Featured
7 Black Music Pioneers You Should Know This Black Music Month. By Tabie Germain / BET (Image JFH News)
Every June, we celebrate Black Music Month by honoring the undeniable influence Black artists have had across all genres. From spirituals and blues to hip-hop and house, the sounds crafted by Black musicians haven’t just shaped music—they’ve defined global culture.
A few lived and died without ever receiving the flowers they deserved. But all of them helped expand the very definition of Black music—and Black identity. In celebration of Black Music Month, here are seven trailblazing musicians whose innovation, vision, and resistance still reverberate through the sounds we hear today. Read more and listen here
Related: 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Ella Fitzgerald.
Related: The genius of Stevie Wonder: Hits, impact and influence. By The Grio
Political / Social
The ugly truth of Trump’s America first agenda. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
The Trump administration has embarked on a concerted effort to end America’s role as a world leader in science and innovation.
The parallels between what happened to Germany’s scientific community and what is happening here isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough. The Trump administration has embarked on a concerted effort to end America’s role as a world leader in science and innovation. They aren’t singling out Jewish scholars, although plenty of Jews will be caught up in it. They are instead using a blunderbuss to blast the whole system by targeting foreign students for deportation and defunding the research that will lead to the breakthroughs of the future. Read more
Related: PRRI’s Robert P. Jones: “Donald Trump sees himself as the king of kings.” By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Navy set to rename USNS Harvey Milk, mulls new names for other ships named for civil rights leaders. By Eleanor Wilson, James LaPorta, Mary Walsh, Nikole Killion / CBS News
The U.S. Navy plans to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment oiler named after the slain gay rights leader and Navy veteran, and is considering renaming multiple naval ships named after civil rights leaders and prominent American voices, CBS News has learned.
The documents obtained by CBS News also show other vessels named after prominent leaders are also on the Navy’s renaming “recommended list.” Among them are the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers. Read more
“Reckless disregard of facts”: Newark mayor sues Alina Habba, Trump lawyer turned prosecutor. By Blaise Malley / Salon
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has filed a lawsuit against Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, after he was arrested last month for protesting at a new immigration detention center.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, accuses Habba of false arrest, malicious prosecution, and defamation and says that the attorney “acted as a political operative, outside of any function intimately related to the judicial process.” Habba previously worked as President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, including as part of his team in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. Read more
After Several Attacks, Heightened Anxiety Among American Jews. Ruth Graham / NYT
The attack in Colorado on a march in support of hostages held in Gaza contributed to a sense that simply existing in public as a Jewish person is increasingly dangerous.
For many, the connections to other recent outbursts of violence were impossible to miss. The attack in Boulder came less than two weeks after two Israeli Embassy employees were shot and killed as they left a reception at a Jewish museum in Washington. A month earlier, an arsonist set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on the first night of Passover while Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, slept upstairs with his family. Read more
PG County Has Long Been a Bastion of Black Wealth. Now It Faces an Uncertain Economic Future. By Brandon Tensley / Capital B
Prince George’s was the wealthiest majority-Black county in the U.S., its affluence propelled by federal employment. But that prosperity is now in doubt, as the community where the median household income is around $100,000 reels from federal cuts.
Residents told Capital B that they want a county executive who will fuel stability and also pay attention to other matters, including business development and public safety. This is just one of many concerns that Prince George’s residents say that they’ll be thinking about on Election Day on June 3, when they vote for the next county executive after U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland vacated the seat following her Senate victory last November. Read more
Joy Reid: How MSNBC Tried to Silence Me Before Firing. By Eboni Boykin-Patterson / The Daily Beast
The ex-MSNBC host said she was was already being “extra careful” online when her show was canceled since “there was a real anxiety about social media” at the network.
Her MSNBC bosses were “horrified” by the way she used social media platforms like Twitter, she told Katie Couric on her new podcast Monday. “And anytime I would tweet anything, I would get calls—I would get, ‘Please get off Twitter, we hate it.’” Read more and listen here
Newly Pardoned Todd Chrisley Exposes White Privilege In Prison, Vows To Fight Racial Injustice In U.S. Incarceration System. By Daniel Johnson / Black Enterprise
The reality show star argued in a press conference that the prison system disadvantages Black men.
In his first press conference after his release from federal prison after President Donald Trump pardoned him, Todd Chrisley insinuated that he received preferential treatment at the Pensacola Federal Prison Camp because he is a white man in America and vowed to continue to expose the injustices of the American prison system. Read more
Education
Trump’s ‘Nihilistic’ Crusade Against Harvard Is About Much More Than Harvard. By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT
Gregory Conti, a political scientist at Princeton, is not a left-wing academic. He is a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and the editor at large of Compact, a heterodox online magazine that leans to the right.
Despite Conti’s indisputably conservative credentials, he has come to believe that the Trump administration’s approach to higher education — and toward Harvard in particular — not only violates due process but threatens to destroy the reputation of the United States as an international center of learning. “It now looks like the administration has decided,” Conti wrote in a more recent essay in Compact, “A Dangerous Turn in Trump’s War on Universities,” “that it will simply bludgeon Harvard, inflicting a lot of senseless damage until the latter makes a ‘deal’ of some sort.” Read more
MIT Becomes Latest University To Back Away From DEI Initiatives. By Joe Jurado / Newsone
According to CNN, MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced last Thursday that it would be sunsetting its Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) in an effort to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI initiatives.
