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As former President Joe Biden once whispered to President Barack Obama when he was serving as Obama’s Vice President, “This is a big fucking deal.”

If Michigan’s current Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is successful in her bid to become Michigan’s next Governor, which now appears increasingly likely given her wide lead in the polls and former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s decision to exit the race, Michigan will become one of the very few states that will have elected two women governors back-to-back. This is not an insignificant distinction, especially considering that current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is extremely popular and is finishing out her second term, serves alongside two other top elected women officials, Benson and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

I couldn’t help but be curious, so I had to look up the history behind all this. I’m well aware of the understandable controversy surrounding AI, but I do have to admit that ChatGPT is pretty amazing when it comes to research. I still won’t let it touch anything I write, not even to edit it, but it has become invaluable as a research tool.

Anyway, you have that disclaimer now. So here is what my friendly AI research assistant turned up.

Arizona currently holds the record for the most consecutive female governors, with three in a row, and its current Governor, Katie Hobbs, is female.

The only other state besides Arizona that has had back-to-back female governors is New Mexico:

· Susana Martinez (Republican, 2011–2019)

· Michelle Lujan Grisham (Democrat, 2019–present)

But Arizona was the first state to do it, with Jane Dee Hull followed by Janet Napolitano, and then Jan Brewer, giving Arizona three consecutive female governors. Until 2019, Arizona was the only state with consecutive female governors, when New Mexico joined the list after Lujan Grisham succeeded Martinez.

So if Benson steps in behind Whitmer, then she steps into some very significant history, taking Michigan along with her.

But that’s not all. Remember, I said Whitmer serves with an elected female Attorney General and Secretary of State. So, naturally, I had to once again ask my assistant how many other states had seen their way clear to elect three women to serve in top positions at the same time. The answer?

Besides Michigan, Oregon has also had all three offices held by women simultaneously.

In early 2023, Oregon simultaneously had:

• Governor: Tina Kotek

• Secretary of State: Shemia Fagan

• Attorney General: Ellen Rosenblum

Tina Kotek became governor in January 2023, while Shemia Fagan was already serving as secretary of state and Ellen Rosenblum was serving as attorney general.

Michigan later joined that short list with:

• Gretchen Whitmer

• Jocelyn Benson

• Dana Nessel

As far as historical records show, Oregon and Michigan are the only states known to have had women serving simultaneously in all three of those offices.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Personally, I think making this kind of history in a time like this is something to be proud of. But equally notable is the fact that the gender of Michigan’s top elected officials is something that rarely even gets mentioned anymore around here. Because we’re used to powerful women taking charge. Because that’s the way it should be.

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Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus Who Revolutionized Jazz

I love most genres of music, and jazz is one of my favorites, although I wish I knew more about the jazz greats, such as Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest jazz saxophonists ever. I really enjoyed researching his life and influence before his recent death.

Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins stands as one of the most influential and innovative saxophonists in the history of jazz. Born on September 7, 1930, in New York City, Rollins would spend decades reshaping the boundaries of his instrument and transforming the entire landscape of jazz music.

Rollins’ early life in Harlem, where he began his musical journey on piano before switching to the saxophone at age nine. By his teenage years, he was already studying the work of Coleman Hawkins and absorbing the bebop revolution that was reshaping jazz.

His recording career began in earnest in the early 1950s, and by the mid-1950s, Rollins had established himself as a major force in jazz. Albums like “Saxophone Colossus” (1956) became definitive works that showcased his emerging style. The album featured the now-iconic recording of “St. Thomas,” a calypso-inflected tune that demonstrated Rollins’ ability to bring fresh energy to musical material.

What set Rollins apart from his contemporaries was his approach to improvisation. Rather than relying primarily on harmonic sophistication, Rollins was a master of thematic development. He could take a simple melodic idea and spin it into elaborate variations, creating solos that were both intellectually rigorous and emotionally moving, which influenced generations of musicians who came after him.

Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, Rollins created a remarkable body of work with collaborators including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Duke Ellington. His tenor saxophone voice was distinctive—full-bodied, assertive, and undeniably soulful. He recorded numerous landmark albums, including “Freedom Suite” (1958), a response to racial injustice in America, and “The Bridge” (1962), which marked his triumphant return to recording after a self-imposed sabbatical. This break from the music industry, during which he famously practiced on the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, demonstrated his commitment to artistic growth and his refusal to compromise his musical vision.

Rollins experimented with modal jazz, embraced world music influences, and remained engaged with the avant-garde developments in jazz even as he maintained his deep connection to the swing tradition. This balance between tradition and innovation, between accessibility and artistic challenge, made him a bridge figure in jazz history.

Beyond his instrumental prowess, Rollins earned respect for his integrity and his commitment to using his art for social commentary. His “Freedom Suite,” performed with drummer Max Roach, directly addressed the civil rights struggles of Black Americans.

Recognition of Rollins’ genius came through numerous accolades, including Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and induction into the DownBeat Hall of Fame. Universities honored him as a visiting artist and scholar. Yet perhaps his greatest achievement was his influence on fellow musicians. Virtually every saxophonist who came after him had to grapple with his innovations and find their own path in relation to his legacy.

Sonny Rollins’ career proved that jazz was a serious art form capable of profound expression, and that a musician dedicated to continual growth and experimentation could remain vital and relevant for an entire lifetime. Sonny Rollins stands as a monumental figure whose contributions to music and to human expression remain immeasurable.

Sonny Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, NY, on May 25, 2026, at the age of 95, after suffering from pulmonary fibrosis.

Today In Black History

• In 1863, Andrew Cailloux, a Black captain, led the First and Third Native Guard’s assaults on Rebel positions during a Civil War battle at Port Hudson, LA, helping the Union gain control of the Mississippi River. This was the longest military siege in American history.

• In 1873, Elijah McCoy patented his improved lubricating cup that lubricated the train engine when it ran out of steam.

• In 1890, Black inventor F.J. Ferrell patented a snow-melting apparatus.

• In 1963, Jomo Kenyatta was elected as the first Prime Minister and Founding Father of Kenya.

• In 1942, U.S.sailor and mess attendant Dorrie Miller became the first Black recipient of the Navy Cross for manning an anti-aircraft gun and, with no previous training in gunnery, shot down a number of Japanese planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

• In 1958, Ernest Green became the 1st African American to graduate from Central High School in Little Rock, AK.

• In 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris became the 1st woman to deliver the commencement address at the U.S.Military Academy graduation ceremony in West Point, New York.

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Issue #1,030 Today In Black History, Monday, May 25, 2026

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Formerly Enslaved Americans Create and Celebrate “Decoration Day”

This is an edited re-posting of an article we published on Memorial Day in 2022.

Memorial Day in the United States is observed on the last Monday of May. The sole purpose of Memorial Day is to honor those who died while serving in any branch of the military. 

Many people mistakenly use this day to remember those family members, friends, and colleagues who are veterans but died after their service was completed.

While those remembrances are nice, probably healing, and well-meaning, those people are not the ones we honor on Memorial Day.

I have many family members who served, including my father, my uncles, and several cousins. But they died after their service, often decades later. Veterans Day, observed every year on November 11, honors them and all veterans. 

The Origins of Memorial Day

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day because it was observed immediately after the Civil War. People decorated the graves of those who died while in service with flags and flowers.

The Civil War claimed more lives than any other conflict in United States history and established the country’s first national cemeteries.

One of the earliest Decoration Day ceremonies was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1865, less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered.

At the time, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club was transformed into a makeshift prison for Union soldiers captured by the Confederate Army. More than 260 Union soldiers died from disease and exposure, and their bodies were quickly buried in a mass grave behind the grandstands.

Almost immediately after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, former enslaved men and women exhumed the bodies from the mass grave in Charleston and reinterred them in a new cemetery.

On May 1, 1865, more than 10,000 people, including the formerly enslaved and white missionaries, staged a parade around the race track. The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.”

The all-Black 54th Massachusetts regiment members were in attendance and performed double-time marches. 

This was the earliest recorded observation of Decoration Day in Charleston, South Carolina, the city where the Civil War began in April 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumter.

However, in 1996, the United States officially named Waterloo, New York, the “birthplace” of Memorial Day because, on May 5, 1866, Waterloo hosted a community-wide event during which businesses were closed, and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

The Evolution of Memorial Day

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, then the leader of Northern Civil War veterans, called for a national day of remembrance for Civil War veterans. He chose May 30th as the official date because that date was not associated with any particular battle. By 1890, every state had declared May 30 a state holiday.

Today, nine southern states also officially recognize a Confederate Memorial Day, with events held on the birthday of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.

Although initially meant to commemorate those soldiers lost in the Civil War, after the United States had many other wars, Memorial Day evolved to honor all military losses during all conflicts and wars, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Memorial Day was not officially recognized nationally until the 1970s, when so many Americans died in Vietnam.

For over one hundred years, Memorial Day was observed on May 30, no matter the day of the week on which the date fell. However, in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, establishing Memorial Day as a federal holiday to be observed on the last Monday in May so that federal employees could have a 3-day weekend.

The change went into effect in 1971 and included Presidents’ Day, observed on the 3rd Monday in February, and Columbus Day, observed on the 2nd Monday in October. This is also the official Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

Later, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day was added as a remembrance on the 3rd Monday in January. In October 2021, President Joe Biden declared that the 2nd Monday in October would now be known as Indigenous Peoples’ Day while keeping Columbus Day as the name of the official federal holiday.

