Every year on March 18, Good Black News celebrates the day of its founding. We continue that tradition today, fourteen years after GBN’s inception.
Even though the last two years have been challenging (details here), and changes in how people consume content (eg. TikTok, IG, IG Stories, Reels) have led to way fewer postings on the main goodblacknews.org site, we are still exceedingly proud of all we’ve offered and accomplished over the years, even as we continue to find our footing as we attempt to evolve and forge ahead into the future.
We are slowly sharing more content on GBN’s Instagram, Facebook, Threads and BlueSky profiles, figuring out what we can offer on TikTok, and every month we are still happy to offer new and/or updated Music Monday playlists from our incredible music contributors Marlon West and Jeff Meier.
I also want to acknowledge 2023’s other volunteer contributors in alphabetical order: Julie Bibb, Gina Fattore, Julie Fishman, Michael Giltz, Warren Hutcherson, Fred Johnson, Epiphany Jordan, Brenda Lakin,Joyce Lakin, John Levinson, Dena Loverde, Catherine Metcalf,Flynn Richardson,Maeve Richardson, Becky Schonbrun, and Teddy Tenenbaum.
You are all deeply, greatly appreciated.
But what truly keeps me, my co-editor Lesa Lakin and all of GBN’s wonderful volunteer contributors going is the appreciation you’ve shown us over the years and still show via follows, likes, comments, shares, reblogs, DMs and e-mails (even when we are overwhelmed and can’t respond to them all).
Your support means the world, and inspires me as Editor-in-Chief to keep working to find ways to keep GBN alive here on the main page as well as on Pinterest,Tumblr,YouTube, RSS feed, LinkedIn and Flipboard, and yeah, our sometime-y GBN newsletter you may get via email.
We are looking into switching over from a newsletter to a GBN Substack, so if you are interested in that, please consider joining our e-mail list via our “Contact Us” tab on goodblacknews.org. We will only use this list for GBN. And, of course, you may opt out whenever you like.
Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to providing you with more Good Black News on as many platforms as we can in the coming months and beyond!
The United States Postal Service celebrated the life and legacy of the late Rep.John Lewis (1940-2020), a long-term Congressperson and key figure in several pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement, by issuing a Forever stamp on Friday with his portrait.
The issue date was marked with a ceremony at HBCU Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA.
Michael Collins, Lewis’ former congressional chief of staff, spoke about Lewis’ passion for stamps.
“Whenever a new forever stamp came out, he was like a kid in a candy store, purchasing more than he could ever use. There were so many stamps. He loved too many to count. Generations of his staff in both the district and DC offices could tell you about the countless trips to every post office. From Atlanta to the house office building to buy stamps and post his mail,” Collins said.
“This commemorative stamp serves as a timeless reminder of his remarkable legacy and the enduring impact of his lifelong dedication to the betterment of our society,” Collins stated. “May it inspire and encourage all Americans to continue the necessary work and the ‘good trouble’ of building a more just and inclusive nation.”
A young John Lewis first reached out to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through a letter, which led to them meeting. Lewis’ son, John Miles-Lewis, considers his father being honored with a stamp as a full circle moment:
“From the son of sharecroppers to being a civil rights revolutionary, to be considered the conscience of the Congress. That’s a journey that started with an envelope, a letter and a stamp.”
Insights in telling the story of this stamp can also be found on the Postal Service’s Facebook and Twitter pages at facebook.com/USPS, and twitter.com/usps.
“Look carefully at how the shadow falls on the right side of his face, illuminating the left side, in a way that seems to take the viewer from darkness into the light. A fitting tribute to a man who sought to awaken the conscience of a country,” said Ronald A. Stroman, a member of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors and dedicating official for the stamp. “The Postal Service is proud to celebrate Lewis — a national treasure — and to honor his legacy with the tribute of this Forever stamp that is as beautiful visually as was the spirit of the man whose image it bears.”
Among those joining Stroman for the ceremony were mistress of ceremonies Alfre Woodard; Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., professor and founding dean of the Martin Luther King, Jr., International Chapel at Morehouse College; John-Miles Lewis, son of John Lewis; Linda Earley Chastang, president and chief executive officer of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation; Michael Collins, chair of the board for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock.
The stamp features a photograph of Lewis taken by Marco Grob for the Aug. 26, 2013, issue of Time Magazine. Lewis’s name is at the bottom of the stamp. The words “USA” and “Forever” appear in the stamp’s top left corner. Derry Noyes, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp.
