Author: Malaika Jabali

Essence Magazine:

Getty Images By Malaika Jabali· Updated November 15, 2022

Virginia McLaurin, the 113-year-old who

The post The 113-Year-Old Black Woman Who Went Viral For Dancing With The Obamas Passes Away appeared first on Essence.

Essence Magazine:

By Cole Ezeilo· Updated November 15, 2022

While in recent times heavy focus has been on Black voters, Black to the Future Public Policy Institute is creating tools for Black power.

The Black to the Future Public Policy Institute kicked off its 2022-2023 cohort of 19 Black leaders across the United States that they’ve selected to help create positive change in Black communities.

Institute Principal and Black Lives Matter Co-founder Alicia Garza

Essence Magazine:

By Malaika Jabali· Updated November 15, 2022

Cashing those $10,000 checks canceling student loans (or $20,000 for some) will have to wait. But, according to advocates, the wait doesn’t have to be long if President Biden uses other authority to cancel the debt.

Last Thursday, a federal judge in Texas (of COURSE) ruled that Biden’s plan was unlawful after two borrowers brought a lawsuit stating they were partially or fully ineligible

Essence Magazine:

Jim Hughes/ Getty Images By Melissa Noel· Updated November 14, 2022

Mutulu Shakur, Tupac Shakur’s stepfather, will be released next month on parole after serving more than 35 years in prison, NBC News reports. 

In October, a motion for his release was approved by U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier. The decision to grant parole was made public on November 10. 

Now 72 years old, Shakur, an activist and holistic healthcare

Essence Magazine:

Getty Images By Malaika Jabali· Updated November 14, 2022

Over the weekend, Nevada secured the Democrats’ hold on the Senate.  

Incumbent senator Catherine Cortez Masto narrowly won her re-election against Republican Adam Laxalt, who was one of the many candidates who hitched their wagon to Donald Trump…and lost. Despite assumptions of a Republican takeover, the GOP failed to deliver as planned in the midterms, going against historical precedent

Essence Magazine:

By Melissa Noel· Updated November 13, 2022

Construction on The Obama Presidential Center has been put on hold after a noose was discovered at the location on Chicago’s South Side, NBC News reports.

The Lakeside Alliance, a group of Black-owned construction companies spearheading the project, said they are working with the Chicago Police Department to identify those responsible for what they called an “act of hate.”

“We are horrified that this would occur on our

Essence Magazine:

Photo by Gado/Getty Images By Jameelah Nasheed· Updated November 11, 2022

For Black veterans who served in America’s early wars, their return home was plagued by violence and mistreatment — a far cry from the celebratory recognition that was reserved for their white counterparts. These Black men and women risked their lives to protect a country that didn’t respect their full humanity. They fought for the liberation of

Essence Magazine:

By Rayna Reid Rayford· Updated November 10, 2022

For the first time in history, the art museums of Colonial Williamsburg are offering an “exhibition of decorative and folk art collections exclusively crafted by Black artists from the 18th to 21st centuries.”

“I made this: The Work of Black American Artists and Artisans” is certainly aptly titled. David Drake, an enslaved potter during the 1800s, inscribed those very words “on

Essence Magazine:

Dustin Chambers /Bloomberg via Getty Image By Jameelah Nasheed· Updated November 9, 2022

As a woman — a Black woman, specifically — I have never had the luxury, or been foolish enough, to underestimate the role that racism and misogyny have played in the construction and, at many times, destruction of our country. Stacey Abrams’ loss is heartbreaking for any Georgian who hopes to move our state forward,