The legacy of the African-American church in the United States is that of a refuge, a caring and welcoming institution, a port in the storm, that has fed African Americans spiritually, economically, mentally and physically, and has nurtured the souls of people of African ancestry throughout their existence in America.

Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church has carried on that legacy for the past 100 years. Established in 1926, Pleasant Zion MBC, located at 3317 Toledano Street, is a cornerstone of faith in uptown New Orleans and a beacon of hope for the Hoffman Triangle/Central City neighborhood.

Pleasant Zion MBC continues its mission of faith, education and empowerment for future generations. The church celebrates its 100th anniversary with a forward-looking Centennial Weekend, October 17-18.

Throughout its long history, Pleasant Zion has served its community by providing religious training and cultural, educational and recreational activities for children and adults. For decades, PZMBC has worked with neighborhood leadership to address issues such as neighborhood blight, housing and safety concerns.

Many have sought Pastor Kenneth E. Thompson’s confidential, wise counsel and comfort.

Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church’s Centennial Celebration focuses on youth. “Our Centennial is not just about looking back – it’s about investing in our youth and building the future of our community,” Pastor Thompson affirms.

For decades, PZMBC has worked with neighborhood leadership to address issues such as neighborhood blight, housing, and safety concerns, Pastor Thompson adds.

During the summer, PZMBC sponsored summer enrichment camps for children with a range of activities, including culinary arts, STEM, music and field trips to museums and Black historic sites such as Armstrong Park.

The church has provided free food baskets, placed homeless women in hotel rooms, and provided financial assistance to people at risk of eviction or homelessness.

“Throughout its long history, Pleasant Zion has served the needs of its community by providing religious training, cultural, educational and recreational activities for both children and adults.

This upcoming Centennial Celebration honors a century of spiritual leadership while investing in the next generation, uplifting youth voices, education and sacred music.

Special guests at the celebration include the famous Zion Harmonizers. The world-renowned gospel group celebrated 87 years in gospel music with a special anniversary performance in March 2026 at St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Sanctuary.

The program also features acclaimed Bishop Tyrone Jefferson, Voices of SUNO and the NORD Choir.

This article originally published in the October 12, 2026 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

Based on reporting by Louisiana Weekly.

By now, there’s little question that a maternal health crisis is rocking the Black community. The data tells the story: Black moms are dying during childbirth at three times the rate of white moms, a disproportionately high percentage of Black children are born prematurely, and Black infants are about twice as likely to die as white infants in states like Louisiana.

But new data from a handful of pilot projects also suggests a potential solution that could significantly improve outcomes for Black mothers and their babies: cash payments, no strings attached.

Studies show the unrestricted money led to fewer preterm births, higher newborn birth weights, and fewer critical-care infant hospitalizations. It also reduced stress among new moms who would otherwise struggle to attend prenatal check-ups, pay for food and formula, or keep a roof over their heads.

“This makes so much sense to me,” says Tamara Mason, an official with the nonprofit March of Dimes who worked on an Atlanta project distributing money to low-income pregnant women. “Why isn’t everyone doing this?”

Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, is among several sponsors of legislation that would provide direct financial aid to new mothers, similar to the expanded child tax credit in 2021. The credit sent monthly payments of up to $300 per child straight to most families’ bank accounts; experts credit it with lifting millions of children out of poverty.

When it expired, child poverty rose again.

“I believe that we need to, for moms, flood resources to them through things like the child tax credit,” Booker said during an August press briefing on the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act. “We were able to cut child poverty virtually in half for our communities, and that actually does affect child outcomes.”

Those positive outcomes in part spurred the March of Dimes to launch trial programs providing universal basic income, or UBI, to pregnant women and new moms in two cities: Atlanta, which Bloomberg ranked as the most economically unequal large city in the country, and New Orleans, which March of Dimes gave an F grade.

No strings attached

In Atlanta, the Guaranteed Basic Income Program gave each participant $1,000 a month during pregnancy and her baby’s first year. Women most likely to live in poverty in that city are Black women of reproductive age; 25 pregnant women in two of the area’s highest-need ZIP codes received the cash.

March of Dimes ran the pilot through an Atlanta collective-impact partnership known as the collaborative. It is modeled on San Francisco’s Abundant Birth Project and, organizers say, rooted in an idea the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. championed decades ago.

Funders Skeptical at First – Then All In

Mason said she spent months pitching foundations on the idea, which some considered outside her organization’s lane.

