Black History Month 2022

The first Black female judge in the United States was sworn in on July 22, 1939, in New York City. Her name was Jane Bolin, and she was assigned to the Domestic Relations Court.

More than eight decades later, the nation is waiting to learn the name of the Black woman who will make history as the first to be nominated to the Supreme Court. President Biden, making good on a campaign promise, said at a news conference last week that “it’s long overdue.”

Biden said he intends to make his choice by the end of February, which is Black History Month, a time when the nation reflects on the contributions of African Americans to the country. The Washington Post has compiled a selection of recently published content that helps to tell the stories of how Black people have shaped the country’s government, economy and culture.

This year, we could witness a new chapter in the ongoing story, and we will keep you posted on updates on the historic Supreme Court nomination.

Editor’s picks

Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court Jackson is a former public defender who served as a trial court judge in Washington for eight years before Biden elevated her last year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She is a historic choice that fulfills the president’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and would make Jackson, 51, just the third African American in the high court’s 233-year history. | By Tyler Pager, Sean Sullivan, Seung Min Kim and Ann E. Marimow

How Ketanji Brown Jackson found a path between confrontation and compromise Jackson was a “child of the ’70s,” as she puts it. Raised with an African name, dressed in early childhood in a mini dashiki, she was expected to reap the fruit of the boycotts and sit-ins of the 1960s, taking advantage of the opportunities and equality her parents’ generation had demanded. | By Marc Fisher, Ann E. Marimow and Lori Rozsa

A Black woman on the Supreme Court: Clinton wanted to nominate Barbara Jordan in 1993 If fate had twisted just a little bit differently, we might have had one of the country’s most accomplished and respected Black women on the bench nearly three decades ago. | By Gillian Brockell

“It should be of passing interest that I represent the largest group of minority status in the United States — namely, female. … My application is to forestall the popular misconception that no qualified women applied or are available,” Pauli Murray, a constitutional lawyer and co-founder of the National Organization for Women, wrote to President Richard M. Nixon in 1971, applying for a vacancy on the Supreme Court. | By Anne Branigin

More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. For the first seven decades of its existence, Congress returned again and again to one acrimonious topic: slavery. Many of the lawmakers arguing in Washington were participants in the brutal institution at home. The Washington Post has compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents | By Julie Zauzmer Weil, Adrian Blanco and Leo Dominguez

Still looking for a ‘Black mecca,’ the new Great Migration The percentage of Black Americans who live in the South has been increasing since 1990, while the Black population shrank in a number of Northern and Western cities. The Post interviewed Black Americans across three Southern states — Georgia, North Carolina and Texas — who had moved to the South in recent decades. | By Emmanuel Felton, John D. Harden and Kevin Schaul

“Everyone lays claim to King’s legacy with such certitude that if as many people marched alongside him in the 1960s as have said they did, then there would have been virtually no one standing on the sidelines wielding batons and casting aspersions.” Perspective: Exhausting Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy | By Robin Givhan

‘Queering Black history’: Here are 5 LGBTQ pioneers to know Dominique Hazzard, a community organizer and PhD candidate in history at Johns Hopkins University, recalls Black History Month teachings that often rehashed the achievements of seminal figures such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman. But as a young Black girl coming to terms with her queer identity, Hazzard, now 31, said it would have been transformational to learn about change-makers who played a role in both gay liberation and the Black freedom movement. | By Janay Kingsberry

How a rookie writer’s Reader’s Digest story spawned two monumental works of Black history. The writer was Alex Haley, who had just retired from the U.S. Coast Guard at age 39. Following the publication of a story on the Nation of Islam, he would co-write “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and chronicle his own heritage in the fictionalized “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” which became a groundbreaking and massively successful TV miniseries. | By Dave Kindy

Black History Month founder showed how schools should teach about race With the country embroiled in bitter debates over how racial history and the existence of systemic racism should be taught in schools, Carter G. Woodson’s 89-year-old text still serves as a template for racial education and a refutation of the notion that it should be glossed over. | By DeNeen L. Brown

Everyday Resilience. A photographer’s campaign to capture positive images of Black America takes on new resonance in the pandemic For nearly a quarter of a century, Russell Frederick, a Brooklyn-based photographer and activist, has documented moments of quiet dignity, family love and everyday joy in the lives of Black and Brown people as part of his “Positive Images” campaign. | Photographs by Russell Frederick. Text by Katherine Marsh.

