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Black men and boys are facing an economic reality that stretches from the classroom to the workplace. Now, a new report says the problems are no longer just evident… In many critical areas, they’re getting worse. The first annual “Economic State of Black Men and Boys in the United States “report, released by the John Mercer Langston Institute for African American Political Leadership in partnership with the Virginia Alliance for Black Men and Boys, takes a hard look at over 20 million Black American men and boys, finding a slew full of warning signs, from reading proficiency in elementary school to college enrollment, employment, pay and wealth. “Even if you come from a ‘wealthy Black family,’ that still doesn’t prevent you from having to deal with systemic barriers, which is something we knew, but the data actually pointed that out,” author, educator and activist Dr. Wes Bellamy told The Root in an interview. The report makes one thing clear: When Black men and boys are lumped into broader statistics about Black Americans, their specific struggles can disappear into the averages. The problems start early. In 2024, just 17% of Black fourth graders performed at or above the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ Proficient level in reading, according to the report. By eighth grade, that number dropped to 14%, while more than 60% of Black eighth graders performed below the Basic level. Dr. Bellamy told us these issues are systemic. “The systems are playing out exactly as they were designed to, which is why we see some of the bleak numbers in which we have,” he said. Then there’s college. Black male undergraduate enrollment dropped about 22% between 2010 and 2022. At historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), where Black men have historically played a critical role, the decline was even steeper. Black men now make up roughly 26% of HBCU enrollment, down from 38% in 1976, we previously told you. And once they enter the workforce, the numbers aren’t much better. In April 2026, Black workers had a 7.3% unemployment rate–the highest among the nation’s major racial and ethnic groups, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. In June, that number sat at 6.6%. As we previously discussed, high unemployment within the Black community usually points to greater implications for the rest of America. “We’re not a monolithic group, [and] I think oftentimes for Black men, we don’t receive the same level of grace as other particular demographic groups,” Dr. Bellamy said. The employment-to-population ratio for Black men also dropped between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026, with the decline concentrated among men without four-year college degrees, the study found. For those who are working, the pay gap remains stubborn, but that’s no secret. Black men earned a median of $1,039 a week in 2025, compared with $1,354 for White men–roughly 77 cents for every dollar earned by White men. And then there’s wealth–or, more accurately, the lack of a financial cushion when things go wrong. Black households had a median transaction-account balance of $2,200, compared with $10,000 for White households. Black homeownership stood at 43%, compared with 73% for White households. That means when a job disappears, an unexpected bill lands or an economic downturn hits, Black families often have less room to absorb the blow. The report calls for earlier mentorship, stronger literacy programs, mental health and career support, expanded apprenticeships and skilled-trade opportunities, and targeted help for Black men facing long-term unemployment. But it isn’t simply sounding an alarm. The report is demanding accountability. “What I was most happy about is the fact that we now know the data, and we can develop a plan,” Dr. Bellamy continued. “It’s one thing for us to talk about and synthesize and summarize what’s transpiring; it’s something completely different for us to actually have the figures all compiled in one particular area, and now we can plan to move forward.” Because the data tells a story that can’t be ignored: Too many Black men and boys are falling behind at every stage of the economic pipeline. And until schools, colleges, employers, policymakers and communities treat those outcomes as a specific problem requiring specific solutions, the numbers aren’t likely to change.