“I was honestly surprised that a couple of foundations,” Mason says. “Funders were like, ‘Why is March of Dimes in this space? You all are the birth defects people. You’re the preterm birth people.’”

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta signed on as the primary funder. The Liz Blake Giving Fund and the Jesse Parker Williams Foundation funded data gathering and evaluation Emory University conducted.

The nonprofit Center for Black Women’s Wellness handled recruitment, and more than 110 women applied for the 25 spots, Mason said. Applicants had to live in one of the two ZIP codes, earn no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, and be 12 to 28 weeks pregnant.

Cash, Diapers and a Network

Stipends were paid through a prepaid card, letting evaluators track spending without restricting it. Helping Mamas, a nonprofit focused on diaper insecurity, supplied 300 diapers and eight packs of wipes a month, plus a car seat and other essentials. The Georgia Black Doula Network encouraged, but didn’t require, participants to hire doulas.

Early results from Emory’s evaluation, as described by Mason, show a 20 percent decrease in financial stress and a 66 percent decrease in hopelessness, a figure she called striking. Prenatal outcomes trended better than average.

Mason was careful not to oversell what $1,000 a month can fix. Several participants lost housing; one or two dealt with domestic violence.

Even though GBI reduced financial stress, “it still is one piece of the puzzle,” Mason said.

New Orleans: Overcoming Crisis

March of Dimes runs a similar program in New Orleans, GBI Rx, offering pregnant patients in their first or second trimester $12,000, as a lump sum or $1,000 a month. Two partner medical clinics enroll patients for healthcare, and the payment card blocks cash withdrawals and spending on liquor and gambling.

In Louisiana, “we have a maternal and infant health crisis – specifically, a Black maternal and infant health crisis,” said Robin Gruenfeld, director of collective impact for March of Dimes in New Orleans. ”And it’s been that way for a long time.”

Black infants there died at about twice the rate of white infants from 2021 to 2023. Gruenfeld said Orleans Parish has the state’s lowest prenatal care utilization rate.

Gruenfeld said the program’s city seed money, federal pandemic relief funds, and foundation funding were “zeroed out” without notice. Most funds were later restored at a lower level, forcing organizers to scale down to 94 participants instead of the 100 planned. They also enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Recipients spent lump sums on housing, cars and insurance. But spending priorities for the participants changed when the federal government stopped paying out SNAP food benefits during last fall’s federal shutdown.

“During that time, more than a quarter of the funds that we gave folks was going to groceries,” Gruenfeld said.

Several New Orleans city government officials are now weighing a program modeled on Michigan’s Rx Kids, which a study credits with nearly halving neonatal deaths in Flint, one of the poorest cities in the state.

“We are seeing policies pushed by the political will of predominantly Black women come into effect, and then also the backlash,” says Danielle Atkinson of Mothering Justice Action Fund, a nonprofit advocacy organization. “In Michigan, we have Rx Kids, which is extremely popular [and] the data on the impact is undeniable.”

But recent changes are endangering the success of such programs, particularly amid President Donald Trump’s hostility towards programs focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We’re getting this pushback around identifying race and parental status as systemic areas of oppression,” Atkinson says. It remains to be seen, she says, “whether or not we are going to be able to prevail with the political power and the popular will of these issues, or the rhetoric and the history of racism in our country.”

Washington Looks Elsewhere

That includes the Republican-controlled Congress, which has shown little appetite for cash aid tied to pregnancy.

The Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, which Booker reintroduced along with Democratic Reps. Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Alma Adams of North Carolina, bundles 14 bills on housing, nutrition, WIC and the perinatal workforce, but not direct cash.

Still, signs suggest the issue – providing cash aid to low-income mothers and their babies – may stay on the front burner as the midterm elections approach in November.

This month, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, both Democrats, hosted a Black maternal health roundtable in Detroit. Danielle Atkinson of Mothering Justice took part.

“Black mamas deserve access to quality healthcare that sees us, listens to us, and understands us at every step of the way,” Atkinson said afterward. “The responsibilities we carry do not end at pregnancy, nor do they disappear when we give birth and want to spend time with our newborn. They stay with us throughout all that we experience.”

Based on reporting by Louisiana Weekly.

For Jamika Phillips, getting your nails done should feel like more than another appointment squeezed onto an already crowded calendar.

She wanted a place where the person doing your nails knows your name, remembers what you drink, what colors you like, and maybe even what was happening in your life the last time you sat in their chair.

