As a Black man, this I do know—America has yet to fully evolve into a society that no longer necessitates a Black History Month, and it is our fault. That may come as a shock to you.
Silbrina Wright, a native of Camden in Madison County, is the first Black executive director in the Greater Jackson Arts Council’s 40-year history. As such, she says it is essential to lead the organization in a closer examination of the intersection of the arts and social justice in Mississippi. First on her agenda: a listening tour.
Mississippi’s history board should remain free from political interference, historians from across the state are telling House lawmakers, asking them to oppose Senate Bill 2727.
“I began twirling in my bathroom as I realized the fundamental truth that had evaded me years earlier: I was a swan, St. Andrew’s was my flock, Mississippi was my lake, and this would be only the beginning of my story.”
A fear that he had already seen his family for the last time gripped Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, as he sheltered in the U.S. House chamber while an angry, riotous mob pounded on the locked door, which security guards hurriedly blockading with furniture.
A monument dedicated to the seven known lynching victims in Lafayette County will go up on the lawn of the county courthouse in Oxford. But it will include language stipulating that one of the men lynched was accused of “murdering” a white woman although he was never convicted of the alleged crime.
Dr. Anthony Fauci joined state public-health leadership at Tougaloo College today to address America’s history of medical racism and the barriers to equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The medical experts spoke in turn over Zoom, with Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases and top coronavirus adviser to President Joe Biden, leading the event with a candid commentary on the medical establishment’s historical treatment of Black Americans.
The Mellon Foundation just announced a $691,000 grant to enable the Emmett Till Interpretive Center to continue to share its narrative of racial reconciliation. It is in Tallahatchie County, Miss., where white men brutally murdered a 14-year-old boy and then walked free.
David Dennis Jr., who lives in Atlanta, Ga., is one of two recipients of the 2021 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which honors a journalist’s ability to cultivate greater understanding and empathy. The prize also supports freelance journalists with a cash award of $100,000 per recipient, the largest dollar amount for a journalism award. The Jackson native’s reporting on Black American culture and the intersection of race with topics such as politics, sports and entertainment drew him the honor. The prize, in particular, awards his 2020 Atlanta Magazine cover story “Ahmaud Arbery Will Not Be Erased” and Gay Mag’s “An Ode To the Black Women At Dillard’s.”
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