Category: Black Excellence

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/magazine/justin-dunnavant-african-cultural-archaeology-maroon-caribbean-slavery

Poisons and booby traps, underwater roads and tricky disguises — these are the survival tactics perfected by the Maroon, runaway slave communities that fanned out across the Caribbean in the 18th century. Their stories have been largely untold.

That’s about to change.

The word “maroon” is derived from the Spanish for “wild.” The Maroons were fugitives, a small fraction of the 12 million men, women and children estimated to have been kidnapped in Africa and sold into American slavery. Their very existence was systemically erased by colonialists, first to discourage others and later out of shame, says Justin Dunnavant, an assistant professor of anthropology at the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and a scholar on slave ships.

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/11/nx-s1-5678523/maternity-desert-birth-midwife-black-moms-babies

Nadia Gramby cherishes quiet moments with her baby girl River Emmanuel, who’s starting to talk. They exchange snuggles and baby coos each morning.

“Did you sleep well last night?” Gramby asks her little girl, who has dark curls and a big smile.

Besides being a mother of two and a wife, Gramby spends her days and many nights as a midwife caring for other moms and babies across Alabama where she lives and practices.

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

Jacqueline Amanda Woodson (born February 12, 1963) is an American writer of books for children and young adolescents. She is best known for Miracle’s Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017,^[1] she was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction.^[2] She accepted the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018^[3] and the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2020.^[4] She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.^[5]

https://www.mydnaturals.com/about-3

Welcome to Mydnaturals, where the health of your hair and skin is nurtured by the power of nature, ethically sourced and crafted with care. ​My journey into the world of natural care products began over a decade ago, fueled by a personal passion for creating my own formulations. For years, I’ve experienced firsthand the incredible benefits of using nature’s bounty. Recent unsettling news about harmful chemicals found in mainstream products ignited a deeper purpose:

to offer a trustworthy alternative rooted in safety and transparency.​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_%22Chuck%22_Harrison

Charles “Chuck” Harrison (September 23, 1931 – November 29, 2018)^[1] was an American industrial designer, speaker and educator. He was the first African-American executive to work at Sears, Roebuck and Company, starting in 1961 as a designer and eventually becoming manager of the company’s entire design group. He was involved in the design of over 750 consumer products, including the portable hair dryer, toasters, stereos, lawn mowers, sewing machines,^[2] Craftsman power tools, the see-through measuring cup, fondue pots, stoves, and the first plastic trash can,^[3] which has been credited with changing the sound of trash collection day.^[4] Perhaps his most famous achievement was leading the team that updated the View-Master in 1958, designing the classic Model F View-Master.^[5]

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) continues to raise concerns about the future of its sex education programs following a lawsuit filed in response to federal policy changes impacting the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program.

The suit, filed earlier this month by PPGNY and several other affiliates, challenges a directive from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requiring funded programs to align with current Presidential Executive Orders. Educators and advocates say the change threatens access to evidence-based education for communities that already face barriers to care and information.

Since the lawsuit was filed, Morgan Little, Associate Vice President of Education and Training at PPGNY, said the organization has fielded a range of questions from community partners and participants.

“There’s been a lot of confusion from our community and partners in terms of if our programming will be available, or even if we’ll be able to have programming at their schools,” she said. “This interest from our partners and the investment in Project STAR really shows the value and importance of the program and the information that young people and their families are receiving.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizzmekia_Corbett-Helaire

Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Shanta Corbett-Helaire (née Corbett, born January 26, 1986)^[1] is an American viral immunologist. She is an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute since June 2021, and was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar in 2023.^[2][3][4][5]

She joined Harvard following six years at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIAID NIH) based in Bethesda, Maryland.^[6][7] She earned a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) in 2014.^[8]

Appointed to the VRC in 2014, Corbett-Helaire was a postdoctoral scientist of the VRC’s COVID-19 Team,^[9] with research efforts aimed at COVID-19 vaccines.^[10][11] In February 2021, Corbett-Helaire was highlighted in Time’s “Time100 Next” list^[12] under the category of Innovators, with a profile written by Anthony Fauci.^[13]

As seen on OWN, CBS, SPECTRUM NEWS, and HGTV, Ashani Mfuko is an Award-Winning Cultural Competency Coach, Confident Communication Strategist, and the Host and Producer of the Anti-Racism School Is In Session™ Podcast. She is also a Digital Content Creator, Influencer, Professional Dancer, and the CEO of Ashani Mfuko Consulting Worldwide LLC, a global cultural competency leadership training consultancy; which specializes in cultural competency coaching, conflict resolution communication strategies, and diverse media and marketing services, based in the state of New York.

She teaches and trains socially conscious leaders, and parents worldwide, how to live by anti-racist values, principles, and practices, how to lead with a high level of cultural competency, and how to communication compassionately about difficult topics, like race and racism.

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

Albert Chainey Umphrey (born August 2, 1970)^[1][2] is a retired American gymnast. He was a member of the United States men’s national artistic gymnastics team and competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, helping the U.S. team to a 5th-place finish in the team all-around.

https://pres-outlook.org/author/jermaine-ross-allam

The Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam serves as the inaugural director of the Center for the Repair of Historical Harms for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is a Ph.D. candidate in social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan. He is currently completing a book tentatively titled Trammeled by the Bonds of Union: The Social Ecology of Extralegal Violence and Impunity against Afro-Americans from the New York City Draft Riots in 1863 to the Wilmington, North Carolina, coup d’état in 1898, and he volunteers with Restorative Actions — an economic equity initiative born from the intersection of theology, justice and economics.