In tribute to the lives lost

“My race is somebody else’s problem. It’s not my problem.” Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, died on Oct. 18 at the age of 84. Powell also was the first African American and youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was celebrated for helping lead the U.S. military to victory in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but a decade later, he was criticized for making the case to invade Iraq, a move he came to regret.

Charles E. McGee, a retired Air Force brigadier general and Tuskegee Airman

Carrie P. Meek, a one of the first African Americans since Reconstruction elected to represent Florida in Congress

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, civil rights lawyer who was elected to 15 terms in Congress

“I was part of an influence that could be called paving the way. But I was only a part of it. I was selected almost by history itself. Most of my career unfolded in the 1960s, which was one of the periods in American history with certain attitudes toward minorities that stayed in vogue.” Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor, died on Jan. 6 at the age of 94. Poitier forever changed the perception of African Americans in movies with his powerful and charismatic screen presence. | By Adam Bernstein

Mary Wilson, founding member of the groundbreaking Motown group, the Supremes

Melvin Van Peebles, whose 1971 film, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” was a milestone of independent and African American cinema

André Leon Talley, eminence of haute couture and one of the few African Americans on the mastheads and red carpets of the fashion world

Virgil Abloh, men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton and founder of the Milan-based label Off-White

“A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom. A first-class citizen does not plead to the White power structure to give him something that the Whites have no power to give or take away. Human rights are human rights, not White rights.” Gloria Richardson, who led civil rights protests on Maryland’s Eastern Shore during the 1960s, died July 15 at the age of 99. Richardson, who called herself a “radical, a revolutionary,” found herself at odds with the nonviolent movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. | By Keith L. Alexander

Bob Moses, civil rights leader who used “math literacy” to engage rural and inner-city students

Shelia Washington, founder of an Alabama museum dedicated to the memory of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of young Black men unjustly convicted of crimes in the 1930s

W. Sterling Cary, a minister who became the first African American to lead the National Council of Churches

Lani Guinier, civil rights scholar and first Black female tenured professor at Harvard Law School

Elgin Baylor, a Hall of Fame forward known for driving to the hoop and soaring above the rim with a gravity-defying style that helped pave the way for superstars such as Julius Erving and Michael Jordan, died March 22. He was 86. | By Harrison Smith

“The line that connects LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Erving begins with Baylor, the game’s — no, the world’s — first superstar. Seriously: The term ‘superstar’ was coined for Baylor.” Sportswriter Michael Lee on Baylor’s legacy

Dianne Durham, gymnast who became the first African American to win the U.S. national championship

Irv Cross, former NFL player who became the first Black full-time sports analyst on national television

Lusia Harris, 1970s basketball star who scored the first points in a women’s Olympic basketball game

Chris Dickerson, champion bodybuilder who became the first Black Mr. America and the first openly gay Mr. Olympia

“Whenever a Black woman is attractive and sexy, she must be a whore. It makes it difficult for Black women to be fully complex. I’m playful, anybody who hangs out with me knows that, but I am also a dead-serious intellectual woman who is on the job.” Trailblazing and popular feminist scholar bell hooks died Dec. 15. She was 69. | By Harrison Smith

She was often credited with drawing women of color, working-class women and others into a feminist movement that was centered on White middle-class mothers and wives. | By María Luisa Paúl

Jerry Pinkney, children’s book illustrator who celebrated African American people and culture

Greg Tate, a musician and writer acclaimed as a preeminent critic of hip-hop music and culture

Betty Davis, genre-busting funk singer who influenced generations of artists

Cheslie Kryst, who won the 2019 Miss USA pageant and worked as a correspondent for the entertainment news television show “Extra,” died Jan. 30 in New York City. She was 30 years old. Her victory came in a historic year that saw Black women win all five major beauty pageants. Kryst wore her crown on top of her natural curls. In “There She Was,” a history of the Miss America pageant published last year, Post editor Amy Argetsinger wrote that the moment marked a triumph for the “movement of African-American women trying to overturn the rigid old beauty standards that forced generations into the painful conformity of flat-ironing or chemically straightening their hair.” | By Reis Thebault and Hannah Knowles

Slavery and freedom

A century ago, Mississippi’s Senate voted to send all the state’s Black people to Africa The act is a reminder of just how long after the end of slavery some White Southerners were pushing not just to strip African Americans of their political rights but also to remove them from the land of their birth. | By Joshua Benton

