any old education” that’s needed for success but rather highquality education. For this reason, the movement to desegregate schools and provide all students fair access to a good education was a multi-decade effort to reform public school systems throughout the United States.

This movement found perhaps its greatest success in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v.

Board of Education of Topeka, which ruled that separating students by race was unconstitutional. The unanimous decision said that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.

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By Kristen Jones

"In the field of public education," Chief Justice Earl Warren said, "the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, the Court said that school segregation deprived black students of "the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."

The decision partially overruled the Supreme Court's 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which said that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that had come to be known as "separate but equal."

The Brown case paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the Civil Rights Movement and a

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model for many future cases.

Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the U.S., it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement into a full revolution.

History of the Brown Case In 1950, third-grade student Linda Brown was denied admission to a modern elementary school just blocks from her home in Topeka, Kansas. Under the laws of segregation, Linda was forced to walk six blocks to catch a school bus to a black school when there was a white school within only seven blocks. Along with several other families in Topeka, Linda's family joined forces with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to file suit against the school district.

When the Topeka case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, it was combined with four other NAACP cases from Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina and Washington, D.C., to be collectively known as Brown v.

Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall, the lead attorney for the NAACP, argued before the court that separate schools for whites and blacks were inherently unequal because of the psychological damage they imposed on blacks. His victory set in motion events that led to his ascendancy as the first black Supreme Court associate justice in 1967.

Busing for Integration Even though the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many American schools continued to remain largely uniracial due to housing inequality.

In an effort to address the ongoing de facto segregation in schools, the 1971 Supreme SPRING 2023

Court decision, Swann v.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ruled that the federal courts could use busing as a further integration tool to achieve racial balance.

Forced busing was opposed by many citizens, both black and white, however. Some argued that the children were being bused to unsafe neighborhoods and that it would harm their education. It also caused children to spend more time in transit to and from school, which many argued gave them less time for homework and studying. Additionally, they argued, longer distances between students’ homes and schools would make it more difficult for them to be involved in extracurricular activities and could reduce parents’ involvement. Moreover, they worried about the need for more buses for longer trips and its financial impact.

THE VICTORS: (FROM LEFT): GEORGE E. C. HAYES, CHIEF COUNSEL THURGOOD MARSHALL, AND JAMES M . NABRIT BELOW: THE INFAMOUS DOLL TEST THAT PROVED THE HARM Of school segregation

The policy led to what has come to be known as “white flight,” whereby large numbers of whites, especially middle- and upper-class white families, moved to suburbs of large cities.

Moreover, many whites who stayed moved their children to parochial or private schools.

Taken together, these effects made many urban school districts predominantly nonwhite, reducing the effectiveness of the policy.

By the early 1990s, changing housing patterns had led to a decline in mandatory busing.

However, a few school districts were still busing under court orders.

The policy’s impact is still controversial. While opponents believe that it was not effective at changing the racial makeup in most school districts, others say that it was necessary to bring about greater integration.

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Beyond Brown and Busing It has been more than half a century since the decision to integrate public schools and the policy of busing was first implemented. Although we've made major strides racially and educationally since that time, there is much more progress to be made.

Many people think Brown v. Board of Education was just about black children being able to sit next to white children, but there was something deeper to it. It was also about black children having the same access and opportunities that white children have. Unfortunately, this goal has not been fully achieved even today.

Based on microdata from the National Center for Education Statistics’ National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Economic Policy Institute noted the following points in a 2020 article:

● Black children are five times as

likely as white children to attend schools that are highly segregated by race and ethnicity.

Black children are more than twice as likely as white children to attend high-poverty schools.

Black children are highly likely to be in high-poverty schools with a high share of students of color, but white children are not.

Performance of black students suffers when these students attend high-poverty schools with high shares of students of color.

● ● ●

The Doll Studies Nearly 80 years ago, in the 1940s, Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted experiments to study how segregation affected black children. To determine the racial perceptions of 3- to 7-year-old children, they used four dolls that were identical except for their color. Asked to identify the race of the dolls and which doll they preferred, a majority of the children chose the white doll, viewing it more positively. The two psychologists concluded from these “doll tests” that “prejudice, BAVUAL 12

discrimination and segregation” damaged black children’s selfesteem and led to a feeling of inferiority.

The Supreme Court agreed in its 1954 Brown decision. “To separate them [black students] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race,” the Court said, “generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”

Unfortunately, nearly eight decades later, segregation remains a fact of life in much of the U.S. Regardless of the level black people may reach in the nation, we may always have to contend with sharp reminders of our lower status in the view of many of our fellow citizens.

What Now? In the current environment around the country, the nation, states, districts and schools all have a role to play in supporting their black students. Oftentimes parents don’t receive enough communication about how their children are doing in school. While many black parents want to be involved, they sometimes need help taking that step. It's important to acknowledge that many of the problems and barriers that arise for black students are systemic. Therefore, those at all levels of authority must not shy away from the hard work of changing policies and the way resources are distributed to ensure that the rights of minorities are not stolen.

Two of biggest challenges many schools face at this time are increased calls for more parental control over what students learn and bans on teaching specific topics. The last few years have seen an increase in parents’ rights groups that advocate for more parental control over classes and libraries.

These groups, many born out of conservative politics, have been leading the calls for banning certain topics and books. In states with

majority-Republican lawmakers, there has been more scrutiny over curriculum materials that some conservatives deem as teaching “critical race theory” and a push to ban certain books that deal with racism.

These policies are already affecting the way teachers talk about these topics with their students.

Disparities in early education have existed in the United States since before its inception. Many black children were barred from classrooms by pre-Civil War laws, and afterwards, “separate but equal” policies legally segregated the public education system.

Today, such factors as white flight, housing discrimination, biases in standardized testing, selective referrals, and funding disparities among school districts prevent equitable access for many black students to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education, inclusion in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and selections for gifted and talented programs. This causes feelings of isolation among black students, who begin to question their value and belonging in STEM. Many enter college at historically white institutions, where elitist/exclusionary cultures further dim their views on science, leading to high attrition rates in STEM. Many recent successful efforts in advancing quality education for back youth have been black-led or integrated black voices within their leadership. Focusing on K-12 education emphasizes its importance on later career development for black men and women. There seems to be a direct correlation between the lack of education black students receive and their success rates in certain careers.

This education gap must be addressed so that this negative cycle won’t continue for future generations of black men and women.

Until then, the struggle continues. In fact, new court cases and other challenges might be just around the corner.

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TRUE GRIT

HOW DO YOU WIN BY LOSING? JUST ASK THE TWO JUSTINS

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD

The two Justins of Tennessee—Justin Pearson and Justin Jones—have been taking the social justice, civil rights, and various other state and national communities by storm over the last few months.

Pearson and Jones, two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives, garnered state and national headlines after protesting their state legislature’s lack of action in response to a Nashville school shooting that was perpetrated on March 27—a protest for which the two black representatives were punished by their peers.

Calls for common-sense gun control measures are nothing new. Yet in our contemporary moment characterized by mass shootings, this issue has taken on a fierce urgency. Compounding this issue is the fierce backlash against Black Lives Matter (BLM) spawned by protests that erupted nationwide in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing, the Supreme Court’s severe curtailment of abortion rights, and opposition to transgender rights.

Crucial to understanding the actions of Reps.

Pearson and Jones and Gloria Johnson, a third representative involved in the protest, are the attempts by Republican legislators nationwide to BAVUAL 14

For the Badass Within

Ousted Tennessee State Reps. Justin Jones (left) and Justin Pearson (right)

curtail participatory democracy. Often in the majority, these Republican legislators have tirelessly championed restrictive policies on abortion, African American and women’s history, transgender rights, and protest. Challenges to these measures have been heated, but Democratic lawmakers are hopelessly outnumbered in their efforts to challenge what seems to be an autocratic majority devoted to a nationwide agenda of restrictive legislation aimed at minority groups.

This restrictive atmosphere and backlash politics played into the Republican legislators’ reluctance to allow the voices of protestors in the Tennessee legislature and attempts to silence them. Following a mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people, including three 9-yearold children, were killed by an armed shooter, protestors gathered in the well of the Tennessee legislature to protest the inaction of Tennessee Republican legislators on gun safety. Pearson, Jones and Johnson joined the protest, which lasted seven minutes, six of which occurred while the house was in recess.

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Seizing on the opportunity to silence these representatives, Republican legislators immediately introduced legislation to ban them from the chamber, arguing that their participation in a protest in the well of the chamber violated decorum and legislature rules. While Pearson and Jones were expelled from the legislature, Johnson, who is white, narrowly avoided a similar fate.

In a surprise for the Republicans, however, their expulsion of Pearson and Jones, rather than sidelining the two, led to a dramatic increase in visibility for them and their cause, as well as a wellspring of support. Both men were reinstated because their districts sent them back to the Statehouse. They have become representative of a newly invigorated political and social movement to protest the machinations of Republican legislators not only in Tennessee but throughout the nation.

MAKESHIFT MEMORIAL AT THE PRIVATE CHRISTIAN COVENANT SCHOOL IN NASHVILLE

STATE REP. GLORIA JOHNSON, WHO WAS SPARED OUSTER ALLEGEDLY FOR BEING WHITE

Pearson represents Memphis, and Jones represents Nashville. Both are in their 20s and arrived at the Statehouse this year. Pearson is a graduate of Bowdoin College, an elite liberal arts school in Maine, and Jones is a native of Oakland, California, and a graduate of Fisk University. Both were deeply influenced by the Trayvon Martin killing and the subsequent growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Both are also conversant in the politics of mass mobilization. Using scripture, the imagery of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and the indignation inspired by our current atmosphere, they have become the new prophets of nonviolent confrontation and the point of the spear in the effort to challenge the problematic behavior of Republican legislatures.

The two men have met with President Joe Biden, have been widely featured on news outlets nationwide, and are widely viewed as the new face of the Democratic Party. While some more conservative Democrats have been less than impressed with their approach, it is clear that bringing the tactics of mass protest and mobilization to bear on politics in this movement is proving transformative. It is reshaping the political landscape, galvanizing groups and constituencies to fight the power.

Ironically, the Republican legislator who led the charge against the Justins, Scotty Campbell, recently resigned from the legislature after a report that he violated the legislature’s workplace discrimination and harassment policy.

TENNESSEE STUDENTS AT THE STATE CAPITOL IN NASHVILLE PROTESTING FOR GUN SAFETY LAWS SPRING 2023

Meanwhile, the two Justins have reinvigorated the fight for social justice within the political system.

Their ability to harness the righteous indignation of countless protestors on gun rights, antiabortion legislation, and gender and LGBTA rights is providing a new playbook for elected officials.

Speaking truth to power is no longer a slogan or the sole purview of protestors in the streets; instead, it can, if harnessed effectively, become a powerful tool wielded by legislators in their ongoing fight to defeat repressive forces in statehouses across the country.

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THE TIMES

What's Going On in the News

FORBIDDEN FRUIT What's Behind Florida's Attempt to Erase Black History?

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD Since book bans and censorship are common components of authoritarian governments, we often associate them with the behavior of such regimes as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. However, they were also a component of Jim Crow America. During the Jim Crow era (c. 1896-1954), it was common for segregationists to ban books that challenged the status quo and promoted the equal treatment of African Americans. Today, however, book bans have taken on a particularly pernicious and problematic aura as they threaten the very foundation of our democracy.