Background on John Lewis
A key figure in some of the most pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis was the face of the Nashville Student Movement, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an original Freedom Rider, and one of the keynote speakers at the historic 1963 March on Washington. Even in the face of hatred and violence, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call “good trouble.”
Devoted to equality and justice for all Americans, Lewis spent more than 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives steadfastly defending and building on key civil rights gains that he helped achieve in the 1960s. He was a staunch and unwavering believer in and advocate for nonviolent protests. The recipient of more than 50 honorary degrees, he was called a “saint” by Time magazine and “the conscience of the Congress” by his colleagues.
He served as executive director of the Voter Education Project; as associate director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency that oversaw the Peace Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA); and as a member of the Atlanta City Council. He was also the author of several bestselling books, including the “March” comic book series and the inspiring autobiography “Walking With the Wind.”
Elected to represent Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, Lewis garnered the support needed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1991, sponsored the legislation that created the 54-mile Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail, and worked for more than a decade to establish the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
According to npr.org, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D, Missouri) has introduced new legislation calling for $14 trillion in reparations for Black Americans, in an effort to see the federal government atone and attempt to compensate for the practice of chattel slavery for over 250 years and the generations of racist policies that have followed.
“The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people,” Bush said in a Wednesday news conference attended by Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., as well as other stakeholders.
“America must provide reparations if we desire a prosperous future for all,” Bush said.
Rep. Bush’s resolution is the latest in a long line of congressional efforts by Democrats to compensate Black Americans for centuries of racial inequity. Similar language about reparations has been introduced in every legislative session since 1989.
“We know that we continue to live under slavery’s vestiges. We know how slavery has perpetuated Jim Crow. We know how slavery’s impacts live on today,” Bush said, citing the racial wealth gap, voter suppression, infant mortality rates and other negative health outcomes for Black people.
U.S. Congressmember Cori Bush (D, Missouri)
“It’s unjust and it wouldn’t happen in a just and fair and equitable society,” Bush also remarked. “Those are not the natural consequences of human society… They are directly caused by our federal government’s role in the enslavement and exploitation of Africans and Black people throughout our history.”
Happy Music Monday, you all. This collection celebrates another recently departed great, Wayne Shorter. He was a giant of jazz for six decades. He was a well-regarded improviser, bandleader, composer, and thinker.
From his teen years with Art Blakey and Miles Davis to his work as a founder of Weather Report, to leading his own landmark quintet Shorter was among the greatest.
A well-known figure on the jazz circuit since the late 1950s, Shorter would go on to take a strong hand in shaping much of 20th Century jazz music.
The 12-time Grammy award winner played alongside several greats, including Carlos Santana, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, and Herbie Hancock.
In 1964 he was swooped away after several attempts by jazz legend Miles Davis to become part of Davis’ “Second Great Quintet.”
Wayne Shorter would also release solo albums by 1959, including the acclaimed Speak No Evil, Night Dreamer, and JuJu.
Among the dozen Grammy awards he won, Shorter received a Lifetime Achievement award in 2015
In 2018, Shorter received the Kennedy Center Honors Award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for his lifetime of contributions to the arts.
Hope you enjoy the collection. As usual, stay safe, sane, and kind. See ya next month!
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN founder and Editor-in-Chief
Well, here we are, once again. Forty seven years after February was officially recognized by the U.S. government as Black History Month, and ninety seven years after Negro History Weekwas founded by Carter G. Woodson, “The Father of Black History.”
We are also, once again, deeply distressed by the murder of a young Black person (Tyre Nichols) at the hands of police officers. The fact that the officers and the police chief are Black this time around doesn’t complicate but instead amplifies the grotesque, stark, ironically colorblind reality of systemic racism — it is a pernicious construct of power and oppression that can be upheld or enforced by anyone of any color or gender or creed.
So, how do we reconcile the two — the celebration of Black people and their achievements while constantly experiencing injustice, inequity and increasingly, erasure?
As Editor-in-Chief of Good Black News, a site which for over a decade has literally been dedicated year-round to the celebration of Black people and their achievements, I have been wrestling with this question for a while, particularly in the last eight months.
After the murder of 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY by a white supremacist in May 2022 and the continued downplaying of racially-based domestic terrorism, I felt depleted and bereft. Of hope, of faith, of purpose. It didn’t seem to matter how much Black people achieved or prospered or protested or suffered in America — we couldn’t even buy our groceries in peace.