Even after abolition, the Black experience has fallen victim to campaigns that obscure the darkest parts of the American story, diminishing African Americans’ connections to their pasts and warping the collective memory of the nation’s history. But in recent years, Black Americans have pursued new efforts to uncover their stories. From exploring sunken vessels of the Middle Passage to reconstructing museum exhibits that chronicle slavery, African Americans are breaking down the barriers that separate them from their ancestors and reconnecting with a lineage once lost. Explore The Descendants project. | By Nicole Ellis

An old Virginia plantation, a new owner and a family legacy unveiled For Fredrick Miller, the 10½-acre estate he’d purchased for $225,000 ended up not being just a future gathering spot for the family, but also its first traceable point in the United States — an astonishing revelation for him. | By Joe Heim

More enslaved Africans came to the Americas through this port than anywhere else. Why have so few heard of it? Brazil imported nearly 5 million enslaved Africans — an estimated 40 percent of the transatlantic slave trade — and in 1888 was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. | By Terrence McCoy

For the 50 million students attending public school in America, how they are taught about America’s history of slavery and its deprivations is as fundamental as how they are taught about the Declaration of Independence and its core assertion that “all men are created equal.” A deep understanding of one without a deep understanding of the other is to not know America at all. | By Joe Heim

Evanston, Ill., leads the country with first reparations program for Black residents The nation’s first government reparations program for African Americans was approved in March in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, offering homeownership and improvement grants and mortgage assistance for Black residents. | By Mark Guarino

But scholars A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr. argue that the city’s program isn’t reparations.

Race in America: A conversation with Clint Smith, author of “How the Word is Passed,” who traveled to nine locations, including the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, to examine how slavery is remembered.

Movement for racial justice

Voting rights activists on ‘Freedom Ride’ say their work will continue even after Senate Republicans block election reform bill Just as it took intense public pressure to force Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965, groups like Black Voters Matter have stepped up their efforts to push the federal government to again intervene to protect voting rights for people of color and young and low-income Americans. | By Vanessa Williams

Video: Why there’s even more pressure on Congress to protect voting rights.

The voting rights push in Selma was one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement. But before Selma was Selma, it was another local front in the movement struggling for national media attention. How Selma finally broke through is recounted in civil rights leader C.T. Vivian’s posthumous memoir, “It’s in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior.” | By Gillian Brockell

Perspective: The education sector hasn’t done enough to teach Americans about racism’s causes and to prepare us for its consequences. | By Ruth Simmons

Racism denied Auburn’s first Black student a master’s degree. Then, at 86, he returned. | By DeNeen L. Brown

After Ahmaud Arbery’s Death, This Group Demanded Change Arbery’s killing sparked residents to band together to try to force Glynn County, Ga., to confront the many failures of its law enforcement and other elected officials. | By Margaret Coker

Darnella Frazier, the teen who filmed George Floyd’s murder, awarded a Pulitzer citation. The Pulitzer board said her video highlighted “the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice.” | By Elahe Izadi

Marshals Service employees have alleged racism for decades. Their case may finally be heard In interviews with The Post, current and former Black employees of the Marshals Service, one of the country’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies, detailed allegations of racial bias. | By Hannah Knowles

In August 1906, Barbara Pope boarded a train at Union Station and traveled into Virginia, in the process challenging the state’s Jim Crow law requiring segregation on trains and streetcars. Her case became one of the first steps along the path to the end of legal segregation — leading the way toward the NAACP’s hallmark 1954 Supreme Court victory in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Rosa Parks of D.C. | By David A. Taylor

The Post’s six-part series examines the role systemic racism played throughout George Floyd’s 46-year life. The reporting explores the institutional and societal roadblocks Floyd encountered as a Black man from his birth in 1973 until his death. | By Post Staff

Politics

“Every American has a right to have their voice heard at the ballot box, and no American should be kept from voting early, voting by mail or voting at all. Our democracy is strongest when everyone participates, and it is weaker when people are left out.” — Vice President Harris

With voting rights role, Harris takes on weightiest challenge yet as vice president | By Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Mike DeBonis and Sean Sullivan

Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) elected in a special election last year as Georgia’s first Black senator, is running for a full term this year. During a January debate, he urged his colleagues to change Senate rules to pass federal voting rights legislation, comparing the vote to late activist and congressman John Lewis’s bloody trip across a Selma, Ala., bridge during a 1965 voting rights march. “We’re talking about a procedural bridge,” he said. “I’m still praying that we will cross that bridge. But if not tonight, we will come back again and again and again.”