Columbus Day has been rightly renamed “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” by many states, and by President Joe Biden, to honor the original inhabitants of this land. Donald Trump tried to bring back “Columbus Day,” supposedly honoring a man who never set foot on the North American continent and is a known murderer, sexual abuser, and pedophile—just Trump’s kind of person.

Other official federal holidays, including New Year’s Day (January 1), Juneteenth (June 19), Independence Day (July 4), Thanksgiving (the last Thursday of November), and Christmas Day (December 25), are still observed on their original dates, no matter the day of the week on which they fall.

For over twenty years, the late Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), a decorated World War II veteran, unsuccessfully lobbied for Memorial Day to return to its original date of May 30.

How Memorial Day is Observed Today

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

• Since World War I, wearing a poppy on Memorial Day has been a tradition inspired by a poem written at the time.

• Most Memorial Day celebrations include parades by veterans and speeches by politicians, visits to cemeteries to “decorate” the graves of those lost in battle, and thousands of veterans making an annual pilgrimage to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

• The official time for remembrance on Memorial Day is 3 pm.

• The President of the United States annually lays a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Since 1937, members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment have guarded the Tomb, taking exactly 21 steps in each direction. The “Old Guard,” as the soldiers are known, guards the Tomb 24/7, no matter the weather. 

• The American Flag should be hung at half-staff until noon, when it is raised back to the top.

• The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1922. The son and only surviving child of President Abraham Lincoln, 78-year-old Robert Todd Lincoln, attended the dedication ceremony.

• Memorial Day is also celebrated as the unofficial start of summer, with people having barbecues and picnics. It is the only warm-weather three-day weekend until Labor Day in September.

No matter how you feel about war overall, it is still a fact that over 1.3 million Americans have died while in service, and today is the day to honor them. The United States flag represents all of us, not just the vocal right-wing minority who try to declare only themselves as true patriots.

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On Sunday, May 17, 2026, hundreds of voting rights supporters once again marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. This march was in response to the April 29, 2026, SCOTUS decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which concluded that using race as the primary factor in creating a second majority-minority district violates the 14th Amendment.

Edmund Winston Pettus (July 6, 1821 – July 27, 1907) was an American lawyer, politician, and military officer who represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1897 to 1907. He first served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army. After the war, he was Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, which terrorized and often killed African Americans.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge was named after him to memorialize his history of restraining and imprisoning African Americans in their quest for freedom after the Civil War.

The Department of Justice was instituted in 1870 primarily to find and arrest Ku Klux Klan members who were killing African Americans trying to exercise their right to vote.

A History of Voter Suppression and Solutions Throughout American History

The right to vote stands as a cornerstone of democracy, yet throughout American history, millions have been systematically prevented from exercising this fundamental right. Voter suppression has taken many forms, evolving across two and one-half centuries to maintain white power structures and limit political participation among marginalized communities.

The Early Era of Voter Suppression

From the nation’s founding, voting rights were restricted to white male property owners. Women were entirely excluded until the 19th Amendment in 1920, while Black Americans faced centuries of disenfranchisement. After the Civil War, Reconstruction-era policies briefly expanded voting rights, but the subsequent rise of Jim Crow laws in the South reintroduced systematic barriers, including literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses. These mechanisms, though facially neutral, were deliberately designed to prevent Black citizens from voting while exempting white voters.

Twentieth-Century Tactics

The 20th century witnessed both persistence and evolution in voter suppression tactics. Literacy tests remained widespread despite widespread voter fraud and inconsistent administration. Poll taxes—fees required to vote—were weaponized against poor and minority voters. Grandfather clauses allowed individuals whose grandfathers could vote to bypass literacy tests, conveniently exempting most whites while excluding nearly all Black voters. Additionally, violence and intimidation through organizations like the Ku Klux Klan created a climate of fear that kept many from polling places.

Solutions and Legislative Response

The Civil Rights Movement catalyzed crucial legislative protections. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented a watershed moment, prohibiting literacy tests and requiring federal approval for changes to voting laws in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination. This landmark legislation, combined with the 24th Amendment, which eliminated poll taxes, removed many formal barriers. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 further expanded access by requiring voter registration opportunities at various public agencies.

Modern Voter Suppression and Contemporary Solutions

Despite legal protections, voter suppression persists in modern forms. Voter ID laws, purges of voter rolls, limited polling locations in minority neighborhoods, and reduced early voting periods create new barriers—often disproportionately affecting communities of color and elderly voters. The Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County decision weakened the Voting Rights Act, eliminating preclearance requirements that had prevented discriminatory voting changes.

The latest Supreme Court decision on the Louisiana voter suppression/redistricting case is Louisiana v. Callais, decided on April 29, 2026.

The Ruling (6-3 Vote): The Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map that created a second majority-Black district, calling it an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

This case represents a major shift in voting rights law, significantly weakening protections that have been in place for decades.

Almost immediately, several southern states, all former Confederate states, started reworking their districts to dilute or eliminate Black representation.

These two Supreme Court decisions have all but obliterated the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but people are fighting back hard.

Contemporary solutions include comprehensive voting reform proposals. Automatic voter registration would remove administrative obstacles, while expanding early and mail-in voting provides flexibility and accessibility. Protecting voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals restores political voice to communities historically targeted by the criminal justice system. States and advocacy organizations have also worked to prevent arbitrary voter roll purges and ensure adequate polling locations in underserved areas. Federal voting rights legislation, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, aims to restore protections weakened by recent court decisions.

When the Democrats regain the majority in the House after the 2026 midterms, restoring voting rights will be high on their agenda.

Today In Black History

• In 1861, North Carolina became the 11th and last state to secede from the Union.

• In 1868, P.B.S. Pinchback and James J. Harris served as delegates to the Republican National Convention, becoming the first Black people to hold national political positions.

• In 1890, John Stephens Durham was named U.S. Consul to the Dominican Republic.

• In 1942, the U.S. Navy first permitted Black recruits to serve.

• In 1958, Robert Nelson C. Nix was elected as the first Blacks Congressman from Philadelphia.

• In 1961, a white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, causing Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. to send in the National Guard.

• In 2000, Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Talents” won the 1999 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

• In 2008, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) obtained the majority of pledged delegates in the Democratic Primary.

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Dr. Jane Cooke Wright stands as one of the most remarkable pioneers in medical science and cancer research. Born on November 30, 1919, this trailblazing African American physician revolutionized how the world approaches cancer treatment. Her groundbreaking work in chemotherapy research continues to influence oncology practice today.

Jane’s father, Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright, was himself a renowned surgeon and a pioneering figure in African American medicine. Jane developed a deep passion for medicine and a commitment to advancing human health. She earned her medical degree from New York Medical College in 1945, at a time when the medical field was overwhelmingly male and predominantly white.

Dr. Wright’s most significant contributions came through her innovative work in cancer chemotherapy during the 1950s and 1960s. While many researchers were focused on radiation and surgery as primary cancer treatments, she boldly pursued the potential of chemical compounds to fight the disease. She developed new methods for testing cancer drugs and pioneered the use of methotrexate and other chemotherapy agents to treat various cancers.

Perhaps most impressively, she achieved remarkable remission rates in childhood leukemia—a disease that was previously considered essentially untreatable. Her work gave hope to families and transformed cancer from what seemed like an inevitable death sentence into a disease that could be managed and, in many cases, overcome.

Beyond her laboratory achievements, Dr. Wright was a dedicated clinical physician and educator. She served as an associate professor of surgery at New York Medical College and was the director of the cancer research foundation at her institution. She believed that research should ultimately serve humanity, and she never lost sight of the human beings behind the statistics and medical data.

Dr. Wright was named one of the top ten women physicians in the United States and received the Mademoiselle magazine award for outstanding achievement. Her research was published in prestigious medical journals and presented at international conferences. However, what truly defined her legacy was the impact of her work on actual patient outcomes and the doors she opened for other African American physicians and women in medicine.

Throughout her career, Dr. Wright faced discrimination and obstacles that many of her white, male counterparts never encountered. Yet she used those barriers as motivation to excel and to prove that talent, dedication, and intelligence know no color or gender. She became a mentor to younger physicians and actively worked to create opportunities for underrepresented groups in medicine.

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright retired from active practice in 1967 but continued to influence the medical field through her legacy. She passed away on January 26, 2013, at the age of 93, leaving behind a lifetime of achievements that fundamentally changed cancer treatment. Her innovative approach to chemotherapy, her dedication to clinical excellence, and her unwavering commitment to advancing medicine for all people make her an inspiring figure in both the history of medicine and the history of African American achievement.

Today In Black History

• In 1652, Rhode Island enacted the first law declaring slavery illegal.

• In 1869, Robert Tanner Freeman became the 1st African American to graduate from Harvard Dental School.

• In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the doctrine of “separate but equal” in education and public accommodations and began the age of “Jim Crow.”

• In 1983, the U.S. Senate revised the immigration laws, giving millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.

• In 1991, the Republic of Somaliland declared independence from Somalia.

• In 2000, the South Carolina General Assembly voted to remove the Confederate flag from the dome in the capital of South Carolina.