In February, the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague,” letter to several universities, informing them that their federal funding would be pulled if they didn’t take steps to close their DEI departments and end initiatives designed to foster inclusivity. Read more
Trump Wants to Cut Tribal College Funding by Nearly 90%, Putting Them at Risk of Closing. By Matt Krupnick / ProPublica
ProPublica found that Congress was underfunding tribal colleges by a quarter-billion dollars per year. Rather than fixing the problem, proposed federal funding cuts unveiled this week would devastate the schools, tribal education leaders say.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting funding for tribal colleges and universities by nearly 90%, a move that would likely shut down most or all of the institutions created to serve students disadvantaged by the nation’s historic mistreatment of Indigenous communities. Read more
Related: Education Dept. Says Native History Doesn’t Count as DEI. By Sara Weissman / IHE
Red states tell colleges: Race and gender classes are out, civics in. By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel / Wash Post
Lawmakers in Utah, Ohio and Florida have mandated classes on civics and Western civilization and cut classes on race and gender from graduation requirements
Lawmakers in conservative states are taking more control over what is taught and required at public colleges and universities, an effort that some faculty say threatens the foundation of higher education and academic freedom. Read more
Related: Candidate Criticized Over Diversity Blocked From Becoming U. of Florida President. Vimal Patel / NYT
World
U.K. Faces Most Serious Military Threat Since Cold War, Starmer Says. Stephen Castle and Mark Landler / NYT
Prime Minister Keir Starmer cited “growing Russian aggression” as he outlined ambitious rearmament plans, including building up to 12 attack submarines.
“The threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War,” Mr. Starmer said on Monday at a shipyard in Glasgow. He pointed to “war in Europe, new nuclear risks, daily cyberattacks,” and “growing Russian aggression,” in British waters and skies. Read more
Related: As Trump Wavers, Europe Is More Optimistic About Defending Ukraine. Steven Erlanger / NYT
Trump Makes America’s Refugee Program a Tool of White Racial Grievance. Jonathan Blitzer / The New Yorker
Trump’s interest in the plight of Afrikaners seems to have begun in 2018 with—what else?—segments on Fox News.
A February executive order, called “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa,” blamed that nation’s government for perpetrating racism against white people. In May, fifty-nine Afrikaners were flown to the U.S. Stephen Miller, the President’s top immigration adviser in both terms, hailed their case as “the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.” They were, he said, the victims of “race-based persecution.” Read more
Related: I’m an Afrikaner. Trump’s resettled South Africans don’t represent me. By Donovan Greeff / Wash Post
Hungary’s leader came for my university. Now Trump is coming for Harvard. By Michael Ignatieff / Wash Post
Viktor Orban expelled Central European University from Hungary. Now, Donald Trump is re-creating his playbook.
President Donald Trump’s assault on Harvard will not be limited to the Ivy League campus. The battle to come will be a fundamental test of the U.S. Constitution and of American democracy itself. I should know — I was the rector of Central European University when a similar authoritarian attack on universities, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, forced us to move our teaching programs out of Hungary. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Why Politics Feels So Cruel Right Now. Jamelle Bouie , Michelle Cottle and David French / NYT
In this episode of “The Opinions,” the Times Opinion politics correspondent Michelle Cottle speaks to the columnists Jamelle Bouie and David French about the rise of “toxic empathy” and how the right has turned compassion into weakness.
Michelle Cottle: Today I want us to talk about something of a vibe shift that’s happening right now in politics. I feel like we’re seeing a prime example in what might darkly be characterized as the death of empathy. Read more and listen here
On Character: Stanley McChrystal on the Power of Character in Leadership. By McChrystal Group
In this candid and deeply reflective conversation with Owen Daugherty, General Stan McChrystal shares the story behind his latest book, On Character: Choices That Define a Life.
Drawing from personal experience, military leadership, and decades of introspection, McChrystal explores why character—not credentials, strategy, or charisma—is the foundation of lasting leadership. Read more and listen here
What the Growth of Charismatic Christianity Reveals About America. By Molly Worthen / The Atlantic
Catch the Fire belongs to the fastest-growing group of Christians on the planet—charismatic Christians, who believe that the Holy Spirit empowers them to speak in tongues, heal, and prophesy, just as Jesus’s first apostles did 2,000 years ago.
By some measures, they represent more than half of the roughly 60 million U.S. adults who call themselves “born-again.” This flourishing and vigorously supernatural faith points to the paradox of the secular age: The modern era of declining church attendance has nurtured some of religion’s most dramatic manifestations. Instead of killing off religion, secularism has supercharged its extraordinary elements. Read more
Ambassador Charles Stith Inspires at Miami-Dade Democratic Interfaith Breakfast. By Miami Dade Democratic Party
This past Friday morning (5/30/2025), the Biltmore Hotel was filled with the energy of unity, prayer, and purpose as the Miami-Dade Democratic Party hosted its annual Interfaith Breakfast.
