Don Lemon to be arraigned. HGTV Host Drops N-Word. Black women Jobless Spike. Wilson-Raleigh March.

Former CNN host Don Lemon, along with several others, is set to be arraigned on federal civil rights charges in St. Paul, Minnesota. They are accused of interrupting a church service where an ICE official serves as pastor. Lemon plans to plead not guilty.

Former CNN host independent journalist Don Lemon is set to be arraigned on federal civil rights charges in a St. Paul, Minnesota court today. Lemon, Georgia Fort, Trarn Jean Cruz, Jamil Liddell Lundy, and Jerome D'Angelo, and multiple others are accused of interrupting a Minnesota church service in protest where an immigration and customs enforcement official is a pastor. It's unclear if Lemon plans to appear in court, but arraignments in federal court typically include the entering of please and scheduling of future proceedings. Lemon says he plans to plead not guilty.

The Richmond Free Press, a Black-owned weekly newspaper serving Virginia's former Confederate capital, has ceased operations after 34 years. The closure is attributed to a lack of advertising revenue, rendering the publication unsustainable despite its significant impact on the Black community.

The Richmond Free Press, a blackowned weekly newspaper in Virginia, is ending its operations after 34 years. The newspaper has served the state's Confederate capital city for more than three decades. The publication is ending due to a lack in advertising revenue, which has made the paper unsustainable.

HGTV canceled its show 'Rehab Addict' following the leak of an unaired video clip showing host Nicole Curtis using the n-word during filming. The network stated that such language is hurtful, disappointing, and does not align with its values.

Well, HGTV has canled the show Rehab Addict after a video leaked of host Nicole Curtis using the n-word while filming an episode of the show. In an unaired clip, Curtis asked production to kill the footage. The video was posted on Thursday. Take a listen. ... Not only is this language like this hurtful, says the network, and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees, it does not align with the values of HGTV, and the show will no longer appear on the website.

Colorado passed HB25-1149, a new law requiring public schools to integrate Black History into their curriculum by 2028. A 17-member committee will develop new academic standards to highlight Black contributions beyond slavery, aiming for year-round recognition of the Black experience.

Also, a new law in Colorado, it's called HB25-1149. It will require public schools to integrate Black History into their curriculum by the year 2028. The legislation creates a 17 member committee tasked with developing new academic standards that highlight black contributions and experiences, not just slavery. Michael Atkins, the director of black student success at Denver public school, says black history cannot be limited to February. He says the bill creates an opportunity to embrace the black experience 365 days out of the year.

The University of Texas Austin is eliminating its African and African Diaspora Studies Department as a standalone unit, folding it into a new Department of Social Studies and Cultural Analysis Studies. This move, combining it with Mexican-American, Latino, Women and Gender, and American studies, has sparked concerns about the future of Black studies on campus.

Also, the University of Texas Austin is restructuring its academic programs. And the move, well, it's use it's causing concerns about the future of black studies on campus. That's because UT Austin announced it will eliminate its African and African Dispora Studies Department as a standalone unit, folding it into a newly created department beginning this fall. Starting in September, the College of Liberal Art plans to launch a department of social studies and cultural analysis studies, combining AfricanAmerican dbor studies with Mexican-American and Latino studies, women and gender studies and American studies.

An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute reveals that Black women experienced a substantial increase in unemployment in 2025, with the rate dropping to 55.7% while overall unemployment rose. College-educated Black women saw the steepest losses, a trend researchers suggest may be connected to the rollback of corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

Also, a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows that black women have been hit especially hard in the labor market. In 2025, black women's unemployment rate, it dropped to 55.7% while unemployment rose 5.8 to 6.7%. The report also found that black women's labor force participation from 60.6 6 to 59.7% suggesting that more black women have left the workforce entirely. College educated black women saw some of the steepest losses with employment dropping more than 3.5 percentage points. A shift that researchers say may be tied to the roll back of corporate DEI programs.

The Love Forward Together March, led by Bishop William J. Barber II, is a multi-day, 50-mile nonviolent protest from Wilson to Raleigh, North Carolina. The march mobilizes for voting rights, immigrant communities, public education, and healthcare, specifically traversing Congressional District One to highlight and resist gerrymandering efforts designed to dilute Black and progressive votes.

Well Britney, all eyes have been on North Carolina. We've been down here for three coming on four days now. marching 50 miles from Wilson making our way west and we've now made it into the city limits of the state capital rally uh where we've got a few hundred people with repairs of the breach um led by uh Reverend Dr. William Barber as well as other clergy members of other civil rights groups um who have been making their way towards the state capital. Now again why for those who might be asking well there's there's a few different reasons. The first um we know that early voting in the primary started yesterday here in North Carolina. So, there's a big push uh to make sure people are registered, people are showing up. That North Carolina is a state where if everyone who had been registered to vote um who had previously voted participated or maybe some previous elections would have gone differently, but also what we're seeing is a response, a movement in response to the behavior of the Trump administration, to efforts to redistrict during the off years, to efforts to to deploy ICE agents into neighborhoods. ... Congressional District One is what we actually marched through the first day completely. All of the small little towns that a lot of people overlooked. Um, and so we walked through there to make sure they knew that our voices, their voices were going to be heard because they're trying to be wiped out with the Jerry Mander maps.

Jeremy Carl, a Trump nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, faced intense bipartisan questioning during his confirmation hearing regarding his history of racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic comments. He struggled to define 'white identity' and expressed concern over its 'erasure,' citing examples like the Super Bowl halftime show not being in English, which was interpreted by panelists as thinly veiled white nationalism.