“I kind of wanted to be the ‘Cheers’ of nail salons,” Phillips said. “I wanted clients to be able to have a community where they could come and know their nail techs, know that they were getting quality care with their nails, and know that we would give them education.”

That vision became Shades The Nail Bar, the Sienna-area salon Phillips opened in January 2022 after leaving a career that had nothing to do with the beauty industry.

A dream decades in the making

Phillips spent more than 20 years in corporate America, working in software engineering and global process management. Her background is in computer science, but the idea of owning a nail salon wouldn’t go away.

“I have notes back from probably 2000 where I would think about the names of the salons that I wanted,” Phillips said. “I still have these pages, and I look back at them and thank God for them every day.”

While still working full time, Phillips enrolled in manicurist school, working her corporate job during the day and attending classes at night and on Saturdays until she earned her license.

“I would work from 9 to 5. I would go to school from 5 to 9 Monday through Friday, on Saturdays from like 8 to 2,” she recalled.

After moving to Houston with her husband, Phillips prepared to open a salon in the city. She had signed a letter of intent and was about a week away from signing a lease when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“I thank God I did not sign the lease,” Phillips said.

The setback redirected her closer to home. While driving through Sienna, where her family lives, Phillips spotted an available space, pulled over, and called the number. The space was available. Shades The Nail Bar was on its way.

Creating a different kind of nail salon

Phillips knew she was entering a crowded industry, but she also saw an opportunity as a Black woman entering a business where few salon owners looked like her.

“There were a lot of people that said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’” she said. “There’s a lot of competition. There are nail salons every two miles from each other. Typically, not a lot of Black people own nail salons.”

Instead of discouraging her, Phillips said the skepticism became “ammunition” to keep going.

“Black women spend tons of money in the nail care industry,” Phillips said. “So it was something that I said, we got to do this.”

Even the name Shades was intentional.

“I wanted shades to represent not just the nail polish colors, but I wanted it to represent different shades of nail technicians as well as clientele,” she said.

Today, her staff includes Black, Hispanic, and Asian nail technicians, reflecting the diverse community the business serves.

The salon is also acrylic-free, offering alternatives including builder gel, polygel, and Gel-X. Phillips researches products and often tries them herself before introducing them to clients.

“I’m always looking at new ways to make Shades different.”

Those differences extend beyond nail services. Shades offers complimentary beverages, cleans clients’ rings during appointments, and emphasizes sanitation and nail health.

@shadesthenailbar 50 looks GOOD on you, Lolita! 🥂✨💅🏾 We had the pleasure of being part of Lolita’s 50th birthday celebration, and hearing her share her experience at Shades made it even sweeter. ❤️ There’s something special about celebrating a milestone with a little self-care, beautiful nails, and GOOD energy. Thank you, Lolita, for choosing Shades to be part of such a special birthday. Here’s to 50 and FABULOUS! 🎂✨ Celebrating something special? Come celebrate with us. Book now at ShadesTheNailBar.com 📍 9101 Sienna Crossing Dr., Suite 160 Missouri City, TX 77459 #ShadesTheNailBar#50thBirthday#BirthdayNails#MissouriCityNails#SiennaTX#HoustonNails#BirthdayCelebration♬ original sound – Shades The Nail Bar

But Phillips said its biggest distinction is the relationships.

“We’ve seen them have babies. We’ve seen them lose their babies. We’ve seen them lose their parents. We’ve seen marriages, divorces,” Phillips said. “I mean, we are there for them.”

Staff members send cards and cookies during important moments and often know a regular client’s preferred drink before the client asks.

“We really do try to build and bond a relationship with our clientele so that they know that, hey, we are here for them,” Phillips said.

Shades also supports local schools, churches, and Fort Bend-area charitable efforts.

Corporate lessons meet entrepreneurship

Phillips may have traded software engineering for nail polish, but she didn’t leave her corporate experience behind. She said the leadership, teamwork, and organizational skills she developed during more than two decades in corporate America became the foundation for running Shades.

“I can’t say that I was an entrepreneur by trade,” she said. “A lot of those things — the leadership, the teamwork, the organizational skills — all those things were built over my corporate career.”

Entrepreneurship brought its own lessons, from finding vendors who understood her vision to keeping detailed financial records, building the right team, and maintaining strong customer service.

Phillips credits her husband and children with supporting her through missed family dinners and soccer games. She also credits mentor LeeVera Smith, a business adviser with the Small Business Development Center, with helping her develop the business plan that became Shades’ foundation.