Opinion: Raphael Warnock, the freshman senator not playing it safe First-year senators typically don’t make many waves. Black politicians who represent large numbers of White voters often shy away from issues related to race. Warnock is breaking all the rules. | By Perry Bacon

Stacey Abrams became the first Black woman in U.S. history to win the gubernatorial nomination of either major party. After narrowly losing the Georgia governor’s race in 2018, she focused on voter education and registration and is credited with helping Democrats turn Georgia blue, winning both the presidential contest and two Senate seats in 2020 and 2021. She is making a second bid for governor of Georgia this year. Abrams said in her announcement video that she was running because “opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn’t be determined by your Zip code, background or access to power.” As Stacey Abrams enters governor’s race, Georgia becomes a key 2022 battleground | By Tim Craig and Vanessa Williams

As the only Black GOP senator, Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has walked a delicate line between schooling his colleagues — and former president Donald Trump — on matters of race and remaining silent. It’s an unenviable position to be the one senator asked constantly to account for Trump’s language and policies on race because that one senator happens to be Black. | By Ben Terris

Virginia lieutenant governor Earle-Sears makes her mark in Richmond during tumultuous first week The first woman of color to hold statewide office in the commonwealth, Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, only had to gavel the Senate into session for the first time to draw the approval of nearly 34,000 people on Twitter. | By Antonio Olivo and Laura Vozzella

The first Black woman to run St. Louis is shaking up the city with a war on normal Tishaura Jones unapologetically champions progressive policy ideas long dismissed as fringe and doesn’t seem to mind whom she might alienate along the way. | By Griff Witte

At the turn of the 20th century — more than 50 years after the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls — many White women remained opposed to suffrage, fearing a fall from their domestic pedestals. Meanwhile, Black women, with less to lose and so much to gain, were almost uniformly in favor of the vote. Deltas: The Black sorority that faced racism in the suffrage movement but refused to walk away. | By Sydney Trent

Business and the economy

A harvest for the world: A Black family farm is fighting racism in agriculture and climate change Leah Penniman, 41, Soul Fire Farm, is a leading spokesperson for the movement to increase the ranks of Black, Brown and Indigenous farmers. “People are blowing up our phones, blowing up our inbox, wanting to come to the farm,” said her sister, Naima Penniman. | By Darryl Fears

Corporate America’s $50 billion promise After the murder of George Floyd ignited nationwide protests, corporate America acknowledged it could no longer stay silent and promised to take an active role in confronting systemic racism. A Post analysis of racial justice pledges reveals the limits of corporate power to effect change. | By Tracy Jan

Google’s approach to historically Black schools helps explain why there are few Black engineers in Big Tech The company tried to recruit engineers by partnering with HBCUs. Critics say the program exposed how the search giant fell short. | By Nitasha Tiku

“Companies say they want to tackle systemic racism, but people are so uncomfortable talking about race,” said Mary-Frances Winters, whose consulting firm works with corporations on diversity, equity and inclusion. “Most of our clients do not want to talk about ‘white supremacy’ culture. They are most comfortable using terms like ‘belonging’ and ‘inclusion’ because they are nice terms.”

The striking race gap in corporate America A Washington Post review of the 50 most valuable public companies reveals that Black employees represent a strikingly small fraction of top executives — and that the people tapped to boost inclusion often struggle to do so. | By Tracy Jan

Roz Brewer, the only Black woman who helms a Fortune 500 company who is now in charge of Walgreens’ vaccine rollout, recounts an encounter she had with a male CEO who mistakenly asked her if she worked in marketing or merchandising departments at a CEO-only event. | By Jena McGregor

In 2017, the year Trey Brown turned 12, he was horrified to hear about teens just a little older than he was getting caught up in violence in Philadelphia. “I wanted to be a light to the youth,” says Brown. He came up with a plan to show other kids there was an alternative path: He’d start a clothing line. He saved $178 of his birthday money and got his mom, Sherell Peterson, on board. Teen entrepreneur Trey Brown willed his clothing line into reality. Now Spergo has arrived in D.C. | By Vicky Hallett

Military

Lawmakers introduce bill to award Congressional Gold Medal to Black men who fought for the Union in the Civil War On Christmas Eve in 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis declared that any “negro slave” caught while fighting for the Union would be returned to the state from which he escaped. Despite the risk of being sold into slavery as captured prisoners of war, regardless of whether they had been free, roughly 200,000 Black men enlisted in the Union Army and Navy, fighting for a country that at the time did not even consider them citizens. | By Meagan Flynn

