By Chrissy M. Thornton I have spent my career learning how to lead with vision, discipline, empathy and results. I believe I have earned my seat – through education, experience, sacrifice and outcomes. Yet still, as a Black woman CEO, I am routinely reminded that credentials do not inoculate you from dismissal; that power, in […]
Category: Opinion
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: When eviction means losing everything in Baltimore
Eddie Blackstone, Baltimore Organizer at the Community Development Network and Albert Turner, Human Right to Housing Attorney at the Public Justice Center, say despite a federal appeals court ruling that says Baltimore’s abandonment law is unconstitutional, the city fails to act more than a year later.
Posted inOpinion
Claudette Colvin, MLK, and the erasure of Black women from civil rights canon
Claudette Colvin, a civil rights activist who challenged segregation as a teenager, is pictured years after her historic arrest that preceded the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Julienne Louis Anderson, a lifelong educator, womanist and a fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute, argues that Colvin’s story, long excluded from textbooks and curricula, reflects the broader erasure of Black women from the Civil Rights Movement.
Posted inOpinion
How Baltimore City’s project labor agreement harms local workers, risks higher future water bills
Sheila Dixon, former mayor of Baltimore, currently serves as marketing director for the Maryland Minority Contractors Association. This week, she weighs in on what the city’s project labor agreement for water pumping stations could mean for Black contractors and their employees.
Posted inOPINION
Our boys deserve better: Why Baltimore must protect its only all-male public school
By Walter Fields Do our boys really matter? That is the question I have pondered since learning that Baltimore City Public Schools is threatening to not renew the charter of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (BCSB). This school is the only all-male, public school of its kind in Maryland, and provides a safe and nurturing […]
Posted inOpinion
Is it density or destruction? A look at the Housing Options and Opportunities Act
By Nneka Nnamdi Council Bill 25-0066, otherwise known as the Housing Options and Opportunities Act, is a part of Mayor Brandon Scott’s plan to bring down housing costs by making it lawful to create 2-4 units in a single structure that is greater than 1,500 sq ft. The logic of the bill seems to be […]
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Crypto firms: Wolves in banks’ clothing
n this commentary, attorney and educator Alice T. Crowe warns that major cryptocurrency firms are positioning themselves as banks without being subject to the same consumer protections, posing heightened risks for Black communities. She argues that crypto companies deliberately target Black consumers—through celebrity endorsements, Bitcoin ATMs in Black neighborhoods, and promises of liberation from racist banking systems—while offering little recourse against fraud, volatility, or loss, potentially deepening existing racial wealth gaps rather than closing them.
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign foretold America’s affordability crisis
Rising costs and stagnant wages have pushed affordability to a crisis point for working families in 2026. Charlene Crowell, a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending, argues that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign foresaw these challenges and that its call for economic justice remains urgently relevant today.
Posted inOpinion
The power of “no”: Reclaiming boundaries in a world that demands ‘yes’
Maurice Carroll, founder of Alkemmust Sound Healing, is a music producer, teacher and author. This week, he shares his thoughts on using and understanding the word “no,” to protect boundaries and fully enjoy life.
Posted inOpinion
We can save Black mothers — if we better prepare Black fathers
Joshua Liston Zawadi, a Dad Doula and a public voices fellow of the OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute, argues that improving Black maternal health requires intentionally preparing and empowering Black fathers to be active advocates before, during and after birth. Drawing from his experiences as a father and “dad doula,” he highlights how sidelining fathers in maternity care weakens family outcomes and supports policies like the Dads Matter Act of 2025 that center fathers as vital members of the care team.
Posted inOpinion
This is the America Black people have always known
The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by federal agents in Minneapolis underscores what Black Americans have long known: state violence rooted in White supremacy is not an aberration but a defining feature of American power. As outrage grows, the piece argues that moral clarity, collective care, and refusal to accept cruelty as inevitable are essential responses to a system that only feels shocking when it harms those previously shielded by privilege.
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: What the NICU in Colombia taught me about Black fatherhood, preeclampsia and survival
In this deeply personal commentary, Jarvis Houston reflects on becoming a father under crisis when his son was born prematurely due to preeclampsia while the family was in Colombia. Through the experience of navigating a foreign health system, witnessing the fragility of life in the NICU, and advocating for his partner’s survival, Houston examines the realities of Black fatherhood, the dangers of maternal health inequities facing Black women, and the collective nature of survival, care and love.
