Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been selected by President Joe Biden to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Stephen G. Breyer‘s impending retirement. When confirmed, Jackson will become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court of law.
Jackson, 51, a U.S. appeals court judge in Washington, has been the front runner for the Supreme Court seat ever since Justice Breyer, 83, announced last month he was retiring. Jackson was, fittingly, a Supreme Court law clerk for Breyer.
In addition to being the first Black female justice, Jackson would be the first justice on the Supreme Court to have previously worked as a public defender, something progressive groups, according to the Los Angeles Times, hope will help the court offer a different perspective.
Judge Jackson, who graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents attended segregated primary schools, then attended historically black colleges and universities. Both started their careers as public school teachers and became leaders and administrators in the Miami-Dade Public School System.
When Judge Jackson was in preschool, her father attended law school. In a 2017 lecture, Judge Jackson traced her love of the law back to sitting next to her father in their apartment as he tackled his law school homework—reading cases and preparing for Socratic questioning—while she undertook her preschool homework—coloring books.
By Lloyd DeGrane via Wikimedia Commons
Judge Jackson stood out as a high achiever throughout her childhood. She was a speech and debate star who was elected “mayor” of Palmetto Junior High and student body president of Miami Palmetto Senior High School.
But like many Black women, Judge Jackson still faced naysayers. When Judge Jackson told her high school guidance counselor she wanted to attend Harvard, the guidance counselor warned that Judge Jackson should not set her “sights so high.”
That did not stop Judge Jackson. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University as an undergraduate, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Judge Jackson lives with her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, who is a surgeon, and their two daughters, in Washington, DC.
Today’s GBN Daily Drop Podcastis a bonus episode for Sunday, February 20, 2022 based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format. It’s about Raven Wilkinson, who, when she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, became the first African American ballerina to dance with a major company in the U.S:
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, February 20th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Born in 1935, New York native Raven Wilkinson attended her first ballet when she was five years old, a performance of Coppélia, danced by the esteemed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. From that moment on, Wilkinson wanted to be a ballerina. Fortunately, her parents were able to find her a teacher, and Wilkinson trained with Russian instructor Maria Swoboda, who was a former member of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Wilkinson eventually got the opportunity to audition for Ballet Russe, the same high-profile company which inspired her to dance. Ballet Russe was reluctant to hire Wilkinson, however, for fear of backlash when performing in the South.
Wilkinson nevertheless persisted, and by her fourth audition, Ballet Russe could no longer deny her talent and hired her, making Wilkinson the first African American woman to dance with a major ballet company in the U.S.
Her appearances in the South though, they did incur hostility and threats. Wilkinson was encouraged to wear pale makeup while dancing to “pass,” but she always refused to hide her race. The racism she did encounter did take its toll however, and Wilkinson stopped touring in the South and eventually everywhere.
A few years later in 1967, encouraged by Sylvester Campbell, another African-American dancer, Wilkinson auditioned with the Dutch National Ballet, got in, and stayed with the Netherlands-based troupe for seven years. Wilkinson then returned to New York and at nearly 40 joined the New York City Opera, serving first as a member of its ballet ensemble and then in other roles until she retired from performing altogether.
A mentor and friend to Misty Copeland, in 2015 Wilkinson attended Copeland’s debut in the lead role of Swan Lake, as she became the first African American principal dancer at an elite company, the American Ballet Theater in New York.
Wilkinson brought Copeland flowers onstage, and in 2019, Copeland paid tribute to Wilkinson in a video produced by The Root:
“Every black person that’s accomplished something incredible has had to endure some really awful things. I think that Raven is a very special case. Because I think that she was so good at making the worst situations into a learning experience or something that she made into a good situation. It’s amazing that we found each other and, and that it kind of just came full circle, you know, for her to be able to witness my promotion to principal dancer, to be able to have her come on to the stage during my curtain calls of my New York debut of Swan Lake was, was really overwhelming.
She told me she didn’t think she’d ever see a Black woman become a principal dancer in an elite company. To have her walk into events and walk into the ballet and for people to like, recognize her, and, and give her the due credit that she deserved all of these years. I think, again, it’s just kind of part of what I think my purpose was to be here. To tell the stories of all of these Black ballerinas, especially Raven’s. There’s just no real record of our existence through history. And the more stories we tell of Black dancers, the more that we can make it our history and make ballet our own.”
To learn even more about Raven Wilkinson, check out the 2016 documentaryBlack Ballerina in which Wilkinson is featured, Stillness Broken, the Columbia University School of Journalism student film about Wilkinson, the 2018 picture book based on her life titled Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson that includes a forward by Copeland, as well as several other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com,Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional songs permitted under Public Domain license included were “The Festival Dance” from Coppelia composed by Delibes, and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker composed by Tchaikovsky.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, February 18th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
But did you know that the first African American model to grace any Vogue cover ever did so eight years before Beverly? In 1966, Donyale Luna graced the March cover of British Vogue. A Detroit native, Luna is widely considered to be the world’s first Black supermodel and served as one of the inspirations for the 1975 Diana Ross film Mahogany.