The current round of book bans is an attempt to revisit America’s culture wars. But unlike in the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, today’s issues are more deeply politicized, and Republican leaders are enacting strict laws across the country that have essentially made reading certain books prohibited.

They are doing so with the belief that American culture consists of a normative set of books that supposedly support patriotism, traditional Christian BAVUAL

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values, and American family values. More important, added to this seemingly innocuous agenda is the fact that these individuals are hell-bent on promoting a conservative political agenda that favors Republican interests.

What accounts for this latest round of book bans?

What organizations and group are leading the charge? And why have these efforts gained so much support? The origins of recent book bans can be linked to the recent pandemic, the explosion of nationwide protests in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the nationwide backlash at the local and state levels against these developments. They can also be considered the tail end or cumulative result of the nation’s rightward turn during the Trump presidency (2017-2021).

Leading this new censorship and banning wave are parents, school boards, state legislatures and conservative action groups emboldened by SPRING 2023

Republican gains in state legislatures and a strident anti-black, anti-woman and anti-LGBT agenda. States, including Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Utah, have either passed or have legislation on the books to ban certain books. Some have termed this moment as the Ed Scare, which is a new take on the Red Scare—a historical and hysterical fear of Communist infiltration of all facets of the United States government. Interestingly, more than 70 percent of

GOV. RON DESANTIS IS BUILDING A 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN BY LAUNCHING A CULTURE WAR AGAINST THE STATE'S POWERLESS DESANTIS' ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS THE PROGRAM "LACKS EDUCATIONAL VALUE"

DESANTIS' ATTACK ON THE AP african AMERICAN STUDIES COURSE HAS INTIMidATED THE COLLEGE BOARD INTO WATERING DOWN THE CURRICULUM

BLACK HIGH SCHOOL HONOR STUDENTS PROTESTING FLORIDA'S BAN ON THE PILOT AP AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM SPRING 2023

parents nationwide oppose these bans, but a vocal minority has seized control of the bully pulpit and is highly organized and influential in making these changes.

This atmosphere has led to an explosive rise in book bans and censorship. According to PEN America, from July to December 2022, there were 1,477 cases of book banning, which was up from 1,149 in the previous six months. The organization began tracking this trend in 2021 and has documented more than 4,000 instances of book removals.

Interestingly, the banned books are mostly titles by African American authors. Some of the prominent authors who appear on the list include Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and contemporary writers such as Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Other prominent authors and books that have been banned include Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, Mike Curato’s Flamer, Ellen Hopkins’ Tricks, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

While book bans have become ubiquitous across the country, Florida is ground zero for this activity. It also provides the best example of the convergence of right-wing conservatism and activism. Led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has embarked on legislative measures designed to curtail LGBTA rights and has placed restrictions on what is acceptable to teach in Florida’s schools, colleges and universities. Most recently, he has banned the AP African American Studies course. He has also engineered the takeover of a local college, New College of Florida; replaced most of its board of trustees with state officials; and removed its president. DeSantis is determined to change the landscape of K-12 and higher education in the state.

Book banning and censorship is a dark road on which to embark. Stifling personal and academic freedom is a slippery slope. Not surprisingly, these efforts are being opposed. Just recently, on May 3, various groups sponsored a national teach-in designed to showcase banned books and promote academic freedom. Scholars, teachers and activists sponsored programs nationwide to challenge book banning and censorship and to raise their voices in dissent. They are also organizing to make many of the books on the banned lists more widely available to the public.

These efforts are promising and demonstrate that you cannot truly ban ideas. They have a way of bubbling up from under any ban or seal and often prove impossible to stamp out and eradicate.

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FLORIDA'S SHAME: A PARTIAL LIST OF BANNED BOOKS

Local School Boards Following in the Path of Nazis, Fascists and Segregationists

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PRO AND CON

Issues and Answers

SHOULD ABORTION BE ABOLISHED? Two Sides Debate When Life Begins and Female Autonomy

When does life begin, and who has the right to determine when that life begins? Those are the two pivotal questions that both sides of the abortion debate grapple with. Throughout history, the right to life has been protected for moral, ethical, religious and even practical reasons by all civilizations.

Because women are the childbearing sex, logic would seem to dictate that they have the final say in whether or not to give birth, despite the fact that the father is the trigger in that pregnancy. Whether or not you agree that women (or couples) do not have the right to terminate that pregnancy, the simple fact is that abortion as an option will not disappear, even if it is legally outlawed. You cannot outlaw human nature and the natural birthing process. In the final analysis, abortion is merely a medical procedure. Here’s why:

THE FACTS ABOUT ABORTION

Abortion has been practiced since its development by the Egyptians as far back as 1550 BCE, but its legality and availability have been threatened continuously by forces that would take away women's fundamental

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rights. Laws that prohibit absolutely the practice of abortion are a relatively recent development and have always been enacted by men.

Abortion was an accepted practice in ancient Greece and Rome. Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE) wrote that “when couples have children in excess, let abortion be procured before sense and life have begun.” In the latter days of the Roman Empire, abortion was not considered homicide but rather a crime against a husband who would be deprived of a potential child.

In the early Roman Catholic church, abortion was permitted for male fetuses in the first 40 days of pregnancy and for female fetuses in the first 80-90 days. Not until 1588 did Pope Sixtus V declare all abortion murder, with excommunication as the punishment. Just three years later, a new pope found the absolute sanction unworkable and again allowed early abortions. Three hundred years would pass before the Catholic church under Pius IX again

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declared all abortion murder. This standard, declared in 1869, remains the official position of the church, reaffirmed by the current pope.

In 1920, the Soviet Union became the first modern state to formally legalize abortion. In the early period after the 1917 revolution, abortion was readily available in state-operated facilities. These facilities were closed and abortion made illegal when it became clear that the Soviet Union would have to defend itself against Nazi Germany. After World War II, women were encouraged to enter the labor force, and abortion once again became legal.

American states derived their initial abortion statutes from British common law, which stipulated that abortion was not considered a criminal act as long as it was performed before “quickening” (the first detectable movement of the fetus, which can occur between 13-25 weeks of pregnancy). Until at least the early-1800s, abortion procedures and methods were legal and openly advertised throughout the United States. Abortion was unregulated, however, and often not only unsafe, but potentially fatal.

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In the mid-1800s, early pro-life advocate Dr. Horatio Robinson Storer (1830-1922) convinced the American Medical Association to join him in campaigning for the outlawing of abortion nationwide. By the early 1900s, most states had banned abortion. By 1965, all 50 states had outlawed abortion, with some exceptions varying by state. The reasons vary; some writers argue that the laws were not aimed at preserving the lives of unborn children but rather were intended to protect women from unsafe abortion procedures or to allow the medical profession to take over responsibility for women’s health from untrained practitioners. Others say that pro-life concerns were already prevalent and were a major influence behind the efforts to ban abortion.

Federal action on abortion didn’t occur until Roe v.

Wade, which declared most state anti-abortion laws unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision, handed down in 1973, established rules based on a pregnancy trimester framework, banning legislative interference in the first trimester of pregnancy (0-12 weeks), allowing states to regulate abortion during the second trimester (weeks 13-28) “in ways that are reasonably related to maternal

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health,” and allowing a state to “regulate, and even proscribe” abortion during the third trimester (weeks 29-40) “in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life,” unless an abortion is required to preserve the life or health of the mother. The decision also allowed states to prohibit abortions performed by anyone who is not a state-licensed physician.

Immediately following Roe v. Wade, pro-life proponents pushed for federal legislation that would restrict abortion and at times succeeded.

The Hyde Amendment, passed in 1976, ended Medicaid funding for abortions. In 2003, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was enacted. It banned physicians from providing intact dilation and extraction (also called a “partial-birth” abortion outside of the medical profession), a lateterm (after 21 weeks gestation) method, which accounted for 0.17 percent of abortion procedures in 2000. The act defines a “partial-birth abortion” as “an abortion in which the provider deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until … the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or… any part of the fetal trunk past the

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navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.”

State restrictions on abortion access increased sharply after the 2010 midterm elections, in which Republicans gained at least 675 state legislative seats, the biggest gain made by any party in state legislatures since 1938. Between Roe v. Wade and Dec. 31, 2021, 1,338 new abortion restrictions were passed by states. About 44 percent of those were passed after 2011, and the most (108) were passed in 2021.

On June 24, 2022, the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in a 6-3 decision in Dobbs v.

Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion. The decision immediately uprooted the lives of millions of women, mainly black and poor and notably in Southern and Midwestern states, who suddenly found themselves without access to an abortion, even if it was to save their lives or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, even of a minor.

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BAVUAL presents the following two sides to the abortion debate:

THE CASE FOR ABORTION

By Annalies Winny, Alissa Zhu, and Lindsay Smith Rogers This viewpoint is excerpted from a special episode of the Public Health On Call podcast called Public Health in the Field, which aired in late 2021, several months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

According to The Turnaway Study, a 10-year study that followed nearly 1,000 women who either had or were denied abortions, any women who were denied wanted abortions had higher levels of household poverty, debt, evictions, and other economic hardships and instabilities, says Joanne Rosen, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Law and the Public's Health.

"The study also found that women who were seeking but unable to obtain abortions endured higher levels of physical violence from the men who had fathered these children," Rosen says. "And people who were turned away when seeking abortions endured more health problems than women who were able to obtain [them], as well as more serious health problems. That gives you a sense of the ways in which being unable to obtain abortions had really long lasting impacts on these peoples' lives."

A 2020 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that women living in states with less restrictive reproductive health policies were less likely to give birth to low-weight babies. Other research published in The Lancet found that restrictive abortion laws actually mean a higher rate of abortion-related maternal deaths.

Restrictive abortion laws affect more than just the health of individuals and families—they affect the economy, too. Research from The Lancet found that "ensuring women's access to safe abortion services does lower medical costs for health systems."

CLOCKWISE from top left: WINNY, ZHU AND SMITH ROGERS women, and a leap of more than 2.6% for women who identify as Asian-Pacific Islander. This same tool calculates that removing restrictions on abortion access would translate to an estimated $13.4 million in increased earnings at the state level for Black women alone.

Abortion restrictions disproportionately affect people of color and those with low-incomes.

According to data from the CDC, Black women are five times more likely to have an abortion than white women, and Latinx women are two times as likely as whites. Seventy-five percent of people who have abortions are low-income or poor.

The Institute for Women's Policy Research has a host of data around how reproductive health restrictions impact women's earning potential, including an interactive map tool, Total Economic Losses Due to State-level Abortion Restrictions. In Mississippi, for example, the data indicate that removing restrictions to abortion would translate to a 1.8% increase of Black women in the labor force, over 2% for Hispanic BAVUAL

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THE CASE AGAINST ABORTION

By Ross Douthat

This excerpted opinion by Ross Douthat originally appeared in The New York Times on Nov. 30, 2021, just before the opening of arguments in Dobbs v.

Jackson Women’s Health Organization (the case that overturned legal abortion) before the U.S. Supreme Court.

At the core of our legal system, you will find a promise that human beings should be protected from lethal violence. That promise is made in different ways by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; it’s there in English common law, the Ten Commandments and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We dispute how the promise should be enforced, what penalties should be involved if it is broken and what crimes might deprive someone of the right to life. But the existence of the basic right, and a fundamental duty not to kill, is pretty close to bedrock.

There is no way to seriously deny that abortion is a form of killing. At a less advanced stage of scientific understanding, it was possible to believe that the embryo or fetus was somehow inert or vegetative until so-called quickening, months into pregnancy.