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Keith and Pam are traveling this week from Detroit to New Hampshire for the 50th Reunion of the Class of 1976 of Phillips Exeter Academy, Keith’s high school alma mater.

We’ll be driving there and back, and the current price of gasoline is much higher than we had budgeted for this trip. (Sad Emoji…)

We’ll be back next week, when our 3X/weekly posts will resume.

Until then, feel free to peruse the “We Are Speaking” archive to read any articles you may have missed.

A few months ago, I wrote an article on each amendment to the Constitution. You may want to read those, since the current administration (and the Republican SCOTUS justices) thinks they are just “suggestions.”

We’ll see you next week!

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It’s true that Donald Trump is committing so many crimes and atrocities so fast that it becomes hard to keep up. There’s the war in Iran, the Epstein files, the wholesale destruction of the government, and the ruining of America’s reputation worldwide. So it’s a lot.

Nevertheless, as Rachel Maddow so thankfully pointed out in this week’s episode, one atrocity that doesn’t seem to be attracting quite so much coverage – or outrage – is Trump’s out-in-the-open attack on Black people. He’s not even trying to hide it, and I suspect that’s because he doesn’t think anybody other than Black people will really care. But as Maddow points out, Trump’s attack on Black Americans is an attack on Americans.

Keep in mind that Donald Trump’s history of racism against Black people goes back a long way, way before he was first elected President. During his first campaign for the presidency, which he won in 2016, Hillary Clinton, his opponent, brought the issue up during one of their debates. This was back when many of us still thought that being provably charged with racism and discrimination could actually be considered problematic for a presidential candidate. From NPR on September 29, 2016:

“During the presidential debate on Monday night, Hillary Clinton raised a 1973 federal lawsuit brought against Donald Trump and his company for alleged racial discrimination at Trump housing developments in New York.

“The Justice Department sued Donald Trump, his father, Fred, and Trump Management in order to obtain a settlement in which Trump and his father would promise not to discriminate. The case eventually was settled two years later after Trump tried to countersue the Justice Department for $100 million for making false statements. Those allegations were dismissed by the court.

“Donald started his career, back in 1973, being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination — because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans, and he made sure that the people who worked for him understood that was the policy,” Clinton said on Monday night.”

Several months after Clinton made her accusation, Trump was elected President of the United States.

About 15 years after Trump was sued by the Justice Department, Trump was calling for the execution of five Black and Latino young men who were wrongfully charged with a rape they never committed. Trump never apologized for the full-page ads he placed in major newspapers calling for the execution of those young men, even after they had been exonerated. From The Guardian, Feb. 17, 2016:

“Yusef Salaam was 15 years old when Donald Trump demanded his execution for a crime he did not commit.

“Nearly three decades before the rambunctious billionaire began his run for president – before he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, for the expulsion of all undocumented migrants, before he branded Mexicans as “rapists” and was accused of mocking disabled people – Trump called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York following a horrific rape case in which five teenagers were wrongly convicted.”

Now the Voting Rights Act has been completely gutted, effectively knee-capping Black voting power in many Southern states, such as Louisiana, where the Governor actually stopped an ongoing election after the Supreme Court handed down that decision, so that districts could immediately be redrawn to eliminate any Black majority districts in a state that is almost 1/3 Black.

But this is just the most recent.

· Broad rollback of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs
Trump signed multiple executive orders targeting DEI initiatives in federal agencies, schools, contractors, and corporations. Civil rights groups and minority organizations argued these moves undermined efforts to address historic racial inequities and disproportionately harmed Black Americans and other minorities.

· Removal of DEI-related military and historical content
During the administration’s anti-DEI initiatives, Pentagon websites reportedly removed or altered pages about groups such as the Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, and women veterans. Critics described this as erasing minority contributions to American history.

· Federal pressure against race-conscious policies
Trump’s administration pressured universities, contractors, and organizations to dismantle race-conscious hiring, admissions, and grant programs. Critics said this ignored ongoing racial disparities and disproportionately benefited white applicants and businesses. Supporters argued these policies restored “colorblind” standards.

This is not only a threat to Black Americans. This mentality is a threat to all Americans.

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From before the founding of the United States through the Civil War, enslaved Africans didn’t just accept their lot in life. Many used various strategies and schemes to gain freedom for themselves and their families.

Hercules Posey was one of those enslaved people. He was the official presidential chef who outsmarted his owner, President George Washington, and asserted his own freedom in Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States.

He commanded a kitchen with the authority of a general. He dressed like a gentleman, walked with the confidence of a free man, and cooked meals that dazzled the elite of a new nation. Yet Hercules Posey was enslaved — the property of George Washington, the very man who proclaimed liberty as America’s founding ideal. His story is one of extraordinary talent, quiet resistance, and an act of defiance that Washington never forgot.

Hercules came to Mount Vernon as an enslaved field worker, but by the late 1780s, he had become Washington’s head chef, overseeing the preparation of elaborate meals for one of America’s most powerful households. When Washington assumed the presidency and moved to Philadelphia — then the nation’s capital — Hercules moved with him, running the kitchen at the President’s House on High Street.

Contemporary accounts describe him as a commanding presence: immaculately dressed in a blue cloth coat, a long white apron, and a black velvet cap. He was known to scold kitchen workers who crossed him and to move through the city’s markets with an air of authority that turned heads. To those who didn’t know his status, he could easily have been mistaken for a prosperous free man of Philadelphia.

Washington trusted Hercules to an unusual degree. He was granted the rare privilege of selling kitchen drippings and leftover scraps from the presidential kitchen, pocketing the profits for himself. This income allowed him to dress well and move about the city with a degree of independence nearly unheard of for enslaved people of the era. He used that freedom wisely — gathering information, cultivating contacts, and quietly building the conditions for something larger.

What Washington likely did not consider was that his own laws would work against him. Pennsylvania had passed the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780, which stated that any enslaved person residing in the state for six consecutive months would be legally entitled to freedom. To prevent this, Washington rotated his enslaved staff back to Virginia before that threshold could be reached — a calculated move to maintain his human property while appearing to honor Pennsylvania law. Hercules was subject to these rotations.

So on February 22, 1797 — George Washington’s 65th birthday — Hercules vanished. He walked away from Mount Vernon while Washington himself was in Philadelphia, and he was never found. It was a masterpiece of planning.

Washington was stunned. But he was gone — almost certainly to Philadelphia, where he had connections and could blend into the city’s substantial free Black community.

In the years that followed, a visitor to Mount Vernon reportedly asked Hercules’s young daughter, Evey, if she was sad her father had left. She replied that she was glad — because her father was now free.

For generations, Hercules Posey was a footnote in Washington’s story. Now he is recognized as a man who managed his own circumstances. Hercules Posey did not wait to be freed. He freed himself.

Today In Black History

• In 1626, Dutch colonist Peter Minuit organized the purchase of Manhattan Island for 60 gilders of goods from the Canarsie Indians of the Lenape.

• In 1787, African Lodge No. 459 was organized in Boston, MA, with Prince Hall as Master.

• In 1794, General Toussaint Louverture switched sides and ambushed his former Spanish allies at Saint-Raphaël in Haiti.

• In 1861, Arkansas and Tennessee became the 9th and 10th states to secede from the United States.

• In 1886, Black inventor M.A. Cherry patented the tricycle.

• In 1960, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act.

• In 1967, four hundred students seized the administration building at HBCU Cheney State College in Pennsylvania.

• In 1969, Howard Lee was elected mayor of Chapel Hill, NC, becoming the first Black person elected mayor of a predominantly white North Carolina city in modern times.

• In 1994, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) were confirmed the winners in South Africa’s first post-apartheid election.

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James Baskett: A Trailblazing Life in the Shadows of Hollywood

Unlike my husband and younger daughter, who practically live at the movies, I am not really a movie-goer. I only see about 2-3 movies a year in the theaters. I’ve recently seen “Michael,” “Avatar,” and of course “Sinners,” which I saw twice in the theater. Very unusual for me.

Today, the work of Black actors and directors is much more prevalent, and Black production companies are making very successful films meant for general audiences.

However, through my studies in Black history, I do know that until the late 1960s, almost all of the roles by the major studios relegated Black actors to stereotypical representations. “Lilies of the Field,” released in 1963, was one of the exceptions. It starred Sydney Poitier, who became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1948, James Baskett became the first Black actor to receive an honorary award for his role in the controversial movie, “Song of the South.”

James Baskett was born on February 16, 1904, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He grew up with a passion for performance that expressed itself early. He worked steadily in Black theater and radio before making his way to Hollywood, where opportunities for African American actors were severely limited, often reduced to demeaning stereotypes or outright exclusion.

In the 1930s and early 1940s, Baskett found consistent work on radio and in small film roles, gradually building a reputation as a skilled, versatile performer. He was particularly acclaimed for his comedic timing and his warm, expressive voice — qualities that would eventually define his most famous role. He also appeared in a number of films produced specifically for Black audiences, known as “race films,” which allowed African American performers to play full, complex human beings rather than the caricatures mainstream Hollywood typically offered.

