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How The Black And Missing Foundation Shines A Spotlight On Otherwise Ignored Missing Black People

Last month, about a few dozen people distributed fliers in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood with a photo and description of Keshaun Williams, a 15-year-old, 5-foot-7-inch, 130-pound teenager. Kee, as his family and friends call him, went missing on June 17. That night, Kee called his mother to say he was on his way home from a house party but never arrived.

“These are our mothers and fathers, our children, our neighbors who are disappearing at an alarming rate,” Wilson said. “Media cover
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Barber-Scotia College’s New President Charts A Course For Revitalization For The HBCU After Years Of Decline

In 2000, Barber-Scotia, founded by the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. shortly after the Civil War to educate Black women, later becoming co-ed, borrowed $12 million from the federal government. But the college defaulted on the loan five years after it lost accreditation in 2004, which caused enrollment to plummet and the school to spiral down an abyss.


It doesn’t help that the school has been $460,000 in debt to Concord, N.C., for tearing down dilapidated structures a decade ago, and a contenti
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How Taraji P. Henson Is Helping To Boost HBCU Mental Health With ‘She Care Wellness Pods’

Alabama State University senior Diamond Richard is making great strides toward achieving her goal of entering medical school and becoming an OB-GYN physician. But it hasn’t been easy because of the mental health problems she battled from her freshman year, Richard told BET.com.

She’s far from alone. The African American community is quietly facing a mental health crisis, with Black youth and young adults taking the brunt of it. Yet we seek and receive treatment for depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems at a lower rate than Whites.

Fortunately for Richard and other ASU students, Taraji P. Henson’s Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, in partnership with the Kate Spade New York, brought free mental health resources to the campus in April with its delivery of “She Care Wellness Pods.” ...
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How The Black Press Is Surviving The Newspaper Industry’s Decline

It’s no secret the newspaper industry is in crisis. Competition from both the internet and television have for years taken away market share from all but the widest circulation publications. Among journalists it is a constant conversation, especially in times of major media layoffs and cutbacks. In fact, a 2022 Census.gov report shows a 52 percent decline in newspaper revenue between 2002 and 2020.

But the challenges are nothing new for Black-owned papers that, like our community, have always found ways to survive challenging times.

“I wish I could say we were impacted more by the newspaper crisis, Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of The Washington Informer, told BET.com. “But I have to go back to when my father was publishing the weekly newspaper. One of the things that he used to always say is, at times, it felt like a “w-e-a-k-l-y,” Rolark Barnes said, highlighting her dad’s play on words to make a point about the challenges he faced...
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Ed Gordon Returns To BET: Former Anchor Talks About His Career, Personality Behind The Camera

Over the years, Ed Gordon has showcased his ability to delve into complicated issues that matter to our community, in a career spanning decades. But he didn’t set out to become a journalist.

As a kid in Detroit, Gordon said he was mesmerized by television lawyers who won their cases in dramatic courtroom scenes. But while his mind was set on becoming an attorney, his heart was elsewhere.

“There was just something about being a storyteller. I've always been one of those people who tells a fairly good story. Everybody at the family reunion would say, ‘Skip (his nickname), tell that story,’” he said, also recalling that in junior high school he and his buddies would pretend that they were local newscasters.

Later, a professor saw a talent in Gordon and encouraged him to pursue a broadcast journalism career. After graduating, he landed an unpaid internship at the local PBS affiliate in Detroit and worked his way up from there.
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Organization Builds Black Business Ecosystem While Breaking Systemic Barriers To Black Prosperity

In early November, more than 70,000 people from the global tech industry gathered for the annual Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, a tech conference that drew leaders in the field from all corners.

Kelly Burton, the co-founder and CEO of Black Innovation Alliance, brought a large delegation from the United States to network toward BIA’s efforts to build a sustainable ecosystem for Black entrepreneurs.
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How Treating Gun Violence Like A Disease Helps Stem The Rise In Deadly Shootings

Night after night, even as the number of shootings have increased in central Brooklyn neighborhoods, a group of violence interrupters, armed only with the respect they have in the community, try to quash potentially deadly confrontations before they erupt.

Some of Elite Learners Inc.’s violence interrupters are formerly incarcerated gang members. They’ve turned their lives around and are now using their street savvy and connections to mediate conflicts and mentor high-risk young men in the New York City borough’s high-crime areas...
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How Descendants Of James Madison’s Montpelier’s Enslaved Gained Shared Governance Of Historic Plantation

Bettye Kearse has always wanted to feel connected to her ancestors, who were among the hundreds of slaves at Montpelier, James Madison’s vast estate in Orange County, Va., who served the nation’s fourth president.

She first visited the estate, which is now a National Trust Historic site, in 1992 while researching her family’s history. According to their oral tradition, Kearse descended from an enslaved cook named Coreen and Madison.

“When I first arrived at Montpelier, I felt like I belonged there, and that all of my ancestors wanted me there and had something to tell me,” she recalled at a meeting in April with a group of other Montpelier descendants and their lawyer, as they battled for co-stewardship of the site.
BK Reader •

The Gentlemen’s Factory: A Men's Social Club Serious About Black Business. Seriously.

In 2018 and 2019, news began to percolate around the growing number of social networking spaces emerging across the country for and by people of color.

In New York City, for example, there was “Roll Call,” a meetup for Black Theatre-goers; “The Black Mastermind Group” for entrepreneurs; the “Black Baby Boomers Who Just Wanted to Have Fun;” and far too many more to list here.

However, there was one Brooklyn-based group that seemed to grab the most media attention: The Gentlemen’s Factory.
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Rising R&B Star JAWAN Drops ‘Cause & Effect’ Single With Bigger Projects On The Horizon

A few years ago, while recovering from a vocal injury, JAWAN was at a crossroads. He was studying classical music and musical theater in Mississippi but had no passion for them.

“At that point, I never want to sing another note of a song that I don't connect with,”
JAWAN recalled vowing to himself. “Classical and musical theater just was not where my heart was. It was with R&B.”
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Rotimi Talks About First Time Fatherhood And His Journey To Become An International Superstar

Building on the success of his steamy single “In My Bed (feat. Wale),” which earned an RIAA gold certification, he dropped his first studio album, All or Nothing, on Aug. 27.

One month later, Rotimi, 32, and his 33-year-old fiancée Vanessa Mdee, a Tanzanian singer/songwriter, welcomed their first child into the world. The proud parents announced the birth of their son, Seven Adeoluwa Akinosho on Instagram.