But we now know the embryo is not merely a cell with potential, like a sperm or ovum, or a constituent part of human tissue, like a skin cell.

Rather, a distinct human organism comes into existence at conception, and every stage of your biological life, from infancy and childhood to middle age and beyond, is part of a single continuous process that began when you were just a zygote.

We know from embryology, in other words, not Scripture or philosophy, that abortion kills a unique member of the species Homo sapiens, an act that in almost every other context is forbidden by the law.

This means that the affirmative case for abortion rights is inherently exceptionalist, demanding a suspension of a principle that prevails in practically every other case. This does not automatically tell against it; exceptions as well as rules are part of law.

But it means that there is a burden of proof on the pro-choice side to explain why in this case taking another human life is acceptable, indeed a protected right itself.

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One way to clear this threshold would be to identify some quality that makes the unborn different in kind from other forms of human life — adult, infant, geriatric. You need an argument that acknowledges that the embryo is a distinct human organism but draws a credible distinction between human organisms and human persons, between the unborn lives you’ve excluded from the law’s protection and the rest of the human race.

In this kind of pro-choice argument and theory, personhood is often associated with some property that’s acquired well after conception: cognition, reason, self-awareness, the capacity to survive outside the womb. And a version of this idea, that human life is there in utero but human personhood develops later, fits intuitively with how many people react to a photo of an extremely early embryo (It doesn’t look human, does it?) — though less so to a second-trimester fetus, where the physical resemblance to a newborn is more palpable.

But the problem with this position is that it’s hard to identify exactly what property is supposed to do the work of excluding the unborn from the ranks of humans whom it is wrong to kill. If full personhood is somehow rooted in reasoning capacity or selfconsciousness, then all manner of adult human beings lack it or lose it at some point or another in their lives. If the capacity for survival and selfdirection is essential, then every infant would lack personhood — to say nothing of the premature babies who are unviable without extreme medical interventions but regarded, rightly, as no less human for all that.

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At its most rigorous, the organism-but-not-person argument seeks to identify some stage of neurological development that supposedly marks personhood’s arrival — a transition equivalent in reverse to brain death at the end of life. But even setting aside the practical difficulties involved in identifying this point, we draw a legal line at brain death because it’s understood to be irreversible, the moment at which the human organism’s healthy function can never be restored. This is obviously not the case for an embryo on the cusp of higher brain functioning — and if you knew that a braindead but otherwise physically healthy person would spontaneously regain consciousness in two weeks, everyone would understand that the caregivers had an obligation to let those processes play out.

Or almost everyone, I should say. There are true rigorists who follow the logic of fetal nonpersonhood toward repugnant conclusions — for instance, that we ought to permit the euthanizing of severely disabled newborns, as the philosopher Peter Singer has argued. This is why abortion opponents have warned of a slippery slope from abortion to infanticide and involuntary euthanasia; as pure logic, the position that unborn human beings aren’t human persons can really tend that way.

But to their credit, only a small minority of abortion-rights supporters are willing to be so ruthlessly consistent. Instead, most people on the pro-choice side are content to leave their rules of personhood a little hazy, and combine them with the second potent argument for abortion rights: namely, that regardless of the precise moral status of unborn human organisms, they cannot enjoy a legal right to life because that would strip away too many rights from women.

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A world without legal abortion, in this view, effectively consigns women to second-class citizenship — their ambitions limited, their privacy compromised, their bodies conscripted, their claims to full equality a lie. These kind of arguments often imply that birth is the most relevant milestone for defining legal personhood — not because of anything that happens to the child but because it’s the moment when its life ceases to impinge so dramatically on its mother.

There is a powerful case for some kind of feminism embedded in these claims. The question is whether that case requires abortion itself.

Certain goods that should be common to men and women cannot be achieved, it’s true, if the law simply declares the sexes equal without giving weight to the disproportionate burdens that pregnancy imposes on women. Justice requires redistributing those burdens, through means both traditional and modern — holding men legally and financially responsible for all the children that they father and providing stronger financial and social support for motherhood at every stage.

But does this kind of justice for women require legal indifference to the claims of the unborn? Is it really necessary to found equality for one group of human beings on legal violence toward another, entirely voiceless group?

We have a certain amount of practical evidence that suggests the answer is no. Consider, for instance, that between the early 1980s and the later 2010s the abortion rate in the United States fell by more than half. The reasons for this decline are disputed, but it seems reasonable to assume that it reflects a mix of cultural change, increased contraception use and the effects of anti-abortion legal strategies, which have made abortion somewhat less available in many states, as pro-choice advocates often lament.

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If there were an integral and unavoidable relationship between abortion and female equality, you would expect these declines — fewer abortions, diminished abortion access — to track with a general female retreat from education and the workplace. But no such thing has happened: Whether measured by educational attainment, managerial and professional positions, breadwinner status or even political office holding, the status of women has risen in the same America where the pro-life movement has (modestly) gained ground.

Of course, it’s always possible that female advancement would have been even more rapid, the equality of the sexes more fully and perfectly established, if the pro-life movement did not exist.

Certainly in the individual female life trajectory, having an abortion rather than a baby can offer economic and educational advantages.

On a collective level, though, it’s also possible that the default to abortion as the solution to an unplanned pregnancy actually discourages other adaptations that would make American life friendlier to women. As Erika Bachiochi wrote recently in National Review, if our society assumes that “abortion is what enables women to participate in the workplace,” then corporations may prefer the abortion default to more substantial accommodations like flexible work schedules and better pay for parttime jobs — relying on the logic of abortion rights, in other words, as a reason not to adapt to the realities of childbearing and motherhood.

At the very least, I think an honest look at the patterns of the past four decades reveals a multitude of different ways to offer women greater opportunities, a multitude of paths to equality and dignity — a multitude of ways to be a feminist, in other words, that do not require yoking its idealistic vision to hundreds of thousands of acts of violence every year.

It’s also true, though, that nothing in all that multitude of policies will lift the irreducible burden of childbearing, the biological realities that simply cannot be redistributed to fathers, governments or adoptive parents. And here, too, a portion of the prochoice argument is correct: The unique nature of pregnancy means that there has to be some limit on what state or society asks of women and some zone of privacy where the legal system fears to tread.

This is one reason the wisest anti-abortion legislation — and yes, pro-life legislation is not always SPRING 2023

wise — criminalizes the provision of abortion by third parties, rather than prosecuting the women who seek one. It’s why anti-abortion laws are rightly deemed invasive and abusive when they lead to the investigation of suspicious-seeming miscarriages. It’s why the general principle of legal protection for human life in utero may or must understandably give way in extreme cases, extreme burdens: the conception by rape, the life-threatening pregnancy.

At the same time, though, the pro-choice stress on the burden of the ordinary pregnancy can become detached from the way that actual human beings experience the world. In a famous thought experiment, the philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson once analogized an unplanned pregnancy to waking up with a famous violinist hooked up to your body, who will die if he’s disconnected before nine months have passed. It’s a vivid science-fiction image but one that only distantly resembles the actual thing that it describes — a new life that usually exists because of a freely chosen sexual encounter, a reproductive experience that if material circumstances were changed might be desired and celebrated, a “disconnection” of the new life that cannot happen without lethal violence and a victim who is not some adult stranger but the woman’s child.

One can accept pro-choice logic, then, insofar as it demands a sphere of female privacy and warns constantly against the potential for abuse, without following that logic all the way to a general right to abort an unborn human life. Indeed, this is how most people approach similar arguments in other contexts. In the name of privacy and civil liberties we impose limits on how the justice system polices and imprisons, and we may celebrate activists who try to curb that system’s manifest abuses. But we don’t (with, yes, some anarchist exceptions) believe that we should remove all legal protections for people’s property or lives.

That removal of protection would be unjust no matter what its consequences, but in reality we know that those consequences would include more crime, more violence and more death. And the antiabortion side can give the same answer when it’s asked why we can’t be content with doing all the other things that may reduce abortion rates and leaving legal protection out of it: Because while legal restrictions aren’t sufficient to end abortion, there really are a lot of unborn human lives they might protect.

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Consider that when the State of Texas put into effect this year a ban on most abortions after about six weeks, the state’s abortions immediately fell by half. I think the Texas law, which tries to evade the requirements of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey by using private lawsuits for enforcement, is vulnerable to obvious critiques and liable to be abused. It’s not a model I would ever cite for pro-life legislation.

But that immediate effect, that sharp drop in abortions, is why the pro-life movement makes legal protection its paramount goal.

According to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, who surveyed the facilities that provide about 93 percent of all abortions in the state, there were 2,149 fewer legal abortions in Texas in the month the law went into effect than in the same month in 2020.

About half that number may end up still taking place, some estimates suggest, many of them in other states. But that still means that in a matter of months, more than a thousand human beings will exist as legal persons, rights-bearing Texans — despite still being helpless, unreasoning and utterly dependent — who would not have existed had this law not given them protection.

WILL THEY OR WON'T THEY? In April 2023, a pro-life U.S. District Judge in Texas, Matthew Kacsmaryk, ruled that Mifepristone, the pill that accounts for roughly half of all abortions, should be banned, thus overturning a drug that had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 and has been in use ever since. Though the U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary stay pending further arguments, the fate of the pill is far from certain.

But, in fact, they exist already. They existed, at our mercy, all along.

NUMBER OF ABORTIONS BY RACE/ETHNICITY, UNITED STATES, 1965-2020

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THE COVER

BLACK LOVE

Relationships That Face the Ebb and Flow of Time

By Lorraine Jones

The mysteries of love defy logic. No one has yet figured out why men and women, despite their differences, bond together and form a family. Goodness knows that there are enough things to pull them apart: racial and ethnic prejudice, religion, work and money, children, personality and culture, and circumstances of birth and class, to name just a few.

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The trumph is that all of this has been overcome, because what really counts in the end is that two people found each other in a lonely world of 7 billion. That, as they say, has made all the difference.

The point of this article is not to pass judgment on human choices but rather to point out the many permutations of the thing we call Black Love.

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OVERCOMING BLACK STEREOTYPES For generations, a strength of the black community has been the strong relationships of couples who have a deep emotional connection, a shared culture, empathy, and profound love and respect for one another. Despite racist stereotypes that consistently portray black romantic relationships as weak and dysfunctional, countless examples of successful black relationships also exist and belie those stereotypes.

Fortunately, over the years, black sitcoms such as Good Times, Family Matters and The Cosby Show have also countered these racist stereotypes with positive representations of black relationships that many people needed to see.

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The Cosby Show

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DEROGATORY RACIAL STEREOTYPES, such as THE ONES DEPICTING BLACK MEN AS KING KONG AND BLACK WOMEN AS SAVAGES AND THEREFORE LESS DESIRABLE THAN WHITE WOMEN, PERMEATE TO THIS DAY

BLACK FAMILIES VS. WHITE FAMILIES: THE UNEQUAL DIVIDE

DEPENDING ON LOCATION, PROPERTY IS LESS LIKELY TO BE AN INHERITANCE, AND RENTAL HOMES ARE A FREQUENT OCCURRENCE UNLESS IT'S AN HBCU, COLLEGE ADMISSION IS MORE THE RESULT OF MERIT OR FINANCIAL AID THAN LEGACY MORE COUPLES ARE LIKELY TO BE WORKING JOBS OR RUNNING BUSINESSES SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW $100,000 ANNUALLY BAVUAL

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PROPERTY IS OFTEN INHERITED, GIVING MANY FAMILIES SECURITY AND A FINANCIAL HEAD START CHILDREN OF ALUMNI (LEGACIES) ARE OFTEN GIVEN PREFERENCE IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS AND ARE ABLE TO AFFORD TUITION OUT-OFPOCKET CHILDREN ARE MORE LIKELY TO INHERIT JOBS AND BUSINESSES FROM THEIR PARENTS SPRING 2023

INTERRACIAL LOVE Interracial Relationships Then and Now In addition to black-to-black love, many blacks have found love with people of other races and ethnicities. Before they could legally love freely, for example, black actress, singer and comedian Pearl Bailey married white musician Louie Bellson in 1952. The two met after Bellson became Duke Ellington’s first white musician.

