Moving from the Bay Area to Inglewood was divine. I needed to see firsthand what God is doing in this city. Driving through downtown, an unexpected wave of warmth hit me. I praised God, knowing this is exactly where He wants me right now— telling vital stories.
The California Civic Media Program’s grants will open in the summer of 2026, with the first round of award decisions and funding distributions expected to be officially announced in the fall of 2026, according to the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz).
Russell Simmons is accusing HBO and its partners of ignoring civil rights leaders, burying evidence, and turning his name into a global spectacle, and he’s putting it before a Manhattan court.
The nation is right to hope and pray for the safe return of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of journalist Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor on NBC’s “Today.” Any disappearance is terrifying. Any family thrust into uncertainty deserves compassion, urgency, and relentless attention. But compassion should never be selective — and that is precisely where the media’s response exposes a troubling, long-standing inconsistency.
To stabilize and strengthen local journalism across California, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announced on Feb. 10 that it has launched an initiative called the Civic Media Program and appointed a diverse advisory board to steer the effort.
Local journalism is indispensable to the protection of civil rights and equality for all Americans, and in particular for Black American communities and other communities of color across the nation. Local-owned news media is crucial to community empowerment and civic participation.
This is not a reflection. It is a demand. The Black Press of America is being deliberately starved, and unless people act now, it will collapse in full view of the nation it has served for nearly two centuries. This is not about nostalgia. It is about whether truth survives when power decides it should not.
The American press is facing a crisis deeper than shrinking newsrooms or digital disruption. A new study from the News Literacy Project finds that teenagers overwhelmingly believe the nation’s news media is fake, chaotic, and dishonest, a view that threatens the foundation of an informed society at the same time a sitting president intensifies his attacks on journalism. The findings land in an era where corporate consolidation, political pressure, and presidential intimidation collide with the public’s fading confidence in the institutions meant to hold power accountable.
facebooktwitterinstagram Friends, family, and colleagues recently gathered at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to honor the life and legacy of Belva Davis — the pioneering
Two months ago, famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump stood before a ballroom filled with the echoes of history. He did not whisper. He thundered. “If you’ve been blessed,” he said, “you got to pass the blessing on. You just can’t keep it to yourself.” Then he pledged fifty thousand dollars to the Black Press of America. It was not an act of charity. It was an act of faith.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) announced ten key state legislative races to watch this November, touting the contests as pivotal for maintaining and expanding Democratic power in states such as Virginia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Washington. Yet, even as the DLCC calls attention to its candidates and their communities, the party’s silence and neglect toward Black-owned media — particularly the historic Black Press of America — continues to speak louder than its press releases.
The dismissal of Karen Attiah from the Washington Post has become more than a personnel decision. It is a scarlet warning, a reminder of what has long haunted the American press: the Black voice is too often invited in only to be pushed out when it dares to speak of the nation’s truths.
One could make the case that Democrats lost the 2024 election in part because they abandoned the Black Press—the voice of Black America. Black voters, the backbone of the party, walked away in numbers unseen in modern times. At the very moment when all Americans—Black, white, Latino, and others—are called to stand against authoritarianism, Democrats have shown not courage but cowardice, not gratitude but contempt for their own base.
The Black Press is two years away from its 200th anniversary. Two centuries of carrying our story when others denied us a voice. Two centuries of fighting mobs, resisting Jim Crow, surviving fire, and standing against lies. And now, in its hour of need, as corporate America cuts ties and Washington turns away, the silence of Black America’s billionaires is as loud as the betrayals of history.
Donald Trump’s first eight months back in the White House have erased any illusion of restraint. He is not just following the Project 2025 playbook — the authoritarian blueprint he once claimed to know nothing about — he’s executing it with surgical precision. From purging diversity programs to steamrolling media independence, Trump has unleashed a blitzkrieg of white nationalist policymaking under the guise of federal power.
Kim Godwin, a trailblazing figure as the president of ABC News and the first Black woman to lead a major network news division, has unexpectedly resigned, leaving a significant void in the ongoing struggle for diversity in media leadership.