Luna’s career was unfortunately short-lived as she passed in 1979 at the age of 32, but her legacy lives on. To learn more about Luna and to see photos from her modeling days, check out the links provided in today’s show notes and also in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, February 16th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
As New York’s Fashion Week for 2022 concludes, today we take a look at esteemed designer and dressmaker Ann Lowe.
In 1914, when Ann Lowe was sixteen years old, her mother, who was a seamstress, died suddenly. Though grieving, Lowe finished her mother’s last job—creating four ball gowns for the First Lady of Alabama and launching her career as a designer of haute couture.
Years later, although she received no credit for either, Lowe made both actress Olivia de Havilland’s distinctive flower-covered dress for the 1946 Academy Awards and Jacqueline Kennedy’s iconic wedding dress in 1953.
Her store, Ann Lowe’s Gowns, opened in Harlem in 1950, and in 1968, when she opened a second location, Lowe became the first Black woman to own a boutique on Madison Avenue.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
U.S. speedskater and World Cup Champion Erin Jackson claimed a gold medal today in the 500-meter individual speed skating final at the Beijing Olympics, becoming the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in any Winter Olympics.
Jackson, 29, is a former inline skater who made the US team for the 2018 Olympics after only four months on the ice. Jackson’s win also marked the United States’ first gold in the 500m since Bonnie Blair won three straight from 1988 through 1994.
“Hopefully, this has an effect,” Jackson said. “Hopefully, we’ll see more minorities, especially in the USA, getting out and trying these winter sports. I just hope to be a good example.”
The Ocala, FL native finished 0.08 seconds ahead of Japan’s Miho Takagi in second and 0.17 seconds ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee’s Angelina Golikova in third.
Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast, on Lincoln’s birthday, is based on the Saturday, February 12 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022. It’s about the amazing Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, an enslaved woman owned by her own father who managed to buy her freedom and become dressmaker and confidante to first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
(Btw, GBN’s Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 is 50% off at workman.com with code:50CAL until 2/28/22!)
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, February 12th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today, on Lincoln’s birthday, we are honoring 19th century dressmaker and designer Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley.
Against all odds, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley had perseverance, talent and style. Owned by her own father, Keckley was born enslaved in 1818. Despite being treated brutally, she eventually became an accomplished seamstress, and in 1855 Keckley had earned enough money to purchase her and her son’s freedom.
To learn more about Keckley, you can read her autobiography, which is in the public domain and online at the internet archive, check out The Elizabeth Keckley Reader, Volumes 1 & 2, which are two collections of essays and other published works about Keckley, check out the dresses she designed online, including the one for Mary Todd Lincoln that resides at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, and watch her short biography on YouTube produced by the Smithsonian Channel.
Keckley, played by Gloria Reuben, is also a featured character in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln. Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Lori Lakin Hutcherson, Good Black News Editor-in-Chief
Whelp, I feel like I need to start this post with a re-boot. When I first wrote “Dear Lori” in September 2020, the idea was to make it a semi-regular feature where I answered some of the myriad questions I’ve received over the years about race and systemic racism. (If inclined, you can read details of this column’s genesis here.)
But two “Dear Lori”s in I paused… then stopped. One reason was lack of time: I returned full-time to my TV writing gig while also dealing with my two school-aged children who were adjusting to distance learning, in addition to some other challenging personal matters.
The other reason was the nasty political landscape. The level of divisiveness, purposeful misinformation, vitriol and literal insurrection on January 6, 2021 made me feel like this column was pointless.
And now it’s February 2022. As voting rights continue to be under attack and fears and misinformation around Critical Race Theory have emboldened several states to legalize suppression of education about America’s history of racism, I once more feel like I need to do something, anything that might help. Especially as I witness even more organized attempts to undermine understanding, change, democracy and equity.
So… I’m back. And I’m committing to the mental and emotional labor that answering some of these questions takes.
That all said now, I’m ready to address a question asked of me a few days ago on Facebook (excuse me, Meta). Which I find ironic and fitting, because that’s the very platform where this whole me answering people’s questions about race thing began in the first place…
[All letters/queries are published verbatim and without corrections. Only the names have been changed.]
On February 5th, I published a GBN post on how Dr. Jessica Watkins will become the first Black woman astronaut to spend months in space when she heads to the International Space Station in April. Below is one of the comments/questions the post received.
Dear Lori:
Who cares??? Why does it always have to be first black this and first black that??? –Robert
Dear Robert:
Thank you for your question. Although its intent feels snarky and dismissive instead of genuinely curious, I’m answering. Because, intentions aside, I don’t think you are alone in this query.
In fact I know you’re not, because as Editor-in-Chief of Good Black News and when authoring the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendarfor 2022, I actually have asked it of myself (albeit in a much kinder, pensive tone) — why are Black firsts still a thing? And should I keep shining a light on them?