Because of the taboo and laws against interracial connections in those days, Ellington would claim that Bellson was of Haitian background when performing in the Southern states. Starting out in a time when few approved of their marriage, Bailey and Bellson developed an unbreakable love for 38 years until Bailey’s death in 1990.

After the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down state laws banning interracial marriage, marriages like theirs were technically legal but still not necessarily accepted by society. At that time, interracial couples still only made up 3% of marriages in the U.S., but this number eventually jumped to 19% in 2019. According to Gallup, approval of these marriages has also grown dramatically, with only 4% of U.S. adults approving marriages between blacks and whites in 1958 but 94% approving them in 2021.

As stars in the public eye today, African American record producer Chris Ivery and his wife, Ellen Pompeo, a white actress best known for starring in Grey’s Anatomy, openly speak about race.

“The black experience is a powerful one, and I can see where that would be intimidating,” Pompeo said on Red Table Talk. “It's so much

“They’ll benefit from the fact they have black grandparents and a Thai grandparent and a white grandparent,” Legend told PEOPLE. “We have different experiences. … We learn from each other, and we love the things that are different about each other.”

African American tennis legend Serena Williams and her white husband, Alexis Ohanian, also show the strength of their love as it combats adversity and remains unwavering. In an interview with The New York Times, Williams expressed the different experiences she goes through as a black woman in comparison to Ohanian as a white man.

“He always gets to hear about the injustices that happen that wouldn’t happen if I were white,” she said. “It’s interesting. I never thought I would have married a white guy either, so it just goes to show you that love truly has no color, and it just really goes to show me the importance of what love is.”

One of the most famous international interracial couples is Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. This royal marriage resonates with many people because of their own personal experiences with racism. By merely existing and loving one another, the two have brought light to discussions about interracial relationships and have shown that even those with privilege cannot completely escape racism.

easier to celebrate it and just thank the universe for giving us people of color because it's a gift."

Similarly, singer-songwriter John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, say that their blended family enriches their and their children’s lives. Teigen has a white father and a Thai mother, while both of Legend’s parents are black.

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POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS TO BLACK LOVE Unfortunately, prevalent stereotypes about black men and women can make it difficult for them to find love in today’s world.

Two such stereotypes are that all black men are “Pookies and Ray Rays” and that all black women only want those types of men. (The names Pookie and Ray Ray are associated with nonconformists who may be dropouts, unemployed, ex-convicts, drug addicts, thugs, hustlers, unfaithful, and/or unmarried baby daddies of children with several women.) Those who ascribe to these stereotypes, of course, overlook or intentionally ignore the fact that they’re simply stereotypes and that countless examples defy them.

Another difficulty black women face in finding a happy and successful relationship is that black men have shorter life expectancy, have a higher rate of incarceration, and often look for relationships outside of the black community. According to an analysis of 2013 data by Pew Research Center, “Among blacks, men are much more likely than women to marry someone of a different race. Fully a quarter of black men who got married in 2013 married someone who was not black. Only 12% of black women married outside of their race.”

In this regard, a group of such black men, collectively known as Passport Bros, have been causing some controversy. These men only seek out foreign women, typically from other countries, for relationships because of their belief that that Western women are too heavily influenced by cultural and societal pressures that make them unsuitable to be wives.

While some blacks criticize the Passport Bros for “casting aside” black women for foreign women, others don’t have a problem with the relationships themselves but are rather disappointed or angry at the way some of these men publicly disparage black women. Even if some black women (and men) have negative qualities and might not be perfect partner material, the same is true for other races and ethnicities as well.

Regardless of the reasons, a much higher percentage of black men and women are unpartnered than those of other racial and ethnic groups, which can have important consequences for the individuals themselves and for the black community as a whole.

“Unpartnered adults have lower earnings, on average, than partnered adults and are less likely to be employed or economically independent,” Pew notes.

“They also have lower educational attainment.”

While some women (and men) involuntarily remain unpartnered, for others it is a voluntary choice.

Accomplishments such as getting higher education, establishing a career, or buying a house are all things that women can now finally do independently. Many single black women therefore choose to remain single until 40+.

Ultimately, whether to pursue a relationship is something that each man and woman can decide for himself or herself. Some may consider its economic and societal impact in their decision, while others may simply care about whether or not “love” hits them.

The important thing to remember is that stereotypes about black love are just that—stereotypes. And while numerous celebrity couples provide examples of healthy black relationships, countless other successful relationships exist among everyday people who also maintain their love through thick and thin.

For those seeking black love today, it’s still possible to find it—perhaps in a grocery store like Chris Ivery or during breakfast at a hotel like Serena Williams. As many have discovered, love arrives in numerous ways —and, often, unexpectedly. In fact, the next person you meet could be the one.

The mystery of compatibility

According to the Pew Research Center’s 2019 numbers, “Among those ages 25 to 54, 59% of Black adults were unpartnered in 2019. This is higher than the shares among Hispanic (38%), White (33%) and Asian (29%) adults. For most racial and ethnic groups, men are more likely than women to be unpartnered.

The exception is among Black adults, where women (62%) are more likely to be unpartnered than men (55%).”

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FOR LOVE OR MONEY THE SAYING GOES THAT MANY MODERN BLACK WOMEN - AND PERHAPS WOMEN IN GENERAL - WANT THE THREE sixes: SIX-FIGURE INCOME, SIX FEET IN HEIGHT, AND SIX-PACK ABS. HOWEVER, DESIRE OFTEN COMES CRASHING DOWN TO EARTH WITH REALITY. ONLY 18% OF BLACK MEN EARN OVER $100,000 ANNUALLY AND OFTEN CHOOSE MATES FROM THEIR INCOME CIRCLE. Popular culture and media continue to feature attractive, successful black women opining about being dissed and dismissed by black men. THESE BLACK "SWANS" (Strong Women Achievers, No Spouse) OFTEN WAIT UNTIL PAST AGE 30 TO GET MARRIED. WOMEN with the highest personal annual incomes are most likely to be married at 25-29 - with two glaring exceptions. In the rarified air of $100,000+ income, 93% of black women and virtually 100% of Latinas are single. By 30-34, things appear to even up. Only 18% of the white and Asian women and 19% of the highest-earning black women have never been married at this age.

INCOMPATIBILITY AN EVER-INCREASING NUMBER OF BLACK WOMEN, dissatisfied with their mating options among the opposite sex, are choosing to remain single. ACCORDING TO ABC NEwS "NIGHTLINE," 42% of U.S. black women have never been married, double the number of white women who’ve never tied the knot.

"THE GOLD DIGGER" STEREOTYPE MORE THAN anY OTHER RACIAL GROUP, BLACK WOMEN, AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ECONOMIC TOTEM POLE, HAVE A NEGATIVE IMAGE OF SEEKING OUT MEN ONLY FOR THEIR MONEY, WHEN IN REALITY MOST BLACK WOMEN ARE MERELY SEEKING WHAT ALL WOMEN WANT: A MATE WHO CAN PROVIDE FOR HER AND THEIR CHILDREN.

SEPARATION BLACK COUPLES HAVE THE HIGHEST DIVORCE RATE - 47.9% of any racial group. interracial couples are 200% more likely to divorce than other couples. with the advent of no-fault divorce, black men especially can be wiped out in a messy split.

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"POOKIE," "RAY RAY" AND OTHER "DUSTIES" vs.

THE HIGH-DEMAND BROTHERS BLACK WOMEN BASICALLY HAVE TWO CHOICES FOR A MATE: THE UNDERACHIEVER AND THE OVERACHIEVER. THE FORMER IS MORE LIKELY, AS 82% OF BLACK MEN MAKE UNDER $100,000 PER YEAR AND ONLY 41% OF BLACK MEN ARE EMPLOYED IN WHITE COLLAR JOBS. THIS REALITY HAS FORCED MANY WOMEN TO OPT FOR THE "DUSTY."

WHO IS MORE IN DEMAND? IT'S NOT NECESSARILY OBVIOUS.

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THE PASSPORT BROS The "Passport Bros" are men who have chosen to seek out foreign women, typically from other countries, for relationships. They believe that western women have been influenced by cultural and societal pressures to behave in a certain way and that by seeking out foreign women, they can find a more authentic, fulfilling, and harmonious relationship.

This is seen as a way to restore the natural balance between masculine and feminine energy and to avoid the "wickedness" of western women.

MAJOR SEARCH COUNTRIES FOR BRIDES: BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, THAILAND, COSTA RICA, THE PHILIPPINES Passport Bros chronicle their search for love and/or sex on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. They’re reviled and ridiculed on most social media platforms. OTHERS VIEW THEM AS SIMPLY SEEKING HAPPINESS.

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THE HOUSEWIFE VS. THE CAREER WOMAN

THE 1950s

2023: BACK TO THE FUTURE?

THE ADVENT OF THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF THE 1960s and 1970s gave BLACK WOMEN MORE OPTIONS FOR A CAREER OUTSIDE THE HOME AS WIVES AND MOTHERS. a higher share of Black women are either employed or unemployed and looking for work. For instance, in 2020, Black women's labor force participation rate was 58.8% compared with 56.2% for women OVERALL. STILL, BLACK WOMEN EARN 35% LESS THAN THEIR WHITE MALE COUNTERPARTS. HAVING A CAREER ALSO REPRESENTS A CHALLENGE FOR FINDING A MATE, AS MEN OFTEN LOOK FOR WOMEN TO ASSUME MORE TRADITIONAl ROLES OF SUPPORTIVE HOMEMAKER AND MOTHER. TODAY: THE CAREER WOMAN

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SINGLE MOMS

According to the 2018 Motherly State of Motherhood Survey, black mothers are four times more likely to be single and serve as the primary breadwinners of their home. In 2020, there were roughly 4.25 million Black families in the United States with a single mother.

Solo moms are more than twice as likely to be black as cohabiting moms. Black women make up a significant percentage of degree holders in the U.S. Black mothers often face significant financial challenges due to the additional costs associated with raising children on their own. due to their having children, solo moms are often considered to be less desirable to men as potential wives.