Many of us are likely versed in the Harlem Renaissance. Even if it is vague, we have some notion of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Duke Ellington. What is less known is the level of organization behind these artists that supported their creative genius. Harlem Rhapsody, an award winning novel by Victoria Christopher Murray places the less famous Jesse Redmond Fauset and her advocacy of Black art at the center of it all. Jesse Redmond Fauset was a prolific artist herself, having produced numerous poems, short stories, essays, and four novels from 1925 to 1933. But it was her administrative role as editor of the NAACP’s Crisis magazine that earned her the title as “midwife” of the Harlem Renaissance. A good deal of Harlem Rhapsody is set at the NAACP headquarters on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. There, Fauset worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois, head of the Crisis, who was also a writer in his own right and crusader for Black art. This reflects the historical record as historians such as David Levering Lewis have uncovered Du Bois’s outsized role in promoting the Harlem Renaissance, largely through the Crisis, which at that time, was one of the nation’s leading Black periodicals. Although cultural allies, it is the romantic relationship between Fauset and Dubois that provides much of the novel’s drama. Here, Murray does a masterful job of reconstructing a complicated partnership based on their different levels of prestige, ages (Fauset was fourteen years Du Bois’s junior), and relationship statuses (Du Bois was married and had several other romantic relationships). And Murray does this by not reducing Fauset to merely an appendage of Du Bois as many at the time did. Instead, Fauset is presented as fully dimensional. More importantly, she is projected as Du Bois’s equal. Yet given the confluence of race and gender, Fauset’s genius was not enough. Like many Black women, she needed the sponsorship of a man for wider professional recognition. This became a double edged sword. It provided Fauset with unprecedented opportunities while simultaneously making it extremely difficult to emerge from Du Bois’s professional and romantic orbit. Though a historic novel, Harlem Rhapsody is deeply researched and stays true to actual events. Murray’s engrossing writing style provides an easily accessible entry point to the Harlem Renaissance and the many luminaries who made the borough legendary. Cameos are made by Jean Toomer, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Claude McKay, Nella Larsen, and Countee Cullen.  There is also a concluding appendix where Murray lists those instances where she diverted from the historical record and her reasons for doing so. Readers will come away from the book with a much more nuanced understanding of the Harlem Renaissance and the women who brought it into being.  