His crowning achievement came in 1946, when Walt Disney cast him as Uncle Remus in Song of the South, a live-action and animated hybrid film based loosely on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. Baskett anchored the film with a performance that transcended the material. He also provided the voice of the animated character Br’er Fox, demonstrating his remarkable range within a single production. The film’s centerpiece song, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” became one of the most recognizable tunes in Disney history, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The following year, at the 20th Academy Awards ceremony in 1948, James Baskett received an honorary Oscar — presented by actress Ingrid Bergman — in recognition of his “able and heart-warming characterization” of Uncle Remus. He was the first African American male actor ever to receive an Academy Award of any kind. The honor was deeply meaningful, even as it arrived with painful ironies: Baskett had been unable to attend the film’s Atlanta premiere because, as a Black man, he was not welcome in the segregated theaters where it screened. This was the same rejection that Hattie McDaniel, the first Black actor to win an Oscar, experienced in 1940 when she was denied entry to the theater at the premiere of “Gone With The Wind” in Atlanta. McDaniel received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

James Baskett’s health had been deteriorating for some time. He suffered from a serious heart condition and diabetes, and the physical demands of his later career took a toll. The Oscar came just months before his death. James Baskett passed away on July 9, 1948, in Los Angeles, at just 44 years old. He died before he could fully witness the legacy he had created.

In the decades since, Song of the South has become a deeply controversial film, with entirely valid criticisms for its romanticized portrayal of the post-Civil War South and its racial stereotypes. Disney has declined to give the film a wide release since 1986. Yet, Baskett brought humanity and grace to the role while enduring the systemic inequality that would have defeated many others.

Today In Black History

• In 1818, the Netherlands and Britain signed a treaty to combat the slave trade.

• In 1891, Black Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founded the Provident Hospital and Training School in Chicago, the first Black-owned and operated hospital in the United States.

• In 1896, Black Cowboy Bill Pickett was credited with inventing “Bull Dogging,” the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground.

• In 1897, Black inventor J.W. Smith received a patent for a lawn sprinkler.

• In 1959, Black singer Ella Fitzgerald won the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance at the first Grammy Awards.

• In 1961, the CORE (Congress for Racial Equality) organization began the “Freedom Rides” from Washington, D.C., designed to test the South’s compliance with the Interstate Commerce Commission’s desegregation order.

• In 1970, Black playwright Charles Gordone won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1969 play, “No Place to Be Somebody.”

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From the earliest days of this country, white Christian males were always prioritized for voting rights. At first, the government limited voting to white men who owned property. It took a few decades for voting to be allowed for all white men in the early 19th century. Women (white women, that is), of course, did not achieve full suffrage until 1920.

Roger B. Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was the brother-in-law of Francis Scott Key (1779–1843), who wrote the lyrics to the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Taney led a 7-2 SCOTUS decision in the 1857 Dred Scott V Sandford case that declared enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory. This decision is thought to be one of the reasons for the Civil War.

After the Civil War, there were three “Reconstruction Amendments” that purported to grant citizenship rights to the previously enslaved men as well as to everyone born on U.S. soil.

Specifically, the Fifteenth Amendment, ratified on February 3, 1870, prohibited the U.S. government and states from denying a citizen the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. As the third “Reconstruction Amendment,” it was intended to guarantee suffrage for Black men, though its enforcement was undermined for decades by state-level restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests.

Again, women, indigenous men, and Asians, particularly the Chinese, were not included in this amendment, as they were not considered to be full American citizens.

In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson SCOTUS decision ruled 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 came to be known as “separate but equal.” The final separate but equal laws were not struck down until the 1950s.

Meanwhile, from the late 19th century on, many Southern states passed laws that restricted voting by Black men, including a “grandfather clause” that stated that a man could vote if his grandfather was able to vote. Of course, the grandfathers of the previously enslaved could not vote. There were also literacy tests, poll taxes, and tricks like requiring a person to correctly count the number of jelly beans in a jar.

Also in 1870, the Department of Justice (DOJ) was formed, specifically to counter the attacks on Black people by the Ku Klux Klan. While our government has had an attorney general since the beginning, the Department of Justice started almost one hundred years later. Now, the DOJ under Donald Trump is working hard to restrict the rights of individuals and organizations that Trump doesn’t like.

For almost a century, many Black people and a lot of white allies were attacked, beaten, lynched, or otherwise killed just for trying to register to vote. By 1940, only 3% of Black people in the South were registered to vote.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The unanimous ruling declared that racial segregation in public schools violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, effectively overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine.

On December 1, 1955, the Montgomery (AL) bus boycott began after Rosa Parks, a secretary for the Montgomery NAACP chapter, deliberately refused to give up her seat for a white rider. This action marked the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law.

In March of 1965, hundreds of people participated in the Selma to Montgomery March across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. (The Edmund Pettus Bridge was named after Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate brigadier general, U.S. Senator, and a leading member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Dedicated in 1940, the bridge was named to honor his legacy as a white supremacist leader who worked to maintain white power and restrict African-American rights.)

In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) into law.

The number of Black politicians winning posts exploded

Since then, the VRA has been re-approved and re-authorized by a bipartisan Congress and by Republican presidents every few years.

Until 2010. That year is when a series of voting restriction laws and policies started being passed by mostly by southern states, attempting to once again limit the voting rights of Black people and other non-whites.

On June 25, 2013, in Shelby v. Holder, the Court ruled by a 5-4 vote that Section 4(b) was unconstitutional because the coverage formula was based on data more than 40 years old. This ruling also made Section 5 of the VRA almost moot. Eric Holder was the Attorney General of the United States at that time.

Claims have been made that the ruling has made it easier for state officials to engage in voter suppression. Research shows that preclearance led to increases in minority congressional representation and minority voter turnout. Five years after the ruling, nearly 1,000 U.S. polling places had closed, many of them in predominantly African-American counties. There were also cuts to early voting, purges of voter rolls, and imposition of strict voter ID laws. Today, the Republicans are still trying to implement these restrictions.

In the summer of 2016, during the presidential campaign season, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton warned us about the Supreme Court and the damage that electing Donald Trump would do if he had the chance to nominate SCOTUS justices, and that is exactly what has happened.

On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that a Louisiana congressional map featuring two majority-Black districts was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, limiting the scope of the Voting Rights Act. The conservative majority held that race cannot be the primary factor in redistricting, potentially overturning efforts to create additional minority-represented districts.

One hundred and fifty-six years after the 15th Amendment was ratified, this decision nullifies Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

So now what do we do? Former President Barack Obama and many others have said that we cannot waste time feeling despondent.

With all of the mid-decade gerrymandering efforts and other voter intimidation and restriction actions being attempted, we must work even harder to ensure that the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election are free and fair.

It is already May, and the summer primaries are coming up soon. We must vote in the primaries and in the November general elections like we’ve never voted before.

And then, we must work to ensure that the results in November are not ruled invalid by the Republicans, and that the new Congress is seated without incident on January 3, 2027.

With Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate in 2027, we can pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is aimed at restoring and strengthening the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and reinstating a “preclearance” mechanism for states with recent voting rights violations, requiring them to get federal approval from the DOJ or a DC federal court before changing voting laws.

Donald Trump would most likely veto the bill, so Congress would have to override the veto.

What can and will you do to help ensure that our voting rights are protected?

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Frederick Lamar McGhee, born into slavery, was Minnesota’s first African American lawyer, its most consequential early civil rights leader, a renowned orator, and a criminal defense lawyer famous for his courtroom victories. His break with Booker T. Washington and subsequent alliance with W. E. B. Du Bois led to the founding of the Niagara Movement and then the NAACP.

Frederick McGhee was born on October 28, 1861, in Aberdeen, MS. Both of his parents died young, so as a teenager Fredrick followed his brothers, Matthew and Barclay, to Chicago.

In Chicago McGhee was an attorney in the offices of Chicago’s most distinguished Black lawyer, Edward H. Morris. He also met and married the Kentucky-born Mattie Crane.

In 1889, probably at the insistence of St. Paul newspaper publisher John Q. Adams, McGhee moved to St. Paul. When admitted to the bar in June, he became Minnesota’s first African American lawyer.

McGhee became a passionate defender of civil rights during a particularly challenging era. He was instrumental in organizing and leading the Afro-American League of Minnesota, an early civil rights organization dedicated to combating discrimination and advocating for equal treatment under the law. Through this organization and his legal work, he challenged unjust laws and practices that disenfranchised African Americans, particularly addressing issues of voting rights, employment discrimination, and access to public accommodations.

This was the Jim Crow era, and McGhee participated in every national civil rights organization that strove to find a way to fight racial discrimination. The most prominent of these at the turn of the century was the National Afro-American Council, for which he served as an officer. He arranged for its 1902 convention to be held in St. Paul, and for Booker T. Washington, the preeminent Black leader of the time, to attend. However, as Washington took control of the organization. McGhee publicly broke with him in 1903, and was soon joined by W. E. B. DuBois. With other dissenters, they formed, in 1905, the Niagara Movement, which advocated immediate and full equality of Black Americans. In 1909, Niagara morphed into the NAACP, led by DuBois.

One of McGhee’s most notable contributions was his involvement in cases challenging the separate-but-equal doctrine that had taken hold in American law. He understood that legal segregation was fundamentally unjust and worked tirelessly to expose its inherent inequality. His legal arguments anticipated civil rights positions that would gain broader acceptance decades later, demonstrating remarkable foresight and moral clarity.