SOURCE: BLACKPAST.ORG

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14 FAMOUS COUPLES WHO FOUND LASTING LOVE Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King He a Civil Rights Leader, She a Housewife and Mother Married 15 Years, 1953-1968, Both Deceased 4 Children

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Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz He a Black Muslim Leader, She a Housewife and Mother Married 7 Years, 1958-1965, Both Deceased 3 Children

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Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee Both Were Actors and Activists Married 57 Years, 1948-2005, Both Deceased 1 Child

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Nelson and Graca Machel He Was President of South Africa, She a Politician and Humanitarian Married 15 Years, 1998-2013, Nelson Deceased No Children

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Ciara and Russell Wilson She a Singer, He a Football Player Married 7 Years, 2016-Present 1 Child

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Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade She an Actress, He a Former Basketball Player Married 9 Years, 2014-Present 1 Child

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JAY-Z and Beyoncé Knowles He a Hip-Hop Artist and Mogul, She an Entertainer and Mother

Married 15 Years, 2008-Present 3 Children

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Viola Davis and Julius Tennon

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Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance Both Are Actors Married 26 Years, 1997-Present 2 Children

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Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete She an Actress, Singer and Mother, He a Football Player Married 28 Years, 1995-Present 3 Children

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Reverend Run and Justine Simmons He an Entertainer and Minister, She a Housewife and Mother Married 29 Years, 1994-Present 4 Children

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Barack and Michelle Obama He Was President of the United States, She a Lawyer and Mother Married 31 Years, 1992-Present 2 Children

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Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham Prominent Black Couples

She an in Entertainer, He a Businessman Unlike the past when black people were rarely seen in big media, many real examples of Partners 37and Years, prominent public1986-Present black couples also give people today an opportunity to see black men and women in successful relationships. In fact, one of the most iconic couples in history is No Children

former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. As a powerful and influential symbol of black love, they have shattered social, political and racial barriers on some of the highest levels. Married in 1992 after each earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, this intellectual and accomplished couple furthered civil rights and brought a cultural perspective to monumental issues. Under Barack’s leadership, the U.S. Supreme Court also legalized gay and lesbian marriage, protecting and securing the love of the black LGBTQ community.

Much like the Obamas, several other prominent black couples have a great influence on society and culture that goes far beyond their personal love stories.

JAY-Z and Beyoncé, for example, are a musical power couple and the epitome of black excellence. With an impressive 88 Grammy nominations each, the two are not only accomplished in the industry but also embody black love. In 2021, they became the face of Tiffany & Co. through its ad campaign “ABOUT LOVE.” The advertisement featured Beyoncé wearing an 1870s diamond necklace made famous by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, making her the fourth woman and first black woman to wear the necklace. Because of this campaign, Tiffany & Co. pledged $2 million in scholarship funds for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade are another black couple whose resilience is a true testament to black love. In 2023, Union and Wade received the NAACP President’s Award for their advocacy for the black LGBTQ community. This couple demands equality with every breath, not only to protect the intersection of black rights and gay rights but as parents fighting for the security of their child.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith represent a golden age of black sitcoms and entertainment in the 90s. With classics such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the couple’s stardom and cultural relevance counter the lack of representation in a mainstream culture that is biased toward stories of black dysfunction. Alongside her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and her daughter, Willow Smith, Jada opened a dialogue for the black community through her Emmy Award-winning talk show Red Table Talk. These three generations of black women and their guests have shared their personal experiences with topics such as body image, motherhood, racism, colorism and sexism.

Pauletta and Denzel Washington are another representation of black eternal love. Married in 1983, they have stayed together for 40 years, making them one of the longest-lasting relationships in TV and a great example of successful marriage in the black community. When they reached their 30th anniversary, they discussed how they make their love and marriage last in the August 2013 issue of Ebony.

Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee met in 1992 at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner. The creative filmmaker and the producer, writer and former corporate attorney have been together for nearly three decades, continuously speaking out on crucial social justice issues through film. Their daughter, Satchel, and son, Jackson, become the first siblings of color and Jackson became the first black male to be chosen as Golden Globe ambassadors.

Last but not least, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson met while she was attending Spelman College and he was attending nearby Morehouse College, historically black colleges in Atlanta, Ga. They have been married more than 40 years and have lasted through the good times and the bad.

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Denzel and Pauletta Washington He an Actor, She a Housewife and Mother Married 40 Years, 1983-Present 4 Children

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THE CULTURE

All About Media and the Arts

THE PLAY'S THE THING 5 Iconic Productions That Depict the Black Experience

By Tremaine A. Price This article was excerpted from BroadwayBlack.com, published Feb. 3, 2021

With the pandemic closing the doors on Broadway and schools shifting their teaching methods to remote learning, students across our country are devoid of a full live arts experience. Many high school arts programs have had to cancel their seasons due to the coronavirus, and arts educators have had to lean into their talents with a “yes, and” attitude to re-engage future theatre powerhouses. For the start of Black History Month 2021, here is a list of the top five plays by Black writers that every young Black student should be familiar with: A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Fences by August Wilson Pipeline by Dominique Morrisseau The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf

by Ntozake Shange Honorable mentions: A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller Blues For Mister Charlie by James Baldwin Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond BAVUAL 54

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A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Loosely based on the playwright’s life, the Younger family grapples with an American dilemma that coerces the psyche into believing that separate really is equal. In post-WWII Chicago, where everyone was looking to feed themselves literally and figuratively with a piece of the American dream, Walter, Ruth, Mama, Beneatha, and Travis find themselves in the middle of a custody battle over the soul and integrity of America; believing in the power of change and progression and reconciling with the truth of a divided American landscape. This drama first debuted on Broadway in 1959, starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett, Claudia McNeil, and Glynn Turman. It has since seen multiple revivals on Broadway in 2004 and 2014, with the 2004 production winning for Best Actress in a Play for Phylicia Rashaad and Best Featured Actress in a Play for Audra McDonald. The 2014 production resulted in wins for Sophie Okonedo for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Kenny Leon for Direction of a Play, and Best Revival of a Play. A Raisin In the Sun is also the first play written by a Black woman to be performed and produced on Broadway.

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Fences by August Wilson Written in 1985 as part of Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle,” Fences closely tracks the internal turmoil that Troy faces in providing for his wife and teenage son. As a man whose dreams were not fully realized as a major league baseball player, Troy tries to build himself up within the city sanitation department as a driver (something Black men weren’t allowed to do). Young people should read this play primarily for the conversation between Troy and his son, Cory, about being a parent, a caregiver, and a Black man. Troy says, “A man got to take care of his family. You live in my house… sleep your behind on my bedclothes… fill your belly up with my food… cause you my son—you my flesh and blood. Not ’cause I like you! Cause it’s my duty to take care of you.” The original Broadway production won the Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (James Earl Jones), Best Direction, and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Mary Alice). The 2010 revival won Best Performance by a Leading Actor and Leading Actress in a Play for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, respectively, and Best Revival of a Play.

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Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau Omari is a young Black male dealing with the pressures of high school academia in a school where microaggressions are as common as saying the pledge of allegiance. Morisseau’s modern drama on race and the education system may appear to be a shocking reflection of what young people may encounter today. Still, it is also a challenge for educators everywhere to see their students beyond a name on a class roster. Omari and his mother, Nya, push each other to combat the triggers that young Black men face regularly, and do some deep soul-searching to heal their mother-son relationship, so Omari doesn’t lose himself by proving himself. The play was nominated for five Lucille Lortel Awards during its run at Lincoln Center and can currently be found on BroadwayHD.

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The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe Performed as vignettes known as “exhibits,” The Colored Museum illuminates the Black experience by taking the reader and audience member on a historical journey from the flight to Savannah from the Ivory Coast in “Git On Board” to the ode to Black theatre drama in “The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play” in which Wolfe makes references to Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf and Hansberry’s A Raisin In the Sun. The Colored Museum takes the tragedy and pain of our experience as Black people living in America.

It gives it a distinct voice of truth and integrity that has otherwise been whitewashed and gaslit.

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for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf

by Ntozake Shange Shange’s emotional choreopoem, which fuses music, dance, and poetry, is a literary blueprint for understanding and appreciating Black women. It debuted at the Booth Theater in New York City in 1976 and was only the second work by a Black woman to be done on Broadway (it was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 1976).

Referred to only by a color (red, orange, blue, green, purple, yellow, and brown), each woman relishes in her own self-discovery and self-identity in a world that has yet to see them for the beautiful humans they are. Shange illuminates the power of Black female sisterhood while also encouraging the reader to heal, survive, and reclaim their joy. The Public Theater recently did a production in 2019 that Camille A. Brown choreographed.

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DESTINATIONS

Fascinating Places to Visit

A STAY TO REMEMBER

Top 10 Black-Owned Hotels in the U.S. and the World

Salamander Resort & Spa Middleburg, Virginia BET co-founder Shelia C. Johnson personally designed this lavish property herself, which boasts 168 rooms and suites on 340 acres in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Not only are the rooms at Salamander elegant, but the property has features you won’t find anywhere else, such as an equestrian center, a fishing pond, and ziplining - all on-site! Pictures of this resort simply don’t do it justice.

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Jnane Tamsna Marrakech, Morocco Everything about this North African resort is fabulous, from the striking urban Moroccan design to the chic owner, Meryanne Loum-Martin. The property consists of 24 guest rooms, five pools, and nine acres of gardens, and one night at this majestic hotel will make you want to stay forever.

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Spice Island Beach Resort Grand Anse, Grenada The family-owned, all-inclusive resort continues to be one of the most opulent, inspiring hotels around. The rooms here are a bit pricey, but once you set foot on the lavish property, you’ll see that it’s worth every penny.

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Negril Tree House Resort Negril, Jamaica American-born owner Gail Jackson has a background in civil engineering and moved to Jamaica more than three decades ago to help create the Negril Tree House Resort with her late husband. Rooms at the mid-level property can be found for around $131.

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La Maison Michelle St. James, Barbados

Husband and wife duo Michelle and Guy Jenkins own this heavenly property, which was built on land purchased by Michelle’s father more than 50 years ago. The property has just seven suites and boasts some of the best views in all of Barbados.

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iKhaya Lodge Cape Town, South Africa Located in the heart of Cape Town, this property is the perfect blend of modern and traditional African design and features loft-style apartments that make you feel right at home, which is the goal because “iKhaya” translates to “home” in the Bantu language of Xhosa. If you plan on staying here, be sure to request a room with stunning views of Table Mountain.

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Soweto Hotel & Conference Center Soweto, South Africa

Like most of the hotels on our list, this four-star luxury boutique hotel is both black- and femaleowned. Blending a modern, chic design with a touch of eclectic charm, the hotel manages to be stylish while also recognizing South Africa’s painful history with apartheid. Be sure to ask for the room where Michelle Obama stayed during her visit!

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La Maison In Midtown Houston, Texas Rooms at this cozy Texas bed and breakfast blend Southern charm and contemporary design, with rooms starting at just $169. Guests can expect Jacuzzi tubs, a delicious continental breakfast every morning, and hospitality that makes you feel like you’re a part of the family.

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Paradise Cove Resort Anguilla

Hurricane Irma did major damage to this tropical oasis, but Paradise Cove bounced back and is more resilient than ever. The property has 29 guest rooms, so expect coastal-inspired villas and suites, a gorgeous pool, and stunning views of the beach, which is just 500 yards away from the hotel.

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RLJ Kendeja Paynesville, Liberia Just one of the many hotels around the world owned by BET founder Robert Johnson, this fourstar West African resort sits on 13 acres near Monrovia and boasts 78 guests rooms, a luxurious swimming pool, a lush spa, and views of the ocean.

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AFRICAN FACES OF THE WORLD

Earth Is a Diverse Planet

BLATINOS

A Melding of Black and Latino Cultures

This is a guest post by María Peña, a public relations strategist in the Library of Congress’ Office of Communications. Originally posted by Neely Tucker on the Library of Congress blog site.