Jeremy Carl Carl is unlikely to get the job after a bipartisan group of senators grilled him over his history of racist, sexist, and anti-semitic comments and posts. ... Senator Chris Murphy asked him some basic questions about his beliefs regarding the eraser of white culture. ... 'I am concerned with the majority common American culture that we had for some time that through particularly mass immigration I think has become uh much more bulcanized and I think that weakens us and again I'm not running away from that comment. I'm not apologizing for it.' ... The host and panelists strongly criticized Carl's statements, linking them to broader white supremacist ideologies and the Claremont Institute, which has numerous fellows in the Trump administration.

Poet Black Chakra asserts that Black poetry serves as a crucial 'coded language' that allows Black people to express truths and narratives that mainstream media often ignores. He views it as a direct continuation of historical Black resistance, akin to Capoeira, where art hides a powerful message of rebellion and resilience. This art form is essential for preserving Black history and truth against ongoing erasure.

Absolutely. Same thing with comedians. If you look at people such as Dick Gregory, um, hell, Richard Prior, there's a lot of times when we put it in music or comedy, somehow it's not as in their face as someone like Malcolm X was, even though we're saying the same things that Malcolm X was saying, we just rhyme it and it it speaks to us in a code. Black people, as a people, we have always spoken different codes. The invention of the martial art form capoera was a fight style that was hidden in dance so that they could fool their slavers. So when it was time to rebel, they just thought they were dancing. And I see that in the language we use in modern black diction, how we speak certain ways and often it gets co-opted or adopted by other races and other cultures and stuff like that because they see how powerful our coded language is. And poetry is the coded language I use to speak to us and it works. Um, it hits the soul differently.

Black Chakra explains that America's fear of Black storytelling is rooted in its potent ability to captivate and influence children, including white youth. Historically, from hip-hop to Elvis's 'Black sound,' powerful Black narratives and cultural expressions have been seen as a 'slippery slope' that could lead to broader understanding and empathy for the Black plight, which those in power seek to ignore.

Well, this interesting thing happens when we tell our stories. Their children listen. Oh, and they've always been terrified of that. Even if you go back to the 80s when they were so afraid when hip hop was getting into the ears of people, right? You go all the way back to Elvis who is white, but because his sound was black and his movements were black, there were white uh politicians and conservatives who are afraid of Elvis being seen by his daughters because they they see it's a slippery slope. If they're enjoying this on a white person, soon they'll enjoy it on melanin. Our stories are powerful. We pull people in. There's a reason why hiphop is the largest genre of music on earth for so long. It's because our stories have that power and ability. And they're afraid of that. They're afraid of Tommy and Timmy and Ted and Chaz listening to what we have to say, adopting it, and adapting to it, understanding that there's a plight that we come from. Because once you see our plight, you can't ignore it.

Author George M. Johnson began writing to fill gaps in Black queer narratives, particularly after a tragic incident where a father killed his son for being gay. His memoir, 'All Boys Aren't Blue,' became a best-selling and highly challenged book, which Johnson anticipated due to its truthful portrayal of the Black queer experience. He views book banning as an attempt to avoid self-reflection on the 'horrors' caused by societal prejudices.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Um my whole life was like um I was doing finance like most of my education was in finance and uh human resources and uh I did a career change all the way back in like 2015 where I went into grassroots work uh more activism uh and HIV work uh and I was realizing as I was doing HIV work there weren't a lot of stories out there uh from the black perspective of what the HIV epidemic looked like and so I started you know writing and then that's how I got into journalism. ... And it was a story I had wrote about like four times. And that's when I knew it wasn't enough. And I was like, what if I can use my own story um use my family as like this the model of what it looks like when you may not have all the answers when you're raising a queer child, but if you start from a place of love, uh this child can be successful in the world. And so that's really what birthed All Boys Aren't Blue and I guess in essence has birthed me uh writing several other books since then. ... I knew it was going to get banned. Like even when I first started writing it and we first started having meetings, I was like I have a feeling it's going to get challenged in a few places. ... when these people can't go um oh that that would be sad if that happened to somebody and they have to read a book where it's like they have to look in the mirror and look at the horrors that they may have caused on another person. Um it's easier for them to eradicate the text than to uh actually have to look at themselves in the mirror.

George M. Johnson's book 'Flamboyance, the Queer Harlem Renaissance, I wish I'd known' aims to restore erased queer Black history. Motivated by teens calling him a hero, Johnson realized the need for young people to have diverse historical figures who reflect their identities. He emphasizes that figures like Marsha P. Johnson, often omitted from civil rights narratives, are crucial for understanding Black legacy and ensuring that queer Black individuals know they are not an 'anomaly.'

I as All Boys Aren't Blue was growing and I was, you know, traveling and like meeting people and watching how many lives were being changed and seeing all the messages. I was realizing that a lot of the messages, especially from teens, were saying that I was their hero. And it made me sit back to be like, well, who were my heroes? And as an adult, I can say who my heroes are, but I was like, as a teen, I didn't have heroes that looked like me. I didn't know about, you know, the the the queerness that existed before me because we weren't getting taught that in schools. And so I was like, this is now like my job now is to restore that so that people one know that they have history and legacy and that they've been here before so that we're not some an anomaly in the system. Uh but two I think everybody deserves the right to have their own heroes. Um and I I always say like you know even when we talk about you know Malcolm X and Martin Luther King there's one more M that was also fighting for civil rights and that was Marshia P. Johnson, right? And like there's a reason that people get left out of the conversation.