McGhee believed that the Constitution’s promises of equal protection and due process should apply to all Americans, regardless of race. His ability to articulate the case for civil rights in compelling, accessible language made him an effective advocate both in and out of the courtroom.

In his personal life, McGhee was a family man (he and his wife had one adopted daughter), a churchgoer, a homeowner (in Frogtown, near the corner of University and Dale), and the owner of a cabin on the Apple River in Wisconsin. It was there in the summer of 1912 that he suffered an accident that led to a blood clot, and then an embolism that killed him a few weeks short of his fifty-first birthday.

McGhee was also an eloquent writer and public speaker who used his platform to educate the public about the injustices facing African Americans. He published articles, delivered speeches, and engaged in public debates, always maintaining a thoughtful, reasoned approach while refusing to compromise on fundamental principles. His ability to articulate the case for civil rights in compelling, accessible language made him an effective advocate both in and out of the courtroom.

Frederick Lamar McGhee passed away in 1912, but his legacy endures as a testament to the power of individual courage and professional excellence in the service of justice. He demonstrated that African American lawyers could command respect in their field and use their legal knowledge to advance the cause of racial equality. His pioneering efforts helped establish a tradition of Black legal activism that would grow stronger throughout the twentieth century.

Today In Black History

• In 1845, Macon B. Allen and Robert Morris, Jr. became the first African Americans to open a law practice in the United States.

• In 1854, Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University) received its charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, becoming the 1st Black degree-granting college in the United States.

• In 1890, Black inventor Henry Faulkner patented the ventilated shoe, placing holes in specific locations within the shoe, allowing for adequate circulation and greater comfort.

• In 1967, Aretha Franklin released the single “Respect,” written by Otis Redding, which was the Billboard Song of the Year.

• In 1968, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, in his role as president of the SCLS, began the Poor People’s Campaign, leading a delegation of leaders representing poor whites, Black, Native Americans, and Latinos to Capitol Hill for conferences with cabinet members and congressional leaders.

• In 1977, author Alex P. Haley won the Pulitzer Prize for his book “Roots.”

• In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first Black mayor of Chicago, IL.

• In 1992, the L.A. riots began, sparked by the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King. There were about 50 deaths and up to $1 Billion in property damage.

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Abraham Lincoln, The Man, the Myth, and the Complicated Truth

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is one of the most mythologized figures in American history. He is invoked as the Great Emancipator, the savior of the Union, a man who gave his life so that a nation conceived in liberty might live up to its promise. All of that is true — and yet the full portrait of Lincoln is considerably more complicated, especially when viewed through the lens of Black history.

Like most of you, I was taught that Abraham Lincoln was one of our greatest presidents and that he should be revered without question. However, as a retired educator specializing in English, history, and government, I have learned more about President Lincoln’s political views.

Today’s Republicans, especially the MAGA Republicans, like to “remind us” that Lincoln was a Republican, but they conveniently forget to mention that the Republicans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were completely different from the Republicans of the latter 20th century and beyond.

The Republican Party emerged in the Midwest (specifically Ripon, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Michigan) as a direct response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which threatened to expand slavery into Western territories.

Led by its first elected president, Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865), the GOP successfully guided the Union through the Civil War and spearheaded the abolition of slavery.

During Reconstruction, “Radical Republicans” pushed for civil and voting rights for newly freed African Americans.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His family relocated to Indiana and later to Illinois, always in search of better land and better odds. His mother died when he was nine; his formal schooling totaled less than a year. What Lincoln lacked in education, he made up for in relentless self-teaching, reading borrowed books by firelight until he could argue law with the best-trained attorneys in Illinois.

He taught himself enough to pass the bar in 1836 and built a thriving legal practice in Springfield. He married Mary Todd in 1842, entered national politics as a congressman, and eventually became the unlikely Republican nominee for president in 1860 — a one-term congressman whose greatest asset was that he had made fewer enemies than anyone else.

Lincoln’s presidency began before he was even inaugurated. Seven Southern states had already seceded by the time he took the oath of office in March 1861, and the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April ignited four years of civil war.

Lincoln was a masterful wartime leader — patient, strategic, and willing to bear enormous personal grief while projecting public resolve. He held together a fractious coalition of generals, Cabinet members, and congressional factions. He absorbed military disasters and kept fighting. He understood that the war’s purpose had to expand beyond restoring the old Union if the North was going to sustain the will to win.

But Lincoln was explicit, even blunt, about his priorities. In an 1862 letter to newspaper editor Horace Greeley, he wrote: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do that.” The Union came first. Slavery’s fate was a strategic calculation as much as a moral one.

When Lincoln first called for men to join the Union Army in 1861, he specifically disallowed any Black people, free or slave, to join the military, because that would mean giving them arms that could have been used against white people.

Lincoln’s personal views on race were a product of his time and place — that is, they were not abolitionist views. He found slavery morally wrong and said so, repeatedly. He called it an injustice that mocked America’s founding ideals. But on the other hand, for much of his adult life, he did not believe in racial equality or in Black citizenship.

In his famous 1858 debates against Stephen Douglas, Lincoln was direct: “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and Black races.” For years, he supported a plan to colonize freed Black Americans in Africa or Central America — a position that many Black leaders, including Frederick Douglass, vigorously and publicly rejected.

Through the Emancipation Proclamation that took effect on January 1, 1863, Lincoln freed enslaved people only in Confederate-held territories — not in the border states that had remained loyal to the Union. It was, at its core, a war measure designed to destabilize the Confederacy and encourage enslaved people to flee or resist.

And yet, Lincoln’s views evolved. By 1864 and 1865, he was privately and publicly supporting limited Black voting rights. Douglass, who met Lincoln three times, ultimately called him “the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely.” The Thirteenth Amendment, which was ratified to completely abolish slavery, was pushed through Congress with Lincoln’s active involvement.

Lincoln did not free Black Americans out of the conviction that they deserved equal humanity — at least not initially. He freed them because it helped win a war, and then found that his moral compass was catching up to his political decisions. That arc matters. It is not a story of a saint; it is a story of a politician who grew — imperfectly, incompletely, but consequentially — under the pressure of history. Black Americans did not wait for Lincoln to free them; they seized freedom themselves in enormous numbers and forced the question onto Lincoln’s desk. That truth belongs at the center of any honest reckoning with his legacy.

Today In Black History

• In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from Louisiana, ending Reconstruction.

• In 1903, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the clauses in the Alabama constitution that disfranchised Black Americans.

• In 1903, Maggie Lena Walker was named president of the St. Luke Bank and Trust, which she founded in Richmond, Virginia, becoming the first Black woman to head an American bank.

• In 1960, the African nation of Togo gained its independence from France.

• In 1961, the African nation of Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain.

• In 1964, the African countries of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.

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I can’t remember word-for-word what the joke was about Prince, but it went something like this: Prince is the only man who wears makeup, high heels, sings in falsetto, is prettier than most women, and can still steal your girlfriend. Although Prince wasn’t at all known to be anything other than heterosexual (his list of beautiful companions is pretty impressive), I would still add that he could probably steal your boyfriend, too, if he wanted.

This joke was actually a compliment. If you thought it was making fun of Prince, then you read it wrong. What this was saying is that Prince was so confident in who he was and how he expressed himself as a man that he didn’t need to play by the normal rules of dating engagement. He could just be himself, whichever self he felt like being on a particular day and at a particular time.

For those of you who can’t see it, that’s what true freedom looks like. Prince was a frontline ambassador not only for freedom of artistic expression but just plain freedom to be. The kind of freedom that most of us are either afraid of or are too constrained by the society in which we live to be able to fully experience. True freedom comes with a price, and most of us aren’t willing to pay that high.

We lost Prince a decade ago on April 21, 2016. I remember that date well, and I remember how the music world reeled. But what I remember more is my first reaction when I saw Prince, a dude in high heels, a long jacket, and skimpy black underwear. I determined right then and there that there was no way I was ever gonna get this guy’s album, even if the music sounded decent. No way could I justify being a fan of a dude who dressed like that. I was a diehard fan of Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton, both of whom also dressed in, let’s say, unusual fashions. But you never questioned the maleness of what they had on. And you never heard either one of them singing songs with lyrics like “Am I straight or am I gay?”

But then I saw Purple Rain. Like…I saw it about 5 or 6 times. I had just returned home to Denver from four years living in Chicago, pursuing my dream of supporting myself as a musician and writer of fiction. It didn’t quite work out. I arrived home close to 40 pounds underweight and in need of a job.

One day, I think I saw an ad for the movie and was a bit intrigued. By the end of the film (I was at an afternoon matinee and was one of just a handful of folks in the audience, which is how I normally like to see movies), I was like the guy in that commercial sitting in a sofa chair, grabbing the armrests with his hair blown back.

I think my afro may have gotten pressed straight. I had never seen anything like this before and didn’t quite know what to make of it, except that I wanted more. I went out and bought the album Purple Rain right away, then bought every other Prince album as soon as they came out.

I became more than an admirer; I became a disciple.

Am I straight or am I gay? Was a question. But the question wasn’t as important as the answer, which was that it didn’t matter. Not one damned bit. Just by asking the question, he exposed how stupid and irrelevant it was.