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No discussion around Black History Month would be complete without exploring the significant contributions of Afro-Latinos to American culture and society. The Library provides a rich sampling of some of these icons who have enriched the national mosaic.

Latinos can be of any race, and according to the Pew Research Center, about 25 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. self-identify as Afro-Latinos. As members of the African diaspora, they have faced discrimination for being black and alienation because of their language and accent.

Orlando Cepeda, the Hall-of-Fame first baseman from Puerto Rico, summed it up this way after a brilliant 17year career in Major League Baseball from 1958 to 1974: “We had two strikes against us: One for being black, and another for being Latino.”

Spanish-speaking Africans were present in North America before the arrival of English settlers and AfroLatinos came to be an integral part of American history.

Their stories and struggles interweaved with those of Africans enslaved by English settlers and added to the nation’s cultural tapestry. Still, because white society seldom sought to understand or differentiate differences between Blacks, Afro-Latinos have often been underreported in the news media or are barely mentioned in history textbooks.

“Afro-Latinos have had a long history and strong presence in U.S history since the mid-16th century and very few Americans are aware of the term ‘AfroLatinos,’” said Carlos Olave, head of the Hispanic Reading Room.

Nevertheless, as D.C. AfroLatino Caucus founder Manuel Méndez points out, the world would not be the same without prominent Afro-Cuban musicians like Mario Bauza. And no one can forget Johnny Pacheco, the Dominican-American music legend who co-founded Fania Records in the 1960s and helped create the genre of music known today as salsa. When he died on Feb. 15, the world lost an icon. There was also the heroic efforts of Dominican-born Esteban Hotesse, a Tuskegee Airman during World War II, to integrate the military.

Here are just a few more of the names who have changed American history, many of whom you can find in the Library’s collections.

— Puerto Rican historian Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was a key intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and spent his life championing Black history and literature. His collection of books, documents and artifacts from and about Black history from around the world helped establish the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem in 1926, within the New York Public Library.

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Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color line with the Dodgers in 1947, several Afro-Cuban players had made inroads decades earlier for people of color in the nation’s pastime, including Estevan Enrique Bellán, Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans.

During the ensuing decades, Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Minnie Miñoso and the Alou brothers (Felipe, Manny and Jesus) were among the sport’s most important Afro-Latino players, setting the stage for future generations to become some of the brightest stars in the game. In 2020, 10.7 percent of MLB’s entire roster was from the Dominican Republic alone.

The arts and entertainment world of the early to mid20th century was flavored with the rhythms of AfroLatino mega stars like Sammy Davis Jr. (his mother, Elvera Sanchez, was of Afro-Cuban descent), Celia Cruz, Machito (Frank Grillo) and Negrura Peruana.

Machito fused traditional Cuban dance rhythms with big-band arrangements to dominate the post-war Latin music scene during the Golden Age of Latin Music; the Library has a huge trove of his papers. Cruz, also known as the “Queen of Salsa”, won numerous awards throughout her 60-year career, with sold-out performances where her battle cry “¡Azúcar!” (“Sugar!”) alluded to African slaves working in sugar cane plantations in her native Cuba.

As in baseball, these Afro-Latino artists founded a platform so broad that is taken for granted today; Mariah Carey, Rosario Dawson, Esperanza Spalding and Zoe Saldana and just a few names to drop.

—In literature, Afro-Latino authors have added their voices to the national dialogue for years, with their works attracting an international following. The list includes Junot Díaz, (“Drown,” “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”) born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey; Brazilian author Paulo Lins (“City of God,” adapted to film in 2002); DominicanAmerican author Elizabeth Acevedo (“The Poet X,” winner of the National Book Award For Young People); Veronica Chambers, the Panamanian-American journalist and author; and Puerto Rican authors Mayra Santos Febres and Dahlma Llanos Figueroa.

–In science, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has talked about his Afro-Latino heritage as the son of a Puerto Rican mother and an African-American father and has written about his experiences with racial profiling. Growing up in the Bronx, deGrasse Tyson developed a passion for astronomy after a visit to the sky theater at the Hayden Planetarium at the age of nine. He became the fifth director of the New York City-based planetarium in 1996, and he continues to promote science literacy and to popularize science through lectures, seminars, and national book tours.

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About 6 million adults - 2% of the population - identify as Afro-Latino in the United States

GALLERY OF BI-CULTURAL DIVERSITY

VERONICA CHAMBERS

HISTORY AND LITERATURE

ARTURO ALFONSO SCHOMBURG

DAHLMA LLANOS FIGUEROA MAYRA SANTOS FEBRES ESTEBAN HOTESSE

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ELIZABETH ACEVEDO SPRING 2023

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

JOHNNY PACHECO

SAMMY DAVIS JR. ROSARIO DAWSON

ZOE SALDANA

MARIO BAUZA MACHITO (FRANK GRILLO)

MARIAH CAREY

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CELIA CRUZ SPRING 2023

SPORTS 1. ESTEVAN ENRIQUE BELLÁN

5. MINNIE MIÑOSO

2. ROBERTO CLEMENTE

6. ORLANDO CEPEDA

3. ALOU BROTHERS (FELIPE, MANNY AND JESUS)

7. ARMANDO MARSANS

4. RAFAEL ALMEIDA

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JOCKS

The World of Sport

STAR ATHLETE INC. Player-Moguls Go for the Gold

By Kristen Jones Becoming a sports superstar is a rare victory that only a few people in the world ever achieve. However, for African American athletes, the path to such phenomenal success is often even more challenging due to the systemic barriers they must first overcome.

Rising above these obstacles to reach such a high level in sports is itself an amazing accomplishment. However, for those who use their athletic achievement to also build businesses and invest, their success goes beyond the world of sports and puts them among an even smaller group of athletes who have become sports moguls and perhaps multimillionaires or billionaires.

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When we think of black athletes who went on to greatness, we may think of stars like Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell and Hank Aaron, who paved the way for future black athletes. Through determination, resilience and a struggle against a system of racism and discrimination, they helped build the foundation for other African Americans to have the opportunity to excel in professional sports and, in addition, build business empires.

Today’s Athletic and Business Superstars In 1984, when rookie Michael Jordan entered the NBA after an impressive college career and performance at the summer Olympics, no one could have known the full impact he would make on the court. From the beginning, he was a masterpiece to behold and steadily piled up great highlights and statistics before winning awards and championships. Then, in 1985, his cultural influence began to skyrocket with the debut of his Air Jordan sneakers. It was a groundbreaking time as Nike gambled on the young superstar by giving him his own brand.

NBA stars at the time such as Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Isiah Thomas endorsed Converse Weapon sneakers, but no sneaker company had built a multimilliondollar marketing campaign around a single player who played team sports. Jordan elevated the idea of “signature” sneakers, touting not only his name but more than one color. As he continued to break records, he attracted the attention of fans and the media alike, and it was through this popularity that the Air Jordan shoe took off.

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After that came deals with big name companies such as Chevy, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Wilson Sporting Goods. By late 1991, when he was ready to enter his eighth season in the NBA and hosted NBC’s Saturday Night Live, he had become a cultural icon. That year, he also led the Chicago Bulls to their first-ever league championship, and his Air Jordan sneakers were popular worldwide, with sales of AJ footwear and apparel in the billions. By 1998, when he and the Bulls won a sixth NBA championship, Jordan was also the CEO of the Jordan Brand.

Due to the huge success of his sneaker and apparel line, Nike had turned it into a separate entity for him.

With that blueprint in place, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson and Shaquille O’Neal also built their own successful personal brands.

Additionally, Kobe Bryant, who was similar to Jordan in many ways, went on to build an incredible empire that included his family. LeBron James, however, has perhaps achieved the most since Jordan.

According to Forbes, he was the first active player in the NBA to reach billionaire status.

Such success was not limited to those in the NBA. The rise in the late 1990s of golf phenom Tiger Woods was possible in part due to what has been called “The Jordan Effect.” The public’s extreme admiration for Jordan for nearly four decades has created a domino effect for black athletes. Like Woods, gymnast Simone Biles and tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams have also become huge beneficiaries and have now established their places in the business of sports.

Growing Empires In addition to being an NBA legend, Shaquille O’Neal is also a businessman and philanthropist.

The Inside the NBA analyst is reportedly making more money in retirement than he was during his playing career, and his net worth is estimated to be over $400 million. In his own reality TV show, Shaq Life, O’Neal revealed that he owned around 50 brands, a number that is expected to have risen over the years. It includes 155 Five Guys franchises, 40 24-Hour Fitness franchises, 17 Auntie Anne's pretzel franchises, 150 car washes, several nightclubs in Las Vegas, a shopping center, a movie theater, and his own restaurant, Shaquille’s. In addition, he founded the Big Chicken restaurant chain.

O’Neal has also invested in Apple, Google, Lyft, vitaminwater and Ring and is part-owner of the Sacramento Kings He is also heavily involved with the pizza chain Papa John's and owns several franchises of Krispy Kreme donuts. Other notable investments include Beachbody, Forever 21, JCPenney, Elvis Presley, Reebok, NRG eSports and Pepsi.

Since the late 1980s, Magic Johnson has also invested in various large-scale businesses that have made him a force in various industries. His investments span across entertainment, sports, technology and tangible products, with the primary focus on benefitting multicultural communities. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Magic Johnson Enterprises, an investment conglomerate that provides high-quality products and services that focus primarily BAVUAL

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on ethnically diverse and underserved urban communities. In addition to the Los Angeles Sparks, Cigna, Jopwell, Marvel and more, he is involved in various franchises.

Although his investments are not limited to franchises, he owns 30 Burger King restaurants, more than a dozen 24-Hour Fitness centers, and a TGI Fridays. Additionally, he has had multiple Starbucks licenses.

These assets significantly level up the Basketball Hall of Famer’s business portfolio and continue to solidify his legacy as a power player. As of 2022, Johnson's net worth was estimated at more than $600 million, making him one of the richest athletes in the world.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is doing even better financially. According to Forbes, he is one of the highest paid athletes in the NBA, having amassed a portfolio of endorsement deals and commanding one of the most impressive year-over-year salaries.

James’ work is supported by a variety of businesses such as Nike, PepsiCo, Rimowa and Walmart. He also formed Ladder, a health and wellness company, in 2018, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cindy Crawford and Lindsey Vonn as co-investors. Additionally, he owns a production company, SpringHill Entertainment, which produces content for TV, film and digital media, and he has formed a media company with Maverick Carter called Uninterrupted, which provides athletes a platform to tell their stories in their own words.

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Through his investments, he has A Race Car Driver also become a partner in a number Lewis Hamilton, British-born of companies, including Beats By Formula One racing driver holds a Dre, Liverpool FC and Blaze Pizza. In record seven world championships. addition, he has launched his own He dabbles as a musician and vocie line of shoes, clothing and actor and has put his $260 million accessories with Nike. fortune to good use: fashion design, plant-based restaurants and partBeyond Basketball: A Sprinter ownership of the Denver Broncos Sprinter Usain Bolt has followed NFL team. other athletes in pursuing business interests, and he went big for his Tracks & Records restaurant opening in Jamaica in 2018, outfitting the outside area with a large statue of himself made mostly of real bolts. The Olympic legend has speedily become a restaurant mogul with the opening–his third Tracks & Records eatery in Jamaica.