 A police shooting death of a homeless man who the chief said wounded an officer with a knife while resisting arrest has roiled Wisconsin’s capital city, with protesters and community groups demanding accountability and an end to racial injustice. Corey Durell Ruiz, 38, was shot and killed on a city street Wednesday, the moments of his death captured in bystander videos that were later posted online. The race of the officer who fired his gun has not been released by police. Ruiz is identified as Black or Latino in Wisconsin court records. “It does not matter who you are or what your past is, you should not lose your life as a result of an encounter with law enforcement,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. Wisconsin court records show Ruiz had been in and out of jail over the past decade for mostly misdemeanor offenses including disorderly conduct, drug possession, auto theft, battery and invasion of privacy. He was also convicted of felonies including possession of cocaine and marijuana, robbery, strangulation, resisting an officer and causing bodily harm. “He’s a human being. He had a family. He has parents who loved him, who brought him home, who cared for him,” Common Council President Sabrina Madison said, adding that she’s struggling to understand what she’s seen in videos of the shooting that have circulated on social media. “My first thought is, when the officer’s walking away, why isn’t he walking away in cuffs?” Madison said. “I’m angry, there’s no way around it.” Ruiz’s family has retained Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, who said the case must be examined for excessive force. Frustrated residents marched, and a memorial of flowers and signs grew near the place where Ruiz died. It was just blocks from where two other police killings happened in 2015 and 2012. A group of about 20 protesters burst into Thursday’s news conference, taking the microphone from police Chief John Patterson and arguing with some attendees who said they wanted to hear more about the investigation. One protester held a sign saying “Corrupt cops deserve to die too!!!” Moments earlier, the mayor said the shooting would be “rigorously investigated.” Once the protesters quieted down, the chief resumed his presentation, promising his department’s full cooperation with the state investigation. None of the four officers who were detaining Ruiz wore body cameras, but passersby recorded the confrontation on video, and accused the officers of overreacting. “I thought, ‘Holy cow — what could have warranted that?’ It looked to me like they had him under control,” David Ortiz-Whittingham, who saw officers swarming and heard the gunshots, said Thursday. “Even now, knowing about the knife, did he have to die for it? Could this have been de-escalated?” The police chief released few details Thursday, saying a Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation probe of the officer-involved shooting must run its course. Earlier Thursday, Madison’s independent police monitor, Aeiramique Glass, said police had not yet shared evidence or the officer’s identity with her office, which will review the case and can recommend to the district attorney that charges be filed if warranted. She said the department and city are “obstructing what the community and the public” want. “Let me do my job,” she said. Patterson said the police were committed to cooperating with Glass. Patterson has urged caution in reading too much from the cellphone videos. He said none show the perspective of the officers, and additional unreleased video was being reviewed. The officer who fired his weapon is an 11-year veteran of the force, the chief said. He and the three other responding officers will be placed on administrative leave. Patterson said police were responding to calls that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles, and the suspect fled on a bike before the officers surrounded him. One deployed a taser, but Patterson said the effort failed to control the man. In the videos circulating online, the man can be seen standing before he’s brought to his knees as the officers struggle to force him into a prone position. Then he falls quickly to the pavement after what sounds like three gunshots, and seems motionless as the officers handcuff him behind his back. Arriving officers then escort one of the officers a short distance away. Patterson said he did not know the extent of the knife injuries sustained by the officer. “This situation was clearly dangerous,” Patterson said before adding he was saddened by the loss of life. The shooting happened in the middle of an intersection in the popular Marquette neighborhood, less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the state Capitol. Bystander videos show numerous cars at the scene, with people watching as it unfolds. “I saw everything! I saw everything! You did not need to kill him! ... We watched it all!” a woman yells in the video recorded by Ortiz-Whittingham. Residents who dealt with two other police killings expressed frustration Thursday. In 2015, a white police officer shot and killed Tony Robinson, who was biracial, on the same street. Large protests followed, but the district attorney filed no charges, determining the officer was justified. In 2012, Paul Heenan, a white musician, was fatally shot after he had been drinking and mistakenly entered his neighbor’s house. That officer was exonerated as well. The chief acknowledged that the neighborhood “has experienced a lot of trauma” and urged people to support one another. “I want transparency. I want accountability,” Patterson said. Black advocacy groups, protesters and politicians are speaking out against the shooting, which has also focused attention on the Madison Police Department’s lack of body-worn cameras. The force of around 500 is among the largest in the Midwest that doesn’t use the devices. Madison, the Common Council president, said Thursday that she expects a police request for $400,000 to be approved, enabling the cameras to be phased in over the next three years. Others lamented that cameras weren’t already being used. The mayor said her budget, which has not yet been released, will include funding for body-worn cameras. Rhodes-Conway said the city needs to put together a policy for their use before the budget takes effect in January. The shooting has quickly infused itself into the race to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, who is not seeking a third term. Voting is already underway in the Aug. 11 primary. Democratic socialist candidate Francesca Hong called the shooting “state sanctioned violence.” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat, said the reports are “painfully reminiscent of the tragedies we have witnessed in Kenosha, Minneapolis, and far too many communities.” Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany called on his rivals to let the state investigation “establish the facts without politicians rushing to judgment.”

This month, specifically July 16th, marked the birth of Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who passed away in September of last year.  She passed away in the capital city of Havana reportedly due to her "health conditions and advanced age," Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Shakur's daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed her mother's death in a Facebook post. Officials in New Jersey, where Shakur was previously imprisoned, said she was 78.

Before Tony Brown became one of the most recognizable faces in television, he helped build one of Washington’s most influential institutions for training Black journalists. Brown, the founding dean of Howard University’s School of Communications and Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Communications and the longtime host of Tony Brown’s Journal, died June 17 at his home in Newport News, Virginia. He was 93.

This month, specifically June 15th, marked the birth of Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, a national educational consultant, publisher and the author of over 30 books that address effective means by which to counter the negative impact of white supremacy on the development of black youth. He passed away at the age of 71 last year on April 25.