He was The Artist, and that’s how he lived his life. But he didn’t just live his life for himself, he lived his life as an inspiration for the rest of us to stop being afraid of who we are – and to stop being so damned intolerant of those who aren’t like us.

And then dance.

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Celia Cruz: The Queen of Salsa and an Enduring Legend

Celia Cruz stands as one of the most influential and iconic figures in Latin American music history. Born Úrsula Stella Isabela Martínez Imbert on October 21, 1925, in Havana, Cuba, she would become the undisputed “Queen of Salsa,” a title earned through her extraordinary voice, charismatic presence, and unrelenting passion for music.

From her early days, Celia demonstrated exceptional vocal talent. She studied music theory and voice at the Havana Conservatory, honing the skills that would eventually captivate audiences worldwide. Her breakthrough came in the 1950s when she joined the Sonora Matancera, one of Cuba’s most famous orchestras. For fifteen years, she served as their vocalist, recording numerous hit songs and becoming a household name throughout Latin America. Her powerful mezzo-soprano voice, capable of conveying both vulnerability and tremendous strength, set her apart from her contemporaries.

In 1960, following the Cuban Revolution, Celia made the difficult decision to leave her homeland. She emigrated to the United States, a move that proved transformative for both her career and the trajectory of salsa music globally. Despite the pain of exile and the challenges faced by Cuban immigrants, she refused to stop singing. Instead, she channeled her experiences into her music, creating performances infused with emotional depth and cultural authenticity.

The 1970s and 1980s marked the golden era of Celia’s career. Her collaboration with the legendary orchestra leader Tito Puente produced some of the most memorable salsa recordings of all time. Together, they created a synergy that elevated salsa music to unprecedented heights of popularity and artistic achievement. Albums like “Celia & Johnny,” recorded with Johnny Pacheco, and her numerous other collaborations solidified her status as the premier female voice of salsa. Her energetic performances, characterized by her infectious enthusiasm and signature catchphrase “¡Azúcar!” (Sugar!) became legendary.

Celia Cruz was a trailblazer who paved the way for Latina performers in an industry that often marginalized them. Her influence extended far beyond salsa; she participated in projects spanning multiple genres, collaborating with artists from diverse musical backgrounds and proving the universal appeal of her artistry.

Celia’s cultural impact was profound and multifaceted. She remained deeply connected to her Cuban heritage and the broader Latino community throughout her life. She used her platform to advocate for Cuban and Latino visibility in American popular culture during a time when such representation was limited. Her unwavering pride in her roots, despite decades of exile, made her an emblem of cultural resilience for millions.

Throughout her life, Celia received numerous accolades, including Grammy Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and countless honors from governments and cultural organizations. She performed well into her eighth decade, never compromising the quality of her performances or the infectious energy that defined her stage presence.

Celia Cruz passed away on July 16, 2003, but her legacy remains vibrantly alive. She will forever be remembered as the Queen of Salsa, a pioneering artist who enriched the cultural landscape and proved that true artistry knows no limits.

It was recently announced that Celia Cruz will be inducted into the 2026 Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Today In Black History

• On September 9, 1739, the first and largest recorded slave uprising in the British mainland colonies occurred near Stono, South Carolina.

• In 1868, Oscar James Dunn was elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.

• In 1884, the U.S. recognized King Leopold III’s Congo Free State.

• In 1919, Black inventor S.H. Love patented improvements to the military gun.

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Born on December 13, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York, Lanny Smoot has become one of the most prolific Black inventors in American history, with over 100 patents to his name. His journey to the pinnacle of technological innovation at The Walt Disney Company is a testament to curiosity, perseverance, and the power of believing in oneself.

Lanny’s fascination with invention began at just five years old when his father brought home a bell, a battery, some wire, and a light bulb—simple but transformative gifts. He spent his childhood dismantling electronics, tinkering with parts, and entering science fairs, always eager to understand how things worked.

Growing up in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, he faced circumstances that could have limited his dreams. But he had something more valuable: parents who believed in him unconditionally. “I had parents that were always ultra-supportive,” Smoot said, crediting them as “the common denominator in success in life.”

A pivotal moment came in high school when a guidance counselor saw potential in young Lanny and directed him toward Brooklyn Technical High School to pursue electrical engineering, rather than his original plan. This intervention changed everything. After graduating from Brooklyn Tech, Smoot earned a full scholarship to Columbia University, where he completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.

In 1978, Smoot began his career at Bell Labs, where he worked for two decades. His mentors included James West, the Black co-inventor of the electric microphone. During his time at Bell Labs and later at Bellcore (founded after the Bell System breakup), Smoot made groundbreaking contributions to telecommunications technology, including pioneering work on fiber-optic transmission and early video-on-demand systems. He invented the “VideoWindow,” the first high-quality, large-screen video teleconferencing system, which was later showcased at the Smithsonian Institution’s “Information Age” exhibit. He also created the “Electronic Panning Camera,” which enabled remote camera control and view adjustment—an invention that would eventually catch Disney's eye.

In 1998, Disney representatives discovered Smoot’s Electronic Panning Camera prototype and were so impressed with the inventor himself that they wanted to hire him to lead their research department. For the past 25 years, Smoot has served as a Disney Research Fellow and a member of Walt Disney Imagineering—the company's highest technical honor. Under his leadership and innovation, 74 of his 106 total patents have been created.

At Disney, Smoot’s work has bridged the gap between cutting-edge technology and imaginative storytelling.

Legendary Inventions

Some of Lanny Smoot’s most iconic inventions include:

• The Floating Madame Leota – The levitating crystal ball effect in the Séance Room at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland Park, one of the most beloved effects in Disney history

• Live-Action Lightsabers – The extendable, realistic lightsabers used in Disney Live Entertainment and the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience

• Interactive Attractions – Including “Where’s the Fire?” at EPCOT (2004-2014), which taught guests about fire safety while exploring hidden dangers in their own homes

• The HoloTile Floor – “The world’s first multi-person, omnidirectional, modular, expandable, treadmill floor,” allowing shared virtual reality experiences

• Interactive Koi Ponds – Virtual and interactive koi ponds at the Crystal Lotus Restaurant at Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel

• Fortress Explorations – An immersive adventure at Tokyo DisneySea

• Magic Playfloor – Interactive game experiences on Disney Cruise Lines

In 2021, Lanny Smoot achieved something no one else at Disney had ever done: earning his 100th patent. This milestone underscores his status as one of the most prolific inventors in American history. The breadth of his work—spanning theatrical technologies, special effects, ride systems, interactive experiences, and cutting-edge displays—demonstrates the scope of his vision and expertise.

Recognition and Honors

Smoot’s contributions have earned him numerous accolades, including:

• 1973 – National Achievement Scholarship Award

• 1987 – Most Promising Engineer Award at the first Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA)

• 1996 – New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame Inventor of the Year

• 2020 – TEA Master Award from the Themed Entertainment Association (the highest recognition for theatrical technology)

• 2024 – Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, becoming only the second individual from The Walt Disney Company to receive this honor (after Walt Disney himself)

Beyond his technical achievements, Smoot is deeply committed to inspiring young people, particularly Black youth and students of color, to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). He has served as a judge for innovation challenges at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through Disney on the Yard, and actively mentors diverse young people entering the technology field.

“I can be a role model that inspires young kids of all races,” Smoot said, “but especially folks who usually don’t see role models as looking like them.” His story—from a working-class kid in Brooklyn to one of the world’s most prolific inventors—is powerful proof that dreams are achievable with support, curiosity, and determination.

Today, Lanny Smoot continues to innovate and invent. He keeps a notebook beside him almost always, jotting down ideas for new inventions. “Practice what you love,” he advises. “As soon as you latch onto something you love, do it, and do it a lot. Be brave.”

Today In Black History

• In 1871, the Third Enforcement Act defined Klan conspiracy as a rebellion against the United States and empowered the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and declare martial law in rebellious areas.

• In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that busing was a constitutionally acceptable method of integrating public schools.

• In 1982, world-renowned opera singer Leontyne Price opened a convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

• In 1999, Rosa Parks was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for inspiring the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.

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The Declaration of Independence and Constitution sought to guarantee human and civil rights to all in the United States. As we all know, that did not always happen. The Founding Fathers primarily drew on the democracy in Greece and the Iroquois Confederacy for the information they used to write those documents.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (the preferred name of the Six Nations, which means “People of the long house”), one of the world’s oldest participatory democracies, influenced the US Constitution. It is made up of a historic, powerful alliance of six Native American nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and later Tuscarora—located in modern-day New York and parts of Canada.

The Confederacy’s structure of uniting separate nations under one council for common affairs provided a model for the federal system used in the United States.

Founded millennia ago, the Confederacy is one of the first and longest-lasting participatory democracies in the world.

However, over two thousand years ago, after defeating Babylon in 539 BC, the Persian warrior Cyrus the Great, who considered himself a liberator chosen by the gods, was the king when the Cyrus Cylinder was inscribed. The Cyrus Cylinder is considered a founding text of human rights.

Created after the conquest, the cylinder was inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform following Babylonian royal tradition: praising the new king, delegitimizing the deposed ruler, and framing the transition as divinely sanctioned.

