Category: Racial Justice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Jones

Courtney Michaela Ann “Coco” Jones (born January 4, 1998) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born in Columbia, South Carolina and raised in Lebanon, Tennessee, Jones began auditioning as a child to pursue a career in entertainment. She first appeared on the competition series Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing (2010–11), which led to her signing with the company’s Hollywood Records and being cast in several Disney Channel properties — including the sketch comedy So Random! (2011–12) and the sitcom Good Luck Charlie (2012–13). She had her breakthrough role as Roxanne “Roxy” Andrews in the 2012 television musical Disney Channel Original Movie Let It Shine, where she co-starred with Tyler James Williams and lent her vocals to the soundtrack for the network.

Patrick Weaver is global faith leader, author and mindset coach dedicated to helping people from all walks of life and backgrounds harness the power of faith to conquer in life and create fulfilling relationships.

Channeling his personal experiences with abuse, failures and successes personally and professionally, his voice strikes both a spiritual and a radically practical chord, making his transformational message accessible and relatable to people from all walks of life. Patrick’s inspirational and empowering messages reach millions of people across his online and social media platforms.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/06/g-s1-104782/edith-renfrow-smith-pioneer-and-witness-to-history-dies-at-111

Edith Renfrow Smith died Friday at her home in Chicago. She was 111.

In addition to a notably long life — she was one of a very small number of “supercentenarians,” or people who live to at least 110 — she bore witness to major events and came into personal contact with historical figures. She was a pioneering Black woman with an unassuming personality.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Health, Humanity, and Justice

More than half a century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. issued a warning that continues to echo with unsettling clarity: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman, because it often results in physical death.” For Dr. King, health was never separate from social justice. It was a measure of whether a society truly valued human life.

https://www.drlattishabilbrew.com/about-2

Dr. Lattisha Bilbrew is an Orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in Hand and Upper Extremity surgery and the first Black women Orthopaedic Surgeon to become a partner at Resurgens Orthopaedics in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Bilbrew was born in Birmingham, England as were her parents. Her grandparents were farmers in Jamaica and migrated to England shortly after World War II. Only one generation removed from farming in the mountains of Trelawney and cleaning hospital bed linens in England, Dr. Bilbrew became the first physician in her family. Her motivating catalyst for becoming a physician was watching the mistreatment of her grandmother in an English hospital. Though her first observation of a hospital setting was witnessing racial disparities within a health care system, she was determined to be the antithesis of the physicians she observed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_Lauryen

Kirby Lauryen Dockery, also known by the stage names Kirby (stylized as KIRBY) and Kirby Lauryen, is an American singer and songwriter. She has written pop songs such as “FourFiveSeconds” performed by Rihanna, Kanye West, and Paul McCartney. She is an independent artist and released her first album, Sis, in 2020.^[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnell_Whittenburg

Donnell Whittenburg (born August 18, 1994) is an American artistic gymnast. He is the 2025 World Champion on rings and is a member of the United States men’s national artistic gymnastics team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Caesar

Ashton Dumar Norwill Simmonds^[1][4] (born April 5, 1995),^[5] known professionally as Daniel Caesar, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After independently building a following through the release of two EPs, Praise Break (2014) and Pilgrim’s Paradise (2015), Caesar released his debut studio album, Freudian, in 2017, which received three Grammy Award nominations. He released his second studio album, Case Study 01, in 2019. Caesar featured alongside Giveon on Justin Bieber‘s 2021 single “Peaches“, his first number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100. Caesar’s third studio album, Never Enough (2023), is his first release under Republic Records. In 2025, Caesar released his fourth studio album Son of Spergy, inspired by reconcilliation with his parents.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/05/g-s1-104268/daniel-caesar-tiny-desk-concert

I never expected to see Daniel Caesar at the Tiny Desk again. Caesar’s 2018 performance is nearly untouchable: currently in the top 15 most viewed Tiny Desk concerts on YouTube, showcasing his best work at that point in his career. But reflecting on the vulnerability and intimacy of 2025’s Son of Spergy, I felt like my arm was twisted, knowing he had to come back. This album, our space, along with the shared vision for how it would unfold, gave the green light for part two.

https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_53.html

Dr. Alexa Canady was the first African American woman in the United States to become a neurosurgeon.

Alexa Irene Canady had almost dropped out of college as an undergraduate, but after recovering her self-confidence she went on to qualify as the first African American woman neurosurgeon in the United States.

Alexa Canady earned a B.S. degree in zoology from the University of Michigan in 1971, and graduated from the medical school there in 1975. “The summer after my junior year,” she explains, “I worked in Dr. Bloom’s lab in genetics and attended a genetic counseling clinic. I fell in love with medicine.” In her work as a neurosurgeon, she saw young patients facing life-threatening illnesses, gunshot wounds, head trauma, hydrocephaly, and other brain injuries or diseases. Throughout her twenty-year career in pediatric neurosurgery, Dr. Canady has helped thousands of patients, most of them age ten or younger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Powell

john a. powell (born 1947) is an American law professor. He leads the UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute^[1] (formerly known as Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society^[2]) and holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, Professor of Law and Professor of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.^[3][4] powell spells his name in lowercase based on the idea that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify”.^[5]