And once again, the narrative of the “lone, mentally unstable shooter” was trotted out. One person was (rightfully) punished, but the racist political and economic system he embraced in its most violent extreme? It remained (and remains) steadfastly in place. As did the onus remain on the shoulders of Black people to be seen as worthy of basic human rights.
America quickly got back to the business of forgetting and moving on, even after experiencing only two years before what seemed like a watershed moment of racial reckoning after the police murder of George Floyd.
But here were are again today, literally TODAY, with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump saying during his call to action during Tyre Nichols’ funeral: “Why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?… We have to make sure they see us as human beings worthy of respect and justice!”
We do?
I’ll admit in many ways, I understand where Crump is coming from. “Show the humanity” has essentially been the GBN operating philosophy since 2010 — to create a site and space where we can see and celebrate our humanity, while offering access to anyone else who wants to take a gander.
But now, in 2023, I must push myself to dig deeper and firmly challenge why it should it ever be the responsibility of any human being to convince any other human being of their humanity. To state the obvious, once, and for all:
BLACK PEOPLE ARE HUMAN BEINGS.
If the words above are not inherently understood to be true, why is that? Why does this have to be shown? Proven? Over and over and over again?
My answer, also obvious, is that they don’t. Not ever.
So, while I absolutely respect and still intend to celebrate the legacies of people such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Sidney Poitier and the like, going forward I also need for GBN’s Black History Month and GBN in general to engage more actively in the interrogation and disempowering any systems, institutions or public policies that do not recognize or uphold this truth and all the basic rights that should flow from it (e.g. respect, freedom, safety, equality).
Maybe I’m not giving enough credit to GBN in its past and present form — I acknowledge that GBN has been helpful and appreciated by many for the way we offer information via the lens of celebration and positivity.
What I’m aiming to add to our existing ethos is more critical thinking and opinion about cultural topics and cultural content, boosting political, economic and social policies that are truly about protecting, serving and uplifting Black people, and working to upend those that don’t.
The College Board creates and administers the AP program. Join us in demanding that they:
Reject the narrow interpretation of Florida law that contradicts principles of academic freedom and autonomy in determining what to teach in classrooms.
Take swift action to make sure Florida does not modify the curriculum of the proposed AP African-American Studies course designed with the help of respected Black scholars, but rather, maintains the integrity of the proposed curriculum.
Florida’s current agenda of political interference in the AP African American studies curriculum directly conflicts with the values of equity, fairness, and justice. Our students deserve better.
Additionally, I want to highlight Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Projectseries now streaming on Hulu as well as promote the excellent “Intersectionality Matters” podcast by law professor Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw whose name is among the writers expunged from the AP African American studies curriculum.
I also want to give props to Beyoncéfor officially announcing her 2023 Renaissance World Tour! A definite bright spot on this first day of Black History Month, the efforts Beyoncé and her team are making via the Verified Fan system and its tiers of engagement (first priority given to the BeyHive!) to ensure real fans get access to tickets over usurious resale entities is for sure worth a shout out.
Frankly, I am tired of us being caught out there, and I want GBN to do more, offer more, share more and speak out more. In our tweets, reels, stories, posts, playlists, comments — however.
Maybe I’ll get it wrong sometimes, but with deep love for this community as my true north, may my faith, purpose and hope never again be broken.
As promised last week, GBN is giving thanks today to three members of the GBN community who entered our giveaway for the chance to receive one free copy each of our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023 .
Congratulations to Erica Donaldson-Ellison, Lise Andreasen and Karla Stewart-Tyson! We will be contacting you each shortly via email to arrange delivery of your free calendars from Workman Publishing.
Also, thank you so much to all who entered the giveaway. If you didn’t win today — good news! Due to popular demand, we will be holding a second drawing on December 9 and will announce three more lucky winners!
No need to enter again if you already have — you will automatically remain in the running.
To those who have yet to enter – it’s not too late! For a chance to win in December, send your first name, last name and email address with the subject heading “A Year of Good Black News Giveaway” to goodblacknewsgiveaways@yahoo.com from now until 11:59PM PT on December 8. One entry per unique email.
Already a Top 10 release in Multicultural Calendars on Amazon, A Year of Good Black News is filled with facts, history, bios, quotes, jokes and trivia in easy-to-read entries delivered on the daily.
In case you can’t wait to see if you’re the lucky winner, or if you want to buy copies as gifts for family, friends, teachers or loved ones, you can use the code: CYBER22 at Workman.com orpageaday.comuntil November 30 to receive 25% OFF site-wide, plus Free Shipping on orders over $25.
