Category: KOLUMN Magazine

— DANA GIVENS, BLACK ENTERPRISE Lagos, Nigeria, has become a hub for new, innovative tech startups from entrepreneurs from within the country and abroad. African tech startups raised a record $1.3 billion in funding for over 400 investments in 2019, according to an annual report by WeeTracker. This week, the online paying system Stripe announced the acquisition of a […]

— KYLA L. WRIGHT, DETROIT FREE PRESS If you’ve ventured downtown or anywhere else around the state, you’ve likely seen one of those dark green signs with gold lettering. These markers, used to commemorate Michigan’s historical landmarks from the Motown Museum to Tiger Stadium, have added another famed location to the collection of over 1,800.   […]

— DAVID ELLIOTT, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM In the United States today, the average Black and Hispanic students are about three years ahead of where their parents were in maths skills. They’re roughly two to three years ahead of them in reading, too. And while white students’ test scores in these subjects have also improved, they’re […]

— KATE HIDALGO BELLOWS, THE GROUNDTRUTH PROJECT HELENA ISLAND, S.C. — In the heart of South Carolina’s Lowcountry sits a small island community whose size and stature belies its tremendous history and rich culture. The story of St. Helena Island is rooted in America’s Reconstruction Era and runs through the Civil Rights Movement, arching from […]

The Obsidian Collection is collaborating with Google Arts & Culture to ensure the journalism is preserved for many years to come — BLACK ENTERPRISE EDITORS, BLACK ENTERPRISE BLACK ENTERPRISE will present its 4th annual Black Men XCEL Summit, Oct. 22 and 23, as a virtual conference experience for the first time, expanding its reach and impact as the […]

Mayfield demurred when folks tried to label him a protest singer. Yet he never stopped producing politically charged tunes. — GREGORY TATE, THE UNDFEATED The body of Curtis Mayfield’s work constitutes a musical genre in its own right. Over the course of a five-decade career, Mayfield innovated a hybrid form of spiritual and secular soul […]

“This is a way for us to learn about America’s culture and Black culture when it comes to food,” he told Travel + Leisure.  — CHRISTINE BURRONI, TRAVEL & LEISURE Even though chef Marcus Samuelsson has restaurants all over the world, he says diversity in food can be found just outside your door. “Think about what we’ve learned […]

As a healthy thirtysomething, I thought it was impossible — Matthew Wilson, LEVEL, Medium But I’m Black and I’m in my thirties! These were the first thoughts that crossed my mind when I sat in front of my doctor that day in April some years ago when he confirmed that I had cancer. I’d long bought […]

As the city’s first Black first lady, she transformed herself from a private person to a gracious public advocate for children. — Sam Roberts, The New York Times Joyce B. Dinkins, who as the wife of David N. Dinkins fulfilled her role as first lady of New York City with grace and dignity as she […]

— BROOKLYN WHITE, ESSENCE Amy Coney Barrett, the federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the Supreme Court seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, is under fire for her conservative—and racist—views. On Oct. 11, the Associated Press published a report on several of her rulings, which included stances on abortion, guns, voting rights and […]