Additionally, he has more Tracks & Records restaurants in the United Kingdom; an online store where he sells sporting goods and Usain Boltbranded gear; and Champion A Golfer Shave, which sells 6-blade razors at Tiger Woods, the World Golf Hall of discounted prices. He is a marketing Famer, tied for 1st place in 82 PGA force with more than a dozen tour wins over a 27-year career. sponsors, and most of the deals Once the world's most marketable have continued in retirement. His athlete, with over $1 billion in biggest deal is with Puma, which endorsement fees, Woods is the pays him more than $10 million first golfer to attain a net worth of annually. over a billion dollars.

A Boxer Floyd Mayweather, boxing champ and box office draw (1996-2017), later a promoter, earned $1.2 billion in his career.

A Tennis Player Serena Williams, top-seed tennis pro, earned nearly $95 million in a 27-year career (1995-2022).

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THE BIG BAD FIVE NET WORTH OF NBA SUPERSTARS MICHAEL JORDAN NET WORTH: $2.2 BILLION AGE: 60 RECORD: Jordan was the legendary shooting guard/point forward for the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. During his on-and-off 19-year career (1984-2003) he was NBA Finals MVP six times and NBA Most Valuable Player five times.

EMPIRE: Jordan's business activities are equally legendary, as the inspiration for Air Jordan sneakers (Nike), a film actor (Space Jam), and owner and head of the Charlotte Hornets NBA basketball franchise. He is one of the most effective product promoters in business history.

LEBRON JAMES NET WORTH: $1 BILLION AGE: 38 RECORD: James is a small forward/power forward, having played with three NBA championship teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers (with whom he is most associated ), the Miami Heat, and the Los Angeles Lakers (current). Over his 20-year career, he has been NBA Finals MVP and NBA Most Valuable Player, both four times.

EMPIRE: James' lucrative playing contracts and endorsements have made him the first active NBA player to become a billionaire. He also owns SpringHill Entertainment, a burgeoning production company, and stakes in the Boston Red Sox and other sports teams.

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MAGIC JOHNSON NET WORTH: $600 MILLION AGE: 63 RECORD: Johnson's basketball career spanned a cumulative 14 years, wherein he was a point guard for the five-time NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers and the Magic M7 Boras, a Swedish team. He was NBA Finals MVP and NBA Most Valuable Player three times.

EMPIRE: Johnson owns Magic Johnson Entertainment, which produced his talk show, The Magic Hour, and Magic Johnson Enterprises, a conglomerate that includes a film studio, real estate, food and beverage franchises, and stakes in baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers and football's Washington Commanders.

KOBE BRYANT NET WORTH: $600 MILLION* AGE: 41** RECORD: Shooting guard and small forward for the Los Angeles Lakers (1996-2006), five-time NBA champions. NBA Finals MVP (2009, 2010) and NBA Most Valuable Player (2008), two-time NBA scoring champion (2006, 2007).

EMPIRE: Bryant's basketball achievements have made him a popular endorsement choice.

Adidas alone paid him $48 million in a six-year endorsement deal. After retiring, he branched out into rap music performing and acting. His diverse portfolio included a sports-branding firm, Kobe Inc.; a media company, Granity Studios; and a venture capital firm, Bryant Stibel. *at time of death, 2020 **Bryant was killed along with his daughter in a helicopter crash in California, Jan. 26, 2020 BAVUAL 84

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SHAQUILLE O’NEAL NET WORTH: $400 MILLION AGE: 51 RECORD: Center on six NBA basketball teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. Voted MBA Most Valuable Player (2000) and NBA Finals MVP (20002002) among many other accolades over a 19-year career (1992-2011).

EMPIRE: Since his retirement, O'Neal has found success in a variety of roles - media personality, rap composer, EdD, reserve police officer, actor, video game promoter, documentary subject, advertising pitchman, pro wrestler and mixed martial artist. His fortune is derived from groundfloor investments in tech companies such as Google, real estate development, food and health club franchises, and cryptocurrency.

THE RISE OF BLACK QUARTERBACKS

MAHOMES

Two men who may be in the running to become the next sports moguls are Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts—the first two black starting quarterbacks to appear in a Super Bowl at the same time. The quarterback position is one of the most celebrated in football, and when the quarterbacks’ feet hit the field, they’re lining up to not only take the snap but often to lead their team and be the face of the franchise.

Unfortunately, before Super Bowl LVII, only seven black quarterbacks had played in the Super Bowl:

● Doug Williams–Won Super Bowl XXII ● Steve McNair–Lost Super Bowl XXXIV ● Donovan McNabb–Lost Super Bowl XXXIX ● Colin Kaepernick–Lost Super Bowl XLVII ● Russell Wilson–Won Super Bowl XLVII and Lost Super Bowl XLIX ● Cam Newton–Lost Super Bowl 50 ● Patrick Mahomes–Won Super Bowl LIV, Lost

HURTS

Super Bowl LV

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THE HUSTLE

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

BANK ON BLACK Black-Owned Financial Institutions Vie for Your Savings

By Kristen Jones

Black-owned banks have played an important role in the African American community for many years, providing the economic assistance that many black people have desperately needed. Without these institutions, many black citizens would not have had a safe place to save their money; would not have been able to purchase houses, cars and other important items; and would not have been able to build businesses.

Although the first Bank of the United States was established in Philadelphia in 1791, it didn’t serve the needs of blacks. To remedy this, President Abraham Lincoln established the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company in 1865 to help serve freed slaves after the Civil War who needed banking services. Unfortunately, the company failed in 1874 due to faulty investment practices and corruption, which turned out to be a tragedy for those African Americans who had opened savings accounts there. Although some depositors ultimately got about 62 percent of their money back, more than half lost all of their savings.

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Early Black-Owned Banks On March 2, 1888, the first African American bank was finally founded. It was named True Reformers Bank and opened on April 3, 1889. William Washington Browne established the bank to serve the interests of African Americans and so that their finances would not be monitored by whites.

Founded in Richmond, Virginia, it first operated out of Browne’s home and remained there for two years before moving. Even though it was the first blackowned bank chartered in the nation, the first one to open was the Capitol Savings Bank of Washington, D.C., which opened on Oct. 17, 1888.

By 1906, there were more than 30 black banks, and the number continued to grow for years. These first black banks weren’t created merely to make a profit but rather to serve the community’s needs. They often provided lower-interest mortgage loans and programs to help those in need or who were unemployed—efforts that weren’t common in those days.

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Over 130 black-owned banks opened from the end of Reconstruction to the beginning of the Great Depression and provided loans to potential homebuyers and black businesses. By this time, African Americans had gained some faith in the banking industry, and the idea of having more black-owned businesses was becoming a reality. Unfortunately, only nine black-owned banks were still operating by the 1930s, partly as a result of the Great Depression, which hit the entire nation’s banking industry very hard.

After the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, blackowned banks have varied throughout the years. These banks—institutions in which black people own 51 percent or more of the stock—try to level the playing field for black consumers who have been underserved by other financial institutions and continue to lag behind other segments of the population.

They have created financial havens for African Americans when discrimination in the industry was common and continue to provide needed services to those in the community. They are often located in areas overlooked by the rest of society, such as neighborhoods that are subjected to redlining practices and communities that are not able to acquire fair banking services from other banks. To meet the needs of their community, they may provide resources that address the special needs of African Americans and their families, such as two-day early

paydays, short-term loans, smalldollar loans, and real estate lending programs. They also provide institutional leadership, capital, employment and training in low-income areas.

Systemic racism has discouraged many African Americans when they’ve sought funding for things such as businesses or family emergencies. At times, the lack of access to financial institutions is simply influenced by an outdated belief that African Americans can’t be successful with money.

This belief has increased the need for more of these banking facilities, both to dispel such myths and to provide the opportunity for future generations of black people to gain the knowledge they need to make positive financial decisions.

Black Banks Today Unfortunately, the number of black-owned banks in the U.S. has dwindled over the past 20 years or so, decreasing by more than 50 percent, partly because the economic condition of their customers, regulations, operating costs, and competition from mainstream banks make it difficult to stay in business. The 2008 financial crisis was particularly damaging to the income level and employment rate of black Americans and contributed to the decrease in the number of black-owned banks, which have far fewer assets at their disposal than major banks.

The remaining black-owned banks, totaling less than 1 percent of all FDIC-insured banks, include online and brick-andmortar institutions, which are working diligently to minimize the ever-present disparity gap by

giving minority communities the financial services, funding and education they need to acquire assets and build wealth. Without these banks, low-to-moderateincome communities would be forced to rely on payday lenders, pawn shops, and loan sharks for financing, which would keep them trapped in an unhealthy cycle of debt.

A giant in black banking is OneUnited Bank, which was founded in 1968 as Unity Bank & Trust Company and today lays claim to being the largest blackowned bank in the nation. In addition to having physical locations, it is also the first black Internet bank. Still, the bank is tiny compared to mainstream banks.

JPMorgan Chase, for example, holds more than $3 trillion in assets, according to BankRate.com, while OneUnited manages less than a billion dollars in assets.

The Movement to Bank Black Following the 2016 protests against police brutality, Kevin Cohee, chairman and CEO of OneUnited Bank, started the Bank Black movement, which led black people to transfer millions of dollars to black-owned banks as protest. And while the focus of black-owned banks is on helping black individuals and black communities, that doesn’t mean that nonblacks can’t play a role. In fact, those from other races and ethnicities can become allies by using black banks and helping them grow so that they can better serve underserved black communities.

In 2021, for example, to help close the racial wealth gap, the streaming service Netflix deposited an estimated $100 million in black-owned financial

.

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institutions and community development organizations because they are better than mainstream banks at lending to minorities. The company also said that it would be depositing more in the future.

Whether we are black, white or another race or ethnicity, we too might want to consider banking black. It’s a great opportunity to make an impact and help establish a more equitable economy.

For a list of black-owned banks and credit unions, visit https://investopedia.com/black -owned-banks-by-state5024944 and scroll down toward the bottom of the page.

BERNARD GARRETT

THE BLACK BANKER WHO OVERCAME RACISM Had Bernard Garrett, a black millionaire, been born white, he might have been as rich as Warren Buffett. He certainly had the smarts.

Born in Willis, a small town in Texas, in 1925, Garrett rose about as high as a black man could in that region in that era. He ran a cleaning business, but that wasn't enough. Garrett moved his family to California, then as now seen as the land of golden opportunity, in 1945, again starting out in the cleaning business but soon branching out into real estate, buying apartment buildings for blacks with the profits of the business and a rare white banker who loaned him money to purchase the building.

By 1954, Garrett, now a millionaire, was ready for his biggest investment: Los Angeles' Bankers Building, the city's tallest, which he purchased with the use of a straw buyer, someone white who pretended to be the front man, while the real owners, Garrett and his partner, Joseph B. Morris, pretended to be the janitors, as selling to blacks was frowned upon at the time. It would be a tactic Garrett would continue to use when he entered the banking business in his native Texas.

“I had a desire to return to Houston, Texas, the place of my birth to give relief to local colored people who were having great difficulty obtaining real estate loans,” he once said.

BOSTON'S ONEUNITED, THE LARGEST BLACK-OWNED BANK, WITH ASSETS OF $661.2 MILLION

Beginning in 1963, Garrett, again using whites as front men, bought two savings and loan institutions, Main Land Bank & Trust Co. in Texas City, and First National Bank of Marlin. The banks were instrumental in providing often life-saving loans to African Americans squeezed out of the borrowing market by white banks due to their race.