73 years after winning first ‘Top Gun’ competition, Black pilots are honored The all-Black fighter and bomber group’s 1949 victory was omitted either accidentally or through intentional oversight until this year. | By Dave Kindy

This unit of Black women made history in World War II. They’re finally getting broader recognition. This year, the Senate passed a bill that would give the 6888th a Congressional Gold Medal — an honor their advocates have been fighting for since 2019. | By Anne Branigin

Art and artifacts

Armed doesn’t mean dangerous. Photographer Christian K. Lee’s photo essay aims to “recondition myself, and others, toward the more positive view of Black people and guns: to promote a more balanced archive of images of African Americans with firearms by showing responsible gun owners — those who use these weapons for sport, hobby and protection. I hope these photos bring that important point into focus.”

Analysis: ‘Insecure’ and the defiant come-up of Issa Rae Any hand-wringing over how universal the show may or may not be misses the point: “Insecure” is relatable because it’s about real life. But it’s also very specifically about Black young men and women living in South Los Angeles. | By Bethonie Butler

Perspective: The book “Vanguard” recounts how many suffragists and lawmakers who sought to ratify the 19th Amendment accommodated and, in some cases, embraced anti-Black racism even as they worked to expand access to a fundamental democratic right. Jim Crow laws — poll taxes, literacy tests and more — prevented Black women from casting ballots for decades after the 19th Amendment became law in 1920. Black history is often shunned — like the book I wrote. | By Martha S. Jones

Casting Black actors in period pieces isn’t diversity. It’s history. Historical accuracy is usually the explanation offered when fans point out the glaring lack of diversity, as if women and people of color didn’t exist before 1960. | By Helena Andrews-Dyer

Cartoonist Ray Billingsley has been portraying Black family life for decades — and now he’s getting his due In October 1988, King Features launched Billingsley’s comic strip “Curtis,” centering on the 11-year-old title character and brother Barry, and featuring a predominantly Black cast, which was rare in syndicated comics of the era. In 2021, Billingsley won the Reuben Award for outstanding cartoonist of the year. It was the 75th year of the National Cartoonists Society’s peer-voted prize — whose legendary recipients include Charles Schulz, Matt Groening, Rube Goldberg and Roz Chast — but the first time that it has been won by a Black creator, according to comics historians. | Michael Cavna

The strange journey of ‘cancel,’ from a Black-culture punchline to a White-grievance watchword The 1980s song “Your Love Is Cancelled,” by the disco group Chic, was not a hit. But the idea of “canceling” a person for unacceptable behavior has taken its own journey. | By Clyde McGrady

Analysis: Ta-Nehisi Coates took Black Panther to dark places — and it paid off After five years, it comes to an end: the acclaimed run of one of the most important Black minds of a generation scripting the most important Black superhero of all time. | By David Betancourt

Between dances. A community of urban ballroom dancers in Detroit has been decimated by covid. But the survivors aim to keep on dancing. | By J. Lester Feder

Music

Berry Gordy wanted to make the world ‘weep with joy’ Motown became a form of diplomacy that crossed racial boundaries: “I felt that people were way more alike than different.” | By Robin Givhan

The best music festival in 1969? Hint: It wasn’t Woodstock. “Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” a documentary by Questlove, introduces the world to the nearly forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival, which had arguably superior performances to Woodstock’s. | By Geoff Edgers

Perspective: Rap music doesn’t have a gun problem. America has a gun problem. We’re all living in an increasingly lethal place, and nobody seems to be in control. Young Dolph’s heaviest rhymes made this lethal world feel lighter | By Chris Richards

In December 2010, a mysterious banjo tune popped up on a website devoted to early recordings. Even by that definition, this song stood out. It dated to when Grover Cleveland occupied the White House, opening with a crackle before the steady voice of Charles Asbury introduces himself and his performance of “Haul the Woodpile Down.” This mysterious recording was the missing musical link to an era when racism was the tune. | By Geoff Edgers

Sports

Perspective: Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles and the enduring sports message of 2021 At a time when so many among us are struggling with darkness, loneliness and sorrow in this public health catastrophe, Osaka and Biles — no matter how vulnerable on a world stage — showed us we shouldn’t feel ashamed if we don’t feel okay. | Kevin B. Blackistone