The text condemns the previous king, Nabonidus, as impious and tyrannical, claiming that Marduk, the supreme patron deity of Babylon, chose Cyrus to restore temples, return exiled peoples, and end forced labor, presented as divine justice.

Buried for over two millennia, the cylinder was excavated in March 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam for the British Museum. The cylinder was incomplete. Over decades, additional fragments emerged, including a duplicate text fragment identified in 1970 and reunited with the original in 1972. Though broken into pieces, the cylinder remains substantially legible across its 45 lines of cuneiform.

A UN replica display exists, with the text translated into all six official UN languages.

Today, there are two viewpoints on the Cylinder’s purported reputation as a human rights charter, especially after Iran promoted it as proof of Persian moral legacy.

Supporters highlight Cyrus’s declarations of religious freedom and return of exiles. Critics argue it is merely Babylonian propaganda to legitimize Persian rule through local tradition rather than universal principles.

Of course, the current-day Iran does not respect the human rights of its citizens, especially women and protestors.

Of course, the present-day United States is still not fully respecting the human and civil rights of its citizens and non-citizens residing in the country.

Over 2,500 years later, the Cyrus Cylinder remains history’s most debated object, illustrating the enduring difficulty in distinguishing propaganda from principle.

Almost 250 years later, the same can be said for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

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Dr. Wendy Okolo: From Lagos to the Frontiers of Aerospace

With the successful Artemis II space mission, which included a diverse group of astronauts, it is a good time to learn about Black people, especially Black women, who have contributed to NASA’s successes.

Even though my parents were both scientists, I barely passed high school biology and abhorred cutting up frogs. In college, I was an English major. Science was never “my thing,” so I have enormous respect for people like today’s person in Black history.

Dr. Wendy A. Okolo is a Nigerian-American aerospace research engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center. She is the first Black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Born and raised in Lagos, she attended St. Mary’s Primary School and Queen’s College, one of Nigeria’s most respected all-girls secondary schools, before heading to the United States to pursue aerospace engineering. It was a bold leap — from Lagos to one of the most demanding fields in STEM. She credits her sisters, who taught her the sciences through their day-to-day realities, as her heroes.

She received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 2010, where she served as president of the Society of Women Engineers. As an undergraduate, she interned at Lockheed Martin on the Orion spacecraft, NASA’s crew exploration vehicle designed to facilitate human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

At just 26, she became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2015. Her graduate studies were recognized and funded by the U.S. Department of Defense through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, Zonta International through the Amelia Earhart Fellowship, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Texas Space Grant Consortium.

Dr. Okolo’s technical contributions span some of the most consequential areas in modern aerospace. Her expertise is in flight dynamics, vehicle controls, and systems health monitoring, exemplified by her work with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory on aircraft formation flight and the Advanced Development Programs of Lockheed Martin (Skunkworks) on performance-optimizing control for the F-35C aircraft.

At NASA, her research has pushed boundaries in flight safety and autonomous systems. She was the controls lead on a NASA early-career team that won $2.5 million to develop innovative techniques to guide and control an unconventional spacecraft, and she holds a U.S. patent for aerospace vehicle flight-path control. Her research includes developing advanced systems that enable aircraft and drones to detect faults early, making aviation smarter, safer, and more reliable.

At NASA, Dr. Okolo has been honored with the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal, the NASA Ames Award for Researcher/Scientist, and the NASA Ames Early Career Researcher Award — becoming the first woman ever to receive that last honor. Beyond NASA, she is also a recipient of the Women in Aerospace Award for Initiative, Inspiration & Impact, and the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Most Promising Engineer in U.S. Government.

Dr. Okolo’s impact reaches far beyond engineering equations and flight simulations. She served as the NASA Ames Special Emphasis Programs Manager for women, ensuring the recruitment, retention, and promotion of women. Her initiatives include creating nursing rooms for mothers to ease their transition back to work and analyzing job language in position descriptions to remove gender-biased language.

She is also a tireless advocate for the next generation. Through her groundbreaking achievements, she has shattered barriers, opened doors, and empowered underrepresented communities to pursue their dreams.

Dr. Wendy Okolo is proof that the most important breakthroughs happen when we expand who gets to be in the room. From the classrooms of Queen’s College in Lagos to the research labs of Silicon Valley, she has redefined what aerospace engineering looks like and who it belongs to.

Today In Black History

• In 1850, the California Fugitive Slave Law was adopted, authorizing any slave owner claiming a runaway slave to obtain a warrant for the slave’s arrest.

• In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to put down the Confederate rebellion, but his administration rejected Black volunteers.

• In 1896, Booker T. Washington was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University.

• In 1929, Oscar DePriest was sworn in as a congressman from Illinois, becoming the first Black congressman from the North.

• In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

• In 1959, African Freedom Day was declared at the All-African People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana.

• In 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was founded at Shaw University.

• In 1980, the African nation of Zimbabwe, formally known as Rhodesia, gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

• In 1996, the South African Truth Commission, formed to look into abuses during the apartheid era, began its public hearings.

• In 2019, Aretha Franklin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation honor, becoming the first individual woman to win the honor since 1930.

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The Legacy of Lt. General Russel Honoré: A Leader Who Commanded with Integrity and Compassion

What do you remember about Hurricane Katrina in 2005? I remember the deaths, the destruction, the government’s non-readiness, and the incompetence of the people that G.W. Bush first appointed to deal with the aftermath. Remember when he said, “Heck of a job, Brownie!”

President Bush was referencing Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Bush made this comment on September 2, 2005, while touring areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, intending to praise Brown's efforts despite growing criticism of FEMA's response.

The Army Corps of Engineers warned authorities in Louisiana and New Orleans months earlier that the levees would not hold, but the warnings were ignored. Enter 3-star Lt. General Russel Honoré.

Lt. General Russel Honoré stands as one of the most distinguished military leaders in American history, a trailblazer whose career spanned decades and whose impact extended far beyond the battlefield. Born and raised in Louisiana, Honoré’s journey from a young man with a dream to a three-star general exemplifies the power of dedication, strategic thinking, and unwavering commitment to service.

Honoré’s military career began when he enlisted in the United States Army, and he eventually earned his commission as an officer. Throughout his career, he served in numerous significant positions, including command of the First Army, one of the largest and most important commands in the U.S. Army. His leadership style was characterized by a unique blend of military precision and genuine care for his personnel, earning him the respect and loyalty of soldiers at every level.

His famous statement to the people he oversaw was: “Don’t get stuck on stupid.”

Hailing from Lakeland, Louisiana, Honoré was commissioned as a second lieutenant of the infantry in 1971 upon graduating with a degree in vocational agriculture from Southern University and A&M College.

Honoré served in a variety of infantry command positions throughout his career and took command of the First Army based at Fort Gillem outside Atlanta. He also served as the vice director for operations, J-3, The Joint Staff, focusing on military support to civil authorities.

Before the fateful 2005 hurricane season, Honoré had helped coordinate the U.S. response to flooding in Venezuela in 1999 and Mozambique in 2000.

He also oversaw the military’s response to the 1986 space shuttle Columbia disaster and the sniper shootings in the Washington, DC, area in 2002.

One of the defining moments of Honoré’s career came in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, he led one of the largest humanitarian and disaster relief operations in American military history. His swift and decisive action, combined with his empathy for the suffering citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, transformed him into a national figure. Honoré’s famous phrase, “We will meet the challenges and the moment,” became emblematic of his resolute determination to restore order and dignity to a region devastated by nature’s fury. His leadership during this crisis demonstrated that military strength could be paired with compassion and social awareness.

Compare that with the responses to people (citizens and non-citizens) of the current employees of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and FEMA, whom the current president declared should only help “red states.”

Beyond his military prowess, Honoré became an influential voice on climate resilience and environmental justice. He recognized that natural disasters disproportionately affect vulnerable communities and has advocated tirelessly for stronger disaster preparedness, infrastructure improvements, and equitable resource allocation. His work post-retirement has focused on building community resilience and ensuring that future generations are better prepared to face environmental challenges. He established the Honoré Initiative to focus on climate justice and community resilience, particularly in Louisiana and other vulnerable regions.

Honoré has also formed the GreenARMY, a coalition of community and environmental groups that works to address environmental issues in Louisiana.

Lt. General Honoré has also been a powerful advocate for diversity and inclusion within the military and broader society. As an African American officer who reached the highest echelons of military leadership, he himself represents breaking barriers and challenging systemic limitations. He has spoken candidly about the importance of representation in leadership. His mentorship of young officers and soldiers, regardless of background, has inspired countless individuals to pursue careers in service.

Throughout his life, Honoré has remained deeply connected to his Louisiana roots and has been an eloquent spokesperson for environmental justice and community empowerment. His books and public appearances have provided insights into leadership, resilience, and the importance of serving others. He has demonstrated that true leadership is not about wielding power for its own sake, but about using authority and influence to uplift communities and create positive change. (Emphasis is mine.)

Lt. General Russell Honoré’s legacy is one of service, integrity, and transformative leadership. Today, as we reflect on his contributions, we recognize him not just as a military commander but as a visionary leader whose influence continues to shape conversations about disaster preparedness, environmental justice, and the kind of compassionate leadership our nation needs.

Today In Black History

• In 1669, an African American man named Emmanuel was baptized into a Lutheran congregation in New York.