Garrett was in the process of creating an even bigger banking and real estate empire when he ran into legal roadblocks put in place by powerful politicians, including Sen. John McClellan (D-Ark.), a Southern segregationist. Convicted in 1965 of misapplying $189,000 in bank funds, Garrett served nine months of a three-year sentence.

CITIZENS BANK OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, THE OLDEST continuously operating BLACK-OWNED BANK, OPENED IN 1904 BAVUAL

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The banking and real estate pioneer tried to put together other big deals, including the formation of a bank in The Bahamas; however, with a criminal conviction on his record, he was unable to obtain a charter. He died in Los Angeles in 1999, nearly forgotten until he was rediscovered decades later by black capitalists seeking to follow in his footsteps.

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AMERICA IN 2033 THE UTOPIAN VIEW

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JUST THE FACTS

When You Need to Know

BLACK EMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA Where African Americans Stand in the Labor Force SOURCE: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, AS OF 2019, AMONG

FULL-TIME WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS

LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE

Unemployment: 3.5%* Black Unemployment: 5%* Black Male Employment: 64.8% All Male Employment: 69.2% Black Female Employment: 60.5% All Female Employment: 57.4% Foreign-Born Blacks in the Labor Force: 70.8% Native-Born Blacks in the Labor Force: 61.1%

BY EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT Blacks With an Advanced Degree: 77.9% Blacks With a Bachelor's Degree: 77.4% Blacks With a High School Diploma: 58.9% Blacks With Less Than a High School Diploma: 37.3% Black men with less than a high school diploma had held fewer jobs, on average, than blacks with more education. By contrast, the average number of jobs held by men overall varied little by educational attainment.

MEDIAN WEEKLY EARNINGS Blacks With an Advanced Degree: $1,284 Black High School Graduates, No College: $635 Median earnings for black workers were lower than the median earnings of workers overall at all levels of educational attainment.

BY INDUSTRY Education and Health Services, Blacks: 28% Education and Health Services, All Workers: 23% Retail Trade, Blacks: 20% Retail Trade, All Workers: 10% Leisure and Hospitality, Blacks: 20% Leisure and Hospitality, All Workers: 10% Employed blacks were less likely to work in professional and business services, manufacturing, and construction than were employed people overall.

UNION MEMBERSHIP Among Blacks: 11.2% Among All Workers: 10.3%

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FULL-TIME (35+ HOURS PER WEEK) WORKERS All Blacks, Total: 84.9% All Workers, Total: 82.9% Black Men: 87.7% All Men: 88.5% Black Women: 82.3% All Women: 76.6% NON-DAYTIME WORK SCHEDULE Black Workers: 25% All Workers: 16% PAID LEAVE Black Workers: 63% All Workers: 66% Trend lines from 2011-2018 show black workers continuing to lag behind all workers in rate of increase for paid leave.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVES ETHNIC BREAKDOWN (SOURCE: ZIPPIA.COM) White: 67.8% Hispanic/Latino: 15% Asian: 6.3% Black: 6.1% Unknown: 4.3% American Indian and Alaska Native: 0.5% COMPENSATION Asian: $72,306 White: $70,311 Hispanic/Latino: $67,413 Unknown: $65,827 Black: $62,491 The average black executive is age 42 for men and 45 for women.

Though higher, the unemployment rate for blacks has generally followed the same pattern as the overall unemployment rate.

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ROLL OF HONOR

Recognizing Greatness at Any Level

FLOWERS IN SPRING Queenie Birkett (1923-2023) Wife, Mother and Activist/USA My mother grew up in poverty in rural Virginia during Jim Crow, one of eleven children of a widow. She was largely self-taught, a lifelong avid newspaper reader. A single mother of two children when she met young machinist Earl Birkett in the 1950s, the couple built a life together and a family of four children on suburban Long Island, New York. While Earl revolutionized the field of automation, Queenie was a foot soldier in the local Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and a tireless community activist who later started her own fashion business. Few women of her day possessed her enormous strength, courage, generosity and vivacity. I am largely the person that I am because of her. She passed away on Feb. 21, 2023, at almost 100, leaving a legacy for the ages. - Earl A. Birkett

Bobbi Wilson (b. 2013) Child entomologist/USA In October 2022, Wilson, age 9, was testing a homemade repellent to spray spotted lanternflies in her hometown of Caldwell, New Jersey. State agricultural departments across the country urged Americans to kill the invasive insects, which pose a threat to native trees and plants. A white neighbor called the police reporting “a little black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees." That unfortunate incident of racial profiling had a happy ending: In February 2023, Yale University's School of Public Health held a rare public ceremony to honor the child entomologist for her heroic efforts.

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Ed Dwight (b. 1933) Pioneering test pilot and first African American astronaut candidate/USA Back when the Right Stuff only applied to white test pilots recruited into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the dawn of the Space Age, Dwight knocked on the door of this exclusive club, and though he was eminently qualified, was denied admission. Dwight, who grew in racially segregated Kansas City, Kansas, was a U.S. Air Force test pilot when he was recruited into the astronaut pre-training program by space pioneer Chuck Yeager in 1962, allegedly because "Bobby Kennedy wants a colored in space."

Unfortunately, due to the racial politics of the era, Dwight was not selected by NASA to become an astronaut. After he left the Air Force in 1966, he tried engineering, real estate, and a job with IBM before drifting into a distinguished second career in sculpting. Dwight is known for his innovative use of negative space. Each of his pieces involves blacks and civil rights activists, with a focus on the themes of slavery, emancipation, and post-Reconstruction.

Percy Julian (1899-1975) Chemist extraordinaire/USA Julian's contributions to the pharmaceutical industry are invaluable. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills. Due to racism in America, Julian was unable to obtain his PhD in chemistry stateside, so he traveled to Vienna, Austria, to do so. Afterward, the bulk of his career was spent in the U.S. at the chemical company Glidden before he launched his own chemical research firm, Julian Laboratories. Julian held more than 130 chemical patents and was the first African American chemist - and the second black person in any field inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.

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Randall Robinson (1941-2023) Lawyer and Afrocentric activist/USA Robinson was the founder of TransAfrica, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that seeks to influence U.S. foreign policy toward African and Caribbean countries and all African diaspora groups. Founded in 1977, it is the oldest and largest advocacy group for African and African diaspora causes. As such, the group helped to sensitize Americans to the evils of apartheid in South Africa and mistreatment of Haitian immigrants, especially during the era of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The native Virginian and Harvard Law School graduate served as a civil rights attorney and congressional aide before launching TransAfrica. He wrote several books, one of which advocated for reparations for African Americans for slavery and segregation. Disillusioned with the treatment of blacks in America, he emigrated to St. Kitts in 2001. His bother was Max Robinson, the ABC News anchor who was the first black person to hold this position.

Ralph Abernathy (1926-1990) Minister and civil rights activist/USA Known as the man closest to Martin Luther King Jr., Abernathy had tall shoes to fill in carrying on King's legacy when the civil rights leader was shot to death in 1968. Born and educated in Alabama, he and King were fellow Baptist church pastors in Montgomery when they formed the first civil rights protest to successfully integrate buses in Montgomery, Alabama. He co-founded and served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and inherited command of the Poor People's Campaign upon King's death.

His later years have not been without controversy, as he supported Republican President Ronald Reagan and brought up King's marital infidelities in an autobiography.

Nevertheless, Abernathy's lifelong commitment to social justice and world peace is virtually without equal.

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Andrew Young (b. 1932) Politician, diplomat and activist/USA As Martin Luther King's executive assistant, the New Orleans native and Baptist church pastor often served as a liaison to the white community during the Civil Rights Movement.

He was with King the moment he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968. Young was also executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) before entering politics beginning in the 1970s. He served as a U.S. representative from Georgia, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter administration, and the 55th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He lost a close race in the Democratic primary for governor of Georgia in 1990 and has devoted himself to public policy and political lobbying ever since. Young is a model for today's political and public leaders.

Hosea Williams (1926-2000) Civil rights leader and activist/USA The third man in the triumvirate of Martin Luther King's civil rights inner circle, Williams was the original social justice warrior, leading King's army into the streets in countless protests for the poor and neglected. A wounded World War II veteran who was beaten back in America by racist whites, Williams harnessed that abuse to help his fellow black Americans by holding office in Georgia (state senator, Atlanta city councilman, DeKalb county commissioner) and running a major social services organization, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless. The phrase "Unbought and Unbossed" originally referred to him. An ordained minister, he was also a lifelong entrepreneur, having founded chemical cleaning and bail bonds companies and an international wrestling association.

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BENEDICTION

The Last Word

WHY PEOPLE HATED - AND LOVED - KEVIN SAMUELS Excerpts from Samuels' obituary in

Mr. Samuels, saying he had “galvanized a

The New York Times, May 7, 2022:

community of men of all races and nationalities in the outspoken hatred of

Describing himself as an image

women.” not in relationships, centered on the

consultant, [Kevin] Samuels had transformed in recent years from a

“Kevin Samuels has basically made a

inherent value of men and women, based

personal stylist into a social media

profit and has made his profile

on a set of traditional criteria.

celebrity who built his following on

consistently perpetuating harmful

an image of plain-spoken,

stereotypes about Black men and

In 2020, in one of his first viral hits, a video

hypermasculine authority, usually

women,” Ernest Owens, a journalist, said,

that assessed a woman as “average at

wearing a finely tailored suit. The

adding that “a lot of his rhetoric and

best” received millions of views. He

approach brought him more than a

commentary was rooted in misogyny.”

referred to women over 35 as “leftovers,” echoing a line he claimed was used by the

million followers on both YouTube and Instagram, and many of his

The comments on Mr. Samuels’s

supporters viewed him as taking

YouTube and Instagram videos revealed

courageous stands for what they

a community, mostly but not entirely

“If you have made it to 35 and you are

called traditional values.

composed of men, who looked up to him.

unmarried, you are a leftover woman,” he

One commenter responded to a recent

said. “You are what is left. Men know that

In his videos and posts, Mr.

video by calling Mr. Samuels an

there is something likely wrong with you.

Samuels urged his followers to

“inspiration” to Black men around the

Whether you want to hear it or not, I’m

adhere to rigid gender roles; he

world, and thousands of others indicated

going to go there with you. I’m telling you

largely evaluated women for their

support for the comment.

the truth that you don’t want to hear.”

In the early years there was little of

On social media, Mr. Samuels outlined a

Chinese Communist Party.

appearance and youth, men for their assertiveness and money. He criticized women whom he saw as too career-focused, and asked questions suggesting women’s interest in men was based mostly

the sharp-tongued content that would later launch him to stardom, as he focused initially on personal

on their income: “How much do you

fashion and self-improvement for

charge for submission?”

professionals.

view of relationships that put men in a dominant position and said women should accept infidelity by men but not be unfaithful themselves.

“Successful men cheat,” he recently wrote on Instagram. “Either you will deal with it

The messages were repugnant to many, especially women, who said his views were misogynistic and promoted a brand of masculinity

But he later discovered a formula that would help his following skyrocket, based on harsh

that harmed the men who listened

assessments of modern women and

to him. More than 30,000 people

the dynamics of dating and

signed an online petition asking

relationships. Many of his videos,

YouTube and Instagram to remove

seeking to explain why people were

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or not.”

Samuels died in his sleep at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 5, 2022. No cause was cited. He was unmarried at the time of his death, though he was married and divorced twice and had a daughter.

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