Perspective: Erin Jackson’s golden moment is a breakthrough for U.S. speedskating and representation Jackson is the first Black woman to win an Olympic speedskating medal for the United States. If that’s not enough, she’s a breakthrough victor for a proud U.S. program that hadn’t captured gold since the 2010 Olympics. | By Jerry Brewer

The modern NFL didn’t have a Black head coach until 1989. Here’s his story. By the time Art Shell became the first Black head coach in modern NFL history, there had already been 18 Black head coaches in the NBA and four Black baseball managers. | By Frederic J. Frommer

The Nine Baseball is confronting a decline in African American players. The stories of these nine athletes demonstrate why — and what — the sport can do to turn the tide. | By The Washington Post

How the NBA’s 75th anniversary sweeps away its early history Teams belonging to the National Basketball League, a precursor to the NBA, signed multiple Black players in the 1942-43 season, marking the first time that several Black men would be playing alongside Whites. In fact, the Chicago Studebakers team was majority-Black. Not until the mid-1960s would the NBA field a majority-Black team. | By Curtis Harris

Perspective: As D.C.’s Black population shrinks, the Turkey Bowl is one of the few traditions that endures For native Washingtonians of a certain age, and a certain race, the Turkey Bowl is more than just the annual D.C. public schools championship game. It’s coming home. It’s celebrating the traditions of their youth and remembering a time before the city, which was once called chocolate, transitioned into something closer to a vanilla latte. | By Candace Buckner

“People on the low have told me I could lose my job for this. A lot of people told me not to do it. People told me to stop stirring trouble. I became an agitator in my hometown, for talking about a guy who was murdered in his community. But one of the great things about coaching: I got more support from the community than I got threats.” Jason Vaughn emerged as a leading advocate for justice for Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man — and his former linebacker — who was shot and killed after being chased by armed White men while jogging in a local neighborhood. | By Roman Stubbs

Family and relationships

For Black women, looking after their mental and emotional well-being is just as or more important than taking your prenatal vitamin every morning. The existential stress can take a toll. Coverage of the community has revolved around high maternal mortality rates, but Helena Andrews-Dyer needed to read an article about joy. This is it. This isn’t another horror story about Black motherhood. | By Helena Andrews-Dyer

‘A dog whistle and a lie’: Black parents on the critical race theory debate During Virginia’s governor’s race last year, Rakelle Mullenix read and watched countless news stories about the fervor among parents over the teaching of critical race theory and about racism in local schools. “It seems as though Black and Brown voices were ignored, and the voices were centered on White parents and their concerns,” Mullenix says. | By Leslie Gray Streeter

Perspective: With ‘Alma’s Way’ on PBS Kids, Afro-Latino children finally have characters they can relate to This show will share the life, experiences and shenanigans, of Alma Rivera, an adorable 6-year-old girl growing up in the Bronx. Alma’s family, friends and neighborhood makes up every shade of you brown you might see in the Bronx. This makes it impossible to mistake Alma as anything but Afro-Latino. | By Adiba Nelson

For interracial couples, Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are a “monumental” symbol. Together Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants who identifies culturally as Black, and Emhoff, a Jewish entertainment lawyer, represent yet another less-heralded first: the first interracial couple at the highest reaches of the executive branch. | By Sydney Trent

Tierra and DeAndre Haynes want their boys to see an array of career paths. So Tierra wrote a children’s book about the first African American to go to space. | By Emily Giambalvo

Food

“This is for us, by us. We’re talking to each other, we’re sharing our stories and best practices and joys and some sorrows and everything in between. And we will invite the world to look at what we’re doing, but this is for us and let’s not even think about the White gaze. And I feel like we pull that off. This feels like a love letter to our food traditions, history, ingredients, practices — everything that has sustained us.”— Bryant Terry, award-winning author of ‘Black Food,’ discusses plant-based eating and where he finds inspiration | By Aaron Hutcherson

When Todd Richards and Joshua Lee first met in 2015, they were executive chefs at two restaurants owned by the same company, two blocks apart in downtown Atlanta. They soon realized they shared a bigger goal: to own restaurants outright, so they could help more Black people and other people of color discover and harness their passions in and around the kitchen. | By Christopher A. Daniel

For these Black women in the diaspora, holding on to family recipes is a means of preserving culture It’s through passed-down knowledge of flavors and ingredients that Black families emulate recipes from their ancestors, they say, and continue to honor an integral part of their culture. | By Sierra Lyons