As the government shutdown halts SNAP benefits for millions of Americans, Black churches across the country are stepping up to fill the gap. Congregations like New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia and Open Altar Ministries in Virginia are expanding food programs, feeding thousands, and demonstrating the Black Church’s long tradition of community care. With food insecurity disproportionately affecting Black households, faith leaders are mobilizing resources, donations, and volunteers to ensure no family goes hungry.
Category: Word In Black
Posted inEducation
Students at Digital Pioneers Academy earn as they learn about financial literacy
By Dr. Deborah BaileyAFRO Contributing Editor This Fall, Digital Pioneers Academy Charter School in S.E. Washington will initiate the city’s first no strings attached, school-based direct financial support program for students, paying high school seniors 50 dollars cash per week. The public charter middle and high school opened in Southeast in Fall 2023 to support […]
Posted inWord In Black
Inside Gucci Mane’s battle for mental health
Rapper Gucci Mane (Radric Davis) is using his memoir and public platform to speak openly about his diagnoses—bipolar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia—and his recovery journey, highlighting the role of family caregiving and destigmatizing mental health in Black communities. With his wife Keyshia Ka’Oir deeply involved in his care, the couple emphasizes early intervention, accountability, and reshaping masculine norms around seeking help.
Posted inWord In Black
Could Emmett Till’s coffin be erased from the Smithsonian?
By Liz Courquet-LesaulnierWord in Black If history can be rewritten, then objects, no matter how sacred, can be put back into a shed, hidden in a basement or destroyed. Seventy years on, the task remains what it was in 1955: to look unflinchingly at racism, at the brutality it inflicted on a child and to […]
Posted inWord In Black
Inside the soon-to-open Obama Presidential Center
The Barack Obama Presidential Center, set to open on Chicago’s South Side in spring 2026, will be a first-of-its-kind presidential library and community hub. The 19-acre campus will feature green spaces, a library branch, a podcast studio, and areas for public events, while the museum building—shaped like four hands coming together—will house exhibits on Obama’s presidency and the foundation’s programs.
Posted inEducation
Pell Grant cuts helped lower Black college enrollment, report says
A new report links cuts and inconsistencies in Pell Grant funding to a nearly half-million drop in Black college enrollment over the past decade, with Southern HBCUs hit hardest. Researchers urge federal and state leaders to stabilize Pell funding to ensure equitable access to higher education.
Posted inWord In Black
USDA warns states about November SNAP benefits
By Jennifer Porter GoreWord in Black When Congress couldn’t agree on a budget to fund the government before Oct. 1, officials used some budget trickery to guarantee that the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would continue through the end of the month. But if Congress doesn’t pass a budget by Nov. 1, millions […]
Posted inWord In Black
To the Supreme Court: The Callais decision will show us who you are with Louisiana v. Callais, SCOTUS could strike a death blow to the Voting Rights Act.
By April England-AlbrightWord in Black The Supreme Court’s October 2025 session may be its most consequential yet in the long fight for Black freedom. Louisiana v. Callais, which was reargued on Oct. 15, is the latest case testing the Voting Rights Act — a law the court has steadily weakened over the past decade and […]
Posted inWord In Black
Editorial: The right to vote is on trial… again
AFRO CEO and Publisher Frances “Toni” Draper warns that the right to vote is once again under threat as the Supreme Court reviews a case that could weaken the Voting Rights Act. She calls on all Americans to stay vigilant, reminding readers that protecting democracy demands courage, participation, and collective responsibility.
Posted inReligion
‘A Master Teacher’: Remembering Dr. W. James “Jimmie” Abbington
Dr. W. James “Jimmie” Abbington, a renowned musician, scholar, and educator known as the “dean of Black church music,” died Sept. 27 at age 65. Recently appointed as Duke University Divinity School’s first professor of Black sacred music, Abbington’s lifelong mission was to preserve and elevate African American sacred music as both art and theology.
Posted inOpinion
I Posted the ICE Tip Line in Anger. I’ll Regret it Forever
Tony Armstrong is a social commentator, satirist and essayist, who currently lives in Dallas, Texas, but reps his twin hometowns — Baltimore and Chicago — hard. In this powerful reflection, Armstrong admits to posting an ICE tip line out of anger after the 47th president’s election, expressing deep remorse as he witnesses immigration crackdowns in Chicago that now harm entire communities, not just immigrants.
Posted inWord In Black
Meet the 5 MacArthur ‘geniuses’ making the future Black and brilliant
Five Black innovators — filmmaker Garrett Bradley, archaeologist Kristina Douglass, social justice artist Tonika Lewis Johnson, musician Craig Taborn, and chemical engineer William Tarpeh — have been named 2025 MacArthur Fellows. Each recipient of the prestigious “genius grant” is using creativity, science, and storytelling to redefine what’s possible in their fields and to shape a more equitable, sustainable, and inspired future.