The highlight of the morning was a powerful keynote by Reverend Ambassador Charles R. Stith, who reminded us that progress is not guaranteed — it must be fought for, nurtured, and protected. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Mass graves of slaughtered Black Civil War soldiers discovered in Kentucky. By Debadrita Sur / Daily Express
Archaeologists have reportedly discovered two mass graves of slaughtered Black Union soldiers in Kentucky, unearthing a tragic massacre from the Civil War-era.
On Jan. 25, 1865, a group of Black Union soldiers were ambushed by Confederate guerilla soldiers in Simpsonville, Kentucky, Live Science reported. The Company E of the United States Colored Cavalry was based at Camp Nelson in Kentucky where many enslaved men enlisted for freedom. Read more
Why The History Of Segregated Facilities Matters In The Trump Era. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone
America has made significant progress since the era of segregation, but the Trump administration may be putting that progress at risk.
America has come a long way since the institution of segregation, a system of enforced separation based on race, that lasted well into the 20th century. It involved laws, policies, and social customs that kept Black and white Americans apart in public spaces, schools, transportation, housing, and more. Though legally dismantled in the mid-20th century, the legacy of racial segregation in the United States remains deeply rooted, and in some cases, reawakened by modern political forces. Read more
Related: We desegregated schools 71 years ago. We still have more work to do. By Russ Wigginton / USA Today
$105 Million Reparations Package for Tulsa Race Massacre Unveiled by Mayor. Audra D. S. Burch and
The plan, the first large-scale attempt to address the impact of the 1921 atrocity, will raise private funds for housing assistance, scholarships and economic development.
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, killed up to 300 Black residents and destroyed a neighborhood. More than a century later, the city’s mayor announced a $105 million reparations package on Sunday, the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity. Read more
George Floyd’s Journey from Houston to Minneapolis Tells an Important Story. By Sarah Lahm / The Progressive
On the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death, it’s important to consider the places he came from.
Five years ago this week, George Floyd was murdered on a South Minneapolis street corner, suffocated under the knee of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. That street corner, now part of an intersection known as George Floyd Square, is part of a neighborhood known as a historic African American district—yet this detail is often forgotten in the retelling of Floyd’s murder and the nationwide uprising that ensued. Read more
Michael B. Jordan Is a Movie Star, Even Without Ryan Coogler. By Zack Cheney-Rice / Vulture
Coogler described Jordan’s value-add bluntly. “I’ve been blessed to make movies for a massive global audience, you know what I’m saying?” he told me. “Mike qualifies as my friend now. But don’t get it twisted. What I need is something that’s very rare. I need movie stars.”
Deadline reported that an exit poll conducted on the opening weekend of Sinners set out to break down why people went to see the film on the big screen. The pollsters came back with Jordan’s name as the No. 1 reason, according to almost 47 percent of respondents. Read more
Sports
The NBA’s newest power is scary young, scary different and scary good. By Jerry Brewer / Wash Post
The Oklahoma City Thunder became the NBA’s most dominant team this season by laying waste to conventional wisdom. Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are part of a talented young core that has the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.
Young teams don’t win championships. And in a league full of skilled players, it’s perilous to rely on a defensive system that overemphasizes ball pressure and creating turnovers. In the face of convention, the Thunder has fashioned a distinct style of play by turning those no-nos into its greatest assets. Its youth is a blessing. Read more
Black baseball managers receive recognition in new Negro Leagues Museum exhibit. By Justice B. Hill / Andscape
Exhibit showcases ‘brilliant tacticians’ who were denied opportunities to lead Major League Baseball teams
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick decided to do something this month that Major League Baseball didn’t do when it wove Negro Leagues statistics into its record book: give Black managers their due. Kendrick unveiled an exhibit on May 24 at the baseball museum in Kansas City, Missouri, that shined a spotlight on the men who managed in “Black baseball.” Read more
Jalen Brunson Could Be the King of New York. He Just Needs the Crown. David Waldstein / NYT
The Knicks are better than they have been in decades, and the city has fallen for the team’s unassuming but sharpshooting point guard.
New York has always had an abundant supply of magnetic star athletes who approach royalty in the city — from as far back as Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson to more recent stars like Carmelo Anthony, Sabrina Ionescu and Aaron Judge, the Yankees colossal outfielder, who enthralls roughly half the city. Read more
Deion Sanders addresses Shedeur’s NFL draft slide, emotional toll. By Brent Schrotenboer / USA Today
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders gave his first extensive remarks about his quarterback son Shedeur’s disappointing NFL draft experience, saying the ordeal “did hurt” him emotionally and disputed claims that Shedeur acted unprofessionally in pre-draft interviews with NFL teams.
Sanders spoke about it in a podcast on Friday with former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel after dealing with an unspecified health issue in recent weeks at his estate in Texas. His son was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round in April after previously being projected by experts as a first-round pick. “When you sit up there and say something like he went into a meeting unprepared, like dude, Shedeur Sanders, who’s had six different coordinators?” Deion Sanders said on the podcast. Read more
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