The answers I came up with for why there’s a need for “first Black this and first Black that,” are pretty simple:
1) “Firsts” inspire. Those who think something might be impossible for them based on race, gender, disability or economic status — whatever factor – seeing someone who looks like them or with a similar background doing that very thing helps dissolve both real and perceived barriers to that achievement.
People derive hope from hearing about “firsts.” So I share them whenever I can, because perhaps some young Black girl who has fantasized about traveling into and spending time in space now sees a path to make that dream a reality because she saw Dr. Watkins’ story.
2) “Firsts” highlight inequities. If someone sees a “first” and reacts by saying “What took so damn long? It’s 2022!” — that’s a good reason to share it, too. Sharing “firsts” can provoke much-needed and deeper questionings into why it has taken so much time to make these strides and inroads. Like, what possible historic or systemic reasons could there be within organizations or institutions — educational, governmental — that it’s taken until this year for a Black woman to spend a few months on the International Space Station?
By the way, I’m not picking on NASA here — NASA has done active recruiting to diversify its astronaut training programs (cool documentary about that here) — I’m saying if you react to a “first” by wondering what’s taken so long, follow that wonder and most likely the answer you find will hip you to some inequities that are causing the dearth of Black people in certain positions or fields.
3) Celebrating “firsts” is human nature. No matter when or where firsts happen, human beings love to exalt firsts, as firsts at their essence signify when the impossible has become possible for us. It’s why we are all still taught Magellan was the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe, Neil Armstrong was the first human being to walk on the moon or Kamala Harris is the first Black East Indian Woman Vice President of the United States of America (she packed in A LOT of firsts there!). I mean, this right here is the whole ass reason the Guinness Book of World Records is still even a thing!
I hope my answer helps, Robert, I truly do. Now I have a question for you – have you ever bothered to ask why anybody cares about any of the “firsts” we all know about (eg. man on moon, female Supreme Court justice, airplane flight) or why you were taught them? What’s the intent behind that? Could maybe it be to give people a sense of their abilities, possibilities, worthiness? Maybe? And if so, why is it bothersome to you when Black people engage in this type of celebration?
If you choose to answer me, trust me, you will be the first.
I include that, as well as a bit more historical context and links to sources, which can be found in the show’s transcript below.
(Btw, GBN’s Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 is 50% off at workman.com with code:50CAL until 2/28/22!)
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, February 8th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Today, on #OperaDay, we offer an inspirational quote from famous contralto Marian Anderson, the first Black performer to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
In addition to her commanding voice, Anderson is widely known for singing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution enforced their segregationist beliefs and denied Anderson the opportunity to sing to an integrated audience at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Roosevelt supported Anderson, and over 75,000 people showed up to watch her outdoor concert. To quote Anderson:
“Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.”
You can also watch Voice of Freedom, the 2021 PBS documentary about Anderson. Links to these sources provided in today’s show notes.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022, published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Here is GBN’s Daily Drop for Sunday, February 6th on Washington Commanders president Jason Wright, the first Black person to run a National Football League franchise.
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of GoodBlackNews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, February 6th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Firsts we call “It’s About Time”:
Not many NFL players set their post-career sights on graduate school, but former prorunning backJason Wright traded in his cleats for wingtips when he earned his master’s degree in business administration from University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2013.
Wright scored even bigger in 2020 when he became President of the Washington Football team (now officially known as the Washington Commanders) and the first Black person to run a National Football League franchise.
If you want to learn more about Wright, links are provided in today’s show notes.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Here is GBN’s Daily Drop for Saturday, February 5th, a bonus episode sharing some of the historical events #onthisday in Black History.
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
Bob Douglas, the “father of Black professional basketball”
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of GoodBlackNews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, February 5th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Today I’m taking a look at some of the historical events in Black History that happened on this day. Because honestly, pick a day, any day, and I can tell you some good Black facts about it. And right now it’s February 5th, so were going to do that.
On February 5, 1972, Bob Douglas, owner and coach of the New York Renaissance who was known as “The Father of Black Professional Basketball”, became the first Black person elected and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Then seventeen years later on the same date, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became the first NBA player to score 38,000 points and to this day the former Lakers center remains the all-time leading scorer in the league with 38,387 points.
On February 5th, 1994, the white supremacist murderer of Mississippi NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader Medgar Evers was finally convicted and sentenced to life some thirty years after he perpetrated his hate crime.
We’d also like to mention some Aquarians born on this day – Major League Baseball homerun king Henry “Hank” Aaron, Saturday Night Live and Ladies Mancomedian Tim Meadows, New Edition and “My Prerogative” singer Bobby Brown and Barrett Strong, singer of Motown’s very first hit single “Money (That’s What I Want).” Strong turns 81 years young today – Happy Birthday to one and all.
Today also would have been the 27th birthday of Trayvon Martin, who was unjustly murdered almost ten years ago. May he forever rest in peace and never be forgotten.
This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com [50% off until 2/28/22 with code:CAL50], Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
