The 44 Percent: tragedy in Orlando, Malcolm X family to sue FBI & ‘Snowfall’
Every journalists’ worse nightmare is dying doing the very thing they love: reporting.
Such is the case of Spectrum News 13’s Dylan Lyons, who was one of three people killed Wednesday in Central Florida. He and fellow News 13 photojournalist Jesse Walden, who remains in critical condition, already were covering a tragic story: Nathacha Augustin’s murder. It became even worse when, moments after the gunman opened fire on a News 13 vehicle, he fatally shot a 9-year-old T’yonna Major and critically wounded her mother.
When will we wake up and see that gun violence doesn’t have to be America’s norm?
May the families of all involved find peace during such a tragic time. We have to do better.
INSIDE THE 305
Black 30 and under: No matter what the future brings, Black spaces will persist as havens:
For the past month, I’ve explored the past, present and future of Black spaces. The final installment touches on that future, particularly whether or not said spaces will continue.
I’ll be sharing more insights about this project over the next week so be sure to look out. A special shoutout to Alicia B Wormsley, whose seminal work “There Are Black People in the Future,” inspired this piece.
‘Without Overtown, there would not have been Miami.’ New documentary centers on Black Miami:
Eight words pretty much sum up “Crossing Overtown,” a new documentary premiering on PBS in late March.
“Without Overtown, there would not have been Miami,” historian Marvin Dunn said in the documentary, explaining that there would have been no one to physically build the Magic City.
This documentary is definitely a must-watch for anyone looking to know the real story about the 305.
“Miami, for being a young city, has really been central to some of the major social, cultural issues in America going back to the early 1900s,” HistoryMiami Museum resident historian Paul George said in the documentary, later listing the KKK’s resurgence, police violence, desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement as examples.
OUTSIDE THE 305
Black mayors run the four biggest U.S. cities:
What do Los Angeles, Chicago New York City and Houston all have in common?
Each city has a Black mayor for the first time in U.S. history. There’s Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, Eric Adams of New York City and Sylvester Turner of Houston, all of whom are relying on their working-class upbringing and unique cultural background to tackle their cities’ similar issues, like “violent crime, homelessness and rising overdose deaths,” according to the New York Times.
“We have to be bold in looking at long entrenched problems, particularly on poverty and systemic inequality,” Ms. Lightfoot said. “We’ve got to look those in the face and we’ve got to fight them, and break down the barriers that have really held many of our residents back from being able to realize their God-given talent.”
Although each mayor has denounced calls to “defund the police,” they have been very vocal about systemic changes needed within law enforcement. It’s unclear what the future holds for each city, especially in Chicago and New York where both mayors’ push for increased police spending amid growing concerns about crime has alienated many voters. Still, there’s hope that the mayors’ lived experience push them to“take a more expansive view of Black life” and increase funding for education and mental health care, said Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the left-leaning group Working Families Party.
“We want our communities invested in, in the way that other communities are invested in and the investment should not simply come through more police,” he said.
Malcolm X’s family is seeking $100 million in a lawsuit that alleges that federal and state agencies hid evidence that demonstrated they “conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate,” Ilyasah Shabazz told reporters Tuesday.
“For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder and we’d like our father to receive the justice that he deserves,” said Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.
Malcolm X was just 39 when three gunmen killed him in February 1965 during a speech in New York City. Two men, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, spent more than 20 years in prison for the murder. Both men were exonerated in 2022 after the prosecution was discovered to have withheld crucial evidence proving their innocence. New York State and New York City awarded Aziz and Islam’s family $36 million as a result.
HIGH CULTURE
The sixth and final season of the critically acclaimed crime drama “Snowfall” premiered Wednesday. Co-created by the late John Singleton, the first Black director to be nominated for an Oscar, the show explores how the crack cocaine epidemic began in Los Angeles.
This is quite possibly one of my favorite shows and, after recently discovering that Singleton wanted it to end the day “Boyz n the Hood” started, made me all the more excited for this season.
“The world that he was trying to talk about was a world that, when he started, hadn’t been shown. He pioneered that, and this is about saying, ‘How did that world come to be?’ It really works to answer these bigger questions about how the whole globe played a part in what happened in one neighborhood and the lives that were being lived there,” Carter Hudson, who plays Teddy McDonald, told Variety.
Where does “The 44 Percent” name come from? Click here to find out how Miami history influenced the newsletter’s title.