If you want to support a Black-owned bookstore with your purchase, order through this link on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/esowonbooks, search “Good Black News Calendar” to add it to your cart, and a portion of the sale will go to directly to Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, CA.
Or, if you prefer, you can also order from the retailers below:
Good Black News, in collaboration with Workman Publishing, is getting into the holiday spirit once again — by giving away three copies of our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023 on Thanksgiving Day!
A Year of Good Black News is filled with facts, history, bios, quotes, jokes and trivia in easy-to-read pages delivered on the daily, and GBN will be selecting at random three entrants to each receive one free copy of the calendar.
To enter for a chance to win, send your first and last name and an email address with the subject heading “A Year of Good Black News Giveaway” to goodblacknewsgiveaways@yahoo.com from now until 11:59PM PST on November 23.
One entry per email, and we will announce the names of the three winners in a post on Thanksgiving, then contact them for mailing addresses to receive their individual calendar prize.
In case you can’t wait to see if you’re the lucky winner and/or want to buy copies for gifts to family, friends, teachers, or loved ones, you can order at Workman.com orpageaday.comusing code: CYBER22 from now until November 30, you will receive 25% off.
If you want to support a Black-owned bookstore with your purchase, order through this link on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/esowonbooks, search “Good Black News Calendar” to add it to your cart, and a portion of the sale will go to directly to Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, CA.
The calendar is also available through the following online retailers:
The 2023 calendar’s official drop date is Tuesday, November 1, and if you pre-order now at Workman.com using the code: CALENDAR22 from now until December 31, you will receive 20% off.
A Year of Good Black Newsoffers fun Black facts about inventors, artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, comedians, historians, educators, athletes and entertainers.
We’re introducing new monthly categories for 2023 like “In The Paint: Black Artists,” and “Hit The Books: Black Authors,” along with established ones like “Lemme Break It Down: Black Lexicon,”“We Got Game: Black Trivia,”“Get The Knowledge: Black Museums and Landmarks” and “You Know We Did That, Right?: Black Inventors.”
Here’s a sneak peek inside:
Although I’m biased because I wrote it, the A Year of Good Black News calendar is an awesome way to get inspired every day by the good things Black people do (and have done) for centuries, but haven’t always been widely known or shared.
It’s also a great gift for family members, friends, teachers, children and loved ones. Did I mention if you use the code: CALENDAR22 at Workman.com, you get 20% off?
Or, if you prefer, you can also order from the retailers below:
The series chronicles the evolution of Black beauty and its impact on the fashion industry, the civil rights movement, the “Black is Beautiful” era and the influence on American culture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fu2Prg0GTg
Supreme Models features trailblazers such as Iman and Bethann Hardison to superstar models Joan Smalls, IndyaMoore and Precious Lee with legends including Pat Cleveland, Roshumba Williams and Veronica Webb.
Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director, Vogue, as well as Vogue European Editorial Director Edward Enniful, Vogue.com editor Chioma Nnadi and more also share personal stories of these boundary breaking women who set new standards in the worlds of beauty and fashion – from the 1960s to the unlimited potential of the digital age today.
The College Board has announced it will begin offering an Advanced Placement(AP) African American Studies course at 60 high schools across the U.S. this fall.
The AP program, which traditionally gives high school students an opportunity to take college-level courses before graduation, currently covers 38 subjects, including U.S. government and politics, biology, chemistry, English, European History and art history.
The AP African American Studies course is the College Board’s first new offering since 2014, according to TIME, and the multi-disciplinary course will cover over 400 years of African American history, literature, civil rights, politics, the arts, culture and geography.
Though a pilot program currently, the aim is by the 2024-2025 school year for this AP offering to be the first course in African American studies for U.S. high school students that is considered rigorous enough to allow students to receive credit and advanced placement at colleges across the country.
The plan for an Advanced Placement course is a significant step in acknowledging the field of African American studies, more than 50 years after what has been credited as the first Black studies department was started after a student strike at San Francisco State College in 1968, said Henry Louis Gates Jr., a former chair of Harvard’s department of African and African American studies and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.
“In the history of any field, in the history of any discipline in the academy, there are always milestones indicating the degree of institutionalization,” said Dr. Gates, who is a consultant to the project along with a colleague, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. “These are milestones which signify the acceptance of a field as being quote-unquote ‘academic’ and quote-unquote ‘legitimate.’”
Students will take a pilot exam but will not receive scores or college credit, according to the College Board.