• In 1873, on Easter Sunday, an estimated 153 Black men were massacred in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a white mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Colfax Massacre has been described as the worst incident of racial violence during Reconstruction.

• In 1907, Harlem Hospital opened.

• In 1944, South Carolina rejected Black Suffrage..

• In 1964, Sidney Poitier won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in “Lilies of the Field.”

• In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Andrew F. Brimmer, an economist and former Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, to serve as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System.

• In 1997, Eldridge Tiger Woods won the 61st Masters Tournament in Augustus, Georgia, at age 21, becoming the youngest winner of that tournament.

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On May 15, 2025, this happened:

“ATLANTA (AP) — A pregnant woman in Georgia was declared brain-dead after a medical emergency and has been kept on life support for three months by doctors to allow enough time for the baby to be born and comply with Georgia’s strict anti-abortion law, family members say.

“Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old mother and nurse, was declared brain-dead — meaning she is legally dead — in February, her mother, April Newkirk, told Atlanta TV station WXIA.”

By December, the story had only gotten worse:

“The baby boy born prematurely to a Georgia woman who had been declared brain dead after a medical emergency remains in the hospital nearly six months after his birth, his grandmother says.

“Adriana Smith, a 31-year-old mother and nurse, was declared legally dead in February, but she was put on life support for months to let her fetus grow enough to develop.

“Chance April Newkirk was born in June and weighed 1 pound and 13 ounces.

“Smith’s family says that the hospital told them that they were required to put the Atlanta mother on life support under Georgia’s anti-abortion law.”

Meanwhile, in March of last year, this happened. From the Equal Justice Initiative:

“On March 20, in response to a 911 call in Tipton, Georgia, emergency medical services found a 24-year-old woman unconscious and bleeding in her apartment. They determined she had suffered a miscarriage and transported her to a hospital for treatment.

“The next day, after a witness said the woman had placed the fetal remains in a bag and placed the bag in a dumpster, Tipton police announced she had been arrested, taken into custody by the local sheriff, and charged with concealing the death of another person and abandonment of a dead body.

“After the coroner determined she had suffered a “natural miscarriage,” prosecutors dismissed the charges two weeks later, explaining in a press release that the charges did not apply because the 19-week fetus had not been born alive.

“Georgia lawmakers are among those citing the case as a example of an alarming trend—a growing number of women facing criminal prosecutions related to pregnancy loss.

“Every woman of reproductive age in Georgia who miscarries beyond the six-week marker of Georgia’s law can now be criminalized for a miscarriage,” Georgia state Sen. Sally Harrell argued during a hearing last week.”

There are many more examples of the legally sanctioned abuse women continue to endure under the guise of protecting the life of an unborn child. But this has nothing to do with protecting children; it has everything to do with victimizing women for no other reason except that they are women and therefore are expected to tolerate it. And, I am willing to bet, like most men in this country, I had no idea this was happening. I am a journalist of more than 40 years, college-educated and prep schooled, well-informed (I thought), but I had no idea that a woman could be criminally prosecuted for a miscarriage in several backward states in the year 2026 until my wife of 27 years brought this to my attention. I’m assuming she hadn’t mentioned it to me before because most women live with this kind of knowledge all day, every day, so it’s not a news flash to them. It’s just another day in the life of women in America.

And in America, perhaps you (men) didn’t know that there are currently six states where a woman can face legal action and possibly be thrown in jail for the ‘crime’ of a miscarriage: Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Until 2022, California was on that list, but it woke up and realized something horribly wrong was going on under its watch.

As far as “fetal personhood” is concerned, it is important to realize that the Talmud does not recognize a fetus as a “person” until the mother is in active labor and the baby takes its first independent breath. Fetuses cannot breathe or live outside the womb without medical assistance until at least 24 weeks (6 months).

But here’s the thing about when women have a miscarriage: 1 in 5 pregnancies result in miscarriage. That is because the body rejects the pregnancy on its own, usually because the body knows something is wrong. It’s biology, not criminology.

And yet women, often disproportionately Black and low-income women (because of course that’s the case), have faced charges such as “abuse of a corpse,” “concealing a death,” “felony child neglect,” and sometimes homicide.

Research shows a rising trend of such investigations, with many prosecutors using feticide or “fetal personhood” laws to treat pregnancy loss as a criminal act. In Oklahoma, multiple women have been prosecuted for manslaughter or child neglect following miscarriages where they tested positive for drug use.

It would be convenient to blame this warped behavior and the twisted mentality that leads to this behavior on Trump and Trumpism. And certainly, the sickness he has unleashed upon America throughout both of his terms in office has played a part in the amplification and attempted normalization of these acts of violence. But the truth is, this sort of anti-woman activity, which is even exhibited and supported by some women, was around long before Trump. It is the sort of moral infection that can lead to the election of a Donald Trump and others like him.

One day, Trump will be gone. But this issue has the potential to survive as a cancerous threat for much longer.

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I am a retired educator of all grades from Pre-K through university level, and I primarily taught English, government, and history. However, not only did I not learn about the Black Seminoles in school, but I also did not teach them, because I did not know about them.

I hope this post will help you learn about this important topic in American history.

John Horse stands as one of the most remarkable yet often overlooked figures in American military history—a man who led warriors across continents, commanded respect from diverse peoples, and fought tirelessly for freedom against overwhelming odds.

John Horse, also known as Juan Caballo, Juan Cavallo, John Cowaya, and Gopher John, was a man of mixed African and Seminole ancestry who fought alongside the Seminoles in the Second Seminole War in Florida. His surname “Horse” is believed to have been a translation of Cavallo (or Caballo, the Spanish word for horse).

Born around 1812 in Florida to a Black Seminole family, John Horse would become a legendary military strategist whose influence extended far beyond the borders of the United States. He rose to prominence in the third year of a seven-year war when the first generation of Black Seminole leaders was largely decimated, and the charismatic Seminole war leader Osceola was taken prisoner by the American military commander.

In 1818, the American General Andrew Jackson invaded the area, scattering the tribal peoples and their Black allies in the region. Jackson also destroyed settlements and seized Blacks from among the Seminole for removal to the north and returned to plantation slavery.

During the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), John Horse emerged as a principal leader of the Black Seminoles, a distinct community of African Americans who had found refuge among the Seminole Nation. Unlike many enslaved African Americans of his era, Horse lived as a free man within Seminole society, where Black Seminoles held a unique status—neither fully enslaved nor fully free, but occupying a space that allowed greater autonomy than available elsewhere in the American South.

Horse learned to read and write and acquired linguistic skills in English, Spanish, and the Hitchiti tongue spoken by the Oconee and many other Seminole bands. He was one of Osceola’s main translators when dealing with the Americans.

Horse’s military genius became evident in his strategic planning and tactical innovations. He worked alongside Osceola, the renowned Seminole resistance leader, coordinating military operations against superior U.S. forces.

What set Horse apart was his ability to organize and inspire fighters across racial and ethnic lines. He successfully unified Black Seminoles and Native Seminoles under a common cause, demonstrating leadership qualities that transcended the racial divisions so prevalent in nineteenth-century America. His understanding of guerrilla warfare and his deep knowledge of Florida’s terrain proved invaluable in frustrating American military campaigns.

When the U.S. government began enforcing Indian Removal policies designed to force southeastern tribes westward along the tragic Trail of Tears, John Horse recognized the existential threat to his people.

Despite their remarkable resistance, the Seminoles faced an enemy with seemingly unlimited resources. After years of brutal conflict and broken treaties, John Horse made the difficult decision to lead his people west.

In 1838-1839, he guided approximately 1,500 Black Seminoles on a forced march to Oklahoma, enduring disease, starvation, and violence along the way. Many perished during this journey, which ranks among the most harrowing chapters of American Indian removal history.

However, Horse’s story did not end in Oklahoma. Recognizing that even Indian Territory offered limited safety for his people, he embarked on an even more ambitious undertaking. In 1849-1850, he led a group of Black Seminoles south across Texas toward Mexico, seeking sanctuary in a foreign land.

This remarkable migration involved dangerous river crossings and navigation through hostile territory, yet Horse successfully brought his followers to Mexico, where they established settlements and found the freedom that the United States had denied them.

In Mexico, John Horse continued his military service, eventually joining the Mexican army and rising to the rank of Colonel. He established a settlement called Nacimiento de los Negros and became a trusted military advisor, continuing to lead warriors in defense of Mexican territories against Apache and Comanche raids. His reputation as a brilliant military strategist earned him respect throughout the region.

John Horse’s legacy exemplifies the courage and ingenuity of Black Seminoles, who created and defended their own autonomous space within American history despite systemic oppression.

Today In Black History

• In 1924, South Africa passed the Industrial Conciliation Act No. 11 to provide for job reservation for whites only, exclude Blacks from membership in registered trade unions, and prohibit the registration of Black trade unions.

• In 1953, Jomo Kenyatta, the founding father of the African nation of Kenya, was convicted of involvement with the Mau Mau rebellion and sentenced to 7 years in jail.

• In 1960, the U.S. Senate passed a Civil Rights bill that included measures against discriminatory voting practices.

• In 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s major league record.

• In 1975, baseball outfielder Frank Robinson was named manager of the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first Black manager in Major League Baseball history.

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