Dr. Maulana Karenga — The recent wave of walkouts and walkaways from playing and practice in protest against the savage shooting of Jacob Blake, first by the Milwaukee Bucks and…
NBA players realized the power of protest with last week’s strike. We’ve reached a new point in player activism. Where does it go from here? By Tyler Tynes, The Ringer…
By Julianne Malveaux — Basketball fans were looking forward to March Madness, those weeks when the best college teams face off against each other. Madness is replete this March, but…
Kobe had a singular impact on his game and the world. By Sean Gregory, TIMES — Kobe Bryant was the fair heir to Michael Jordan, a scoring assassin who could…
By Ernest DiStefano — Ernest DiStefano has written a stirring appeal for reparations for Negro League ballplayers and their descendants. This appeal in the form of a letter to Major…
The NFL is Colin Kaepernick’s antagonist. Expecting billionaire team owners to be serious about social justice, with or without Jay-Z, is a mistake. By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone — “Inspire Change” could be something you say if you are trying to make people aware of a particular problem. But with regards to the National Football League and racial injustice, that job is already done. Colin Kaepernick, along with his fellow football…
They attract money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them, while HBCUs struggle. What would happen if they collectively decided to go to black schools? By Jamele Hill, The Atlantic — In the summer of 2018 Kayvon Thibodeaux, who was then ranked as the top high-school football player in America, visited Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee. When a player of Thibodeaux’s caliber visits a perennial football power—say,…
Fans believe she can fly! By S.E. Williams, Black Voice News — Simone Biles thrilled gymnastic enthusiasts on Friday, August 15 as she secured her sixth national gymnastics title with…
How the Nazi persecution of Jews shaped the African-American freedom struggle. By Clive Webb, History Today — Martin Luther King delivered his celebrated ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on 28 August 1963 at the March on Washington. Less well known is that one of the other speakers that day was Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a political émigré who had fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. His presence at the march demonstrated…
By Astead W. Herndon, The New York Times — An air of solemnity hangs over Lucy McBath’s bid for Congress. It is present in her campaign stump speech, when she recounts the 2012 murder of her son, Jordan Davis, a black teenager who was shot and killed by a white man at a gas station when the 17-year-old refused to lower the volume of the rap music playing in his…
Fifty years ago this week, two proud Olympians raised their fists to call attention to social injustices. Their gesture made my heart swell with pride. By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Guardian…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Report — Trump could care less about LeBron James’s new I Promise public school. He could care even less about his IQ. What he…