“Jamika is one of those people who wants to learn everything to bring her customers the best experience,” Smith said. “I’m supposed to be her mentor, but I learn so much from her.”

Phillips’ girlfriends also pitched in, proofreading her website, organizing supplies, offering feedback, and talking her through the inevitable difficult days.

Because Phillips knows better than most that dreams don’t always arrive on schedule. Sometimes they sit quietly in notebooks for 20 years before you finally decide it’s time to bet on yourself.

Based on reporting by Houston Defender.

A new photography book is giving readers a rare look inside one of the most important buildings in Black media history.

820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon, published Tuesday by MW Editions, features photographs by Chicago photographer Barbara Karant documenting the former Johnson Publishing Company headquarters at 820 S. Michigan Ave., the longtime home of Ebony and Jet magazines. Pasted markdown

The 240-page book preserves the building’s striking interiors, many of which no longer exist in their original form, while also examining the larger cultural legacy of Johnson Publishing Company and its influence on Black media, design, photography and American culture.

Designed by architect John W. Moutoussamy and completed in 1972, the building was the first, and remains the only, high-rise in downtown Chicago designed by an African American architect. Built for publisher John H. Johnson, the headquarters became a physical expression of the ambition and influence of one of the nation’s most important Black-owned media companies.

While the building’s exterior reflected Moutoussamy’s restrained modernist style, the inside told a very different story.

Designers Arthur Elrod and William Raiser filled the headquarters with bold colors, geometric patterns, mirrored surfaces, rich textures and dramatic materials across 11 floors. The result was a workplace that looked unlike the traditional corporate offices of its era. Pasted markdown

Karant began photographing the building after Johnson Publishing sold the property in 2010 and relocated in 2012. Between 2013 and 2015, and again in 2018, she documented the largely vacant interiors after employees and much of the furniture had been removed.

What remained were the colors, patterns and architectural details that had helped define the company’s visual identity.

Her photographs capture spaces ranging from the cafeteria’s orange, purple and gold designs to Eunice Johnson’s cream-and-honey office, mirrored dressing rooms and the executive floor’s expansive views of Lake Michigan and Grant Park. Pasted markdown

Among the building’s most memorable spaces was the famed Ebony Test Kitchen.

Known for its vivid colors, psychedelic patterns and distinctive cabinetry, the kitchen became a visual reflection of Ebony magazine’s influence on food, lifestyle and Black culture. Karant photographed the kitchen as part of the larger architectural story of the headquarters. Pasted markdown

“The building was almost like a portrait of Johnson Publishing Company itself,” Karant said. “Even after the people and furnishings were gone, the colors, patterns, textures and spaces still conveyed the creativity, confidence and extraordinary cultural presence of the company.”

The photographs have taken on even greater significance because much of what Karant documented has since disappeared.

Following the building’s conversion, substantial portions of the original interiors were removed. The Ebony Test Kitchen was dismantled and preserved separately, making Karant’s images one of the most extensive visual records of how the headquarters looked during Johnson Publishing Company’s decades on Michigan Avenue. Pasted markdown

The book also includes photographs of sculptor Richard Hunt’s Expansive Construction, a work commissioned for the building’s lobby, as well as images of the company’s in-house photography studio and archival views of the original interiors.

But 820 Ebony/Jet goes beyond architecture.

The book includes a foreword by photography historian Deborah Willis, six scholarly essays and personal reflections from former Johnson Publishing Company employees. Together, the contributions explore the company’s role in Black visual representation, media, photography, art and design, while offering firsthand accounts of what it was like to work inside the building. Pasted markdown

For generations, Ebony and Jet helped shape how Black America saw itself and how the country saw Black America.

The magazines documented everything from politics and the civil rights movement to fashion, entertainment, family life and culture. Johnson Publishing Company also became an influential force in photography, beauty, design and popular culture.

That legacy extended well beyond the pages of its magazines.

The new book examines Johnson Publishing Company’s continuing influence on artists including Theaster Gates, Hank Willis Thomas, Kwame Brathwaite, Lorna Simpson, Martine Syms and David Hartt. Pasted markdown

For Chicago, the book serves as both an architectural record and a cultural archive. It preserves a place where Black entrepreneurship, media, art and design converged at a scale rarely seen before or since.

820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon is available now from MW Editions. The hardcover volume includes 150 photographs and is priced at $65. Pasted markdown

Karant is also scheduled to present the book during Modernism Week at the Palm Springs Art Museum on Feb. 15, 2027, where she will discuss the connection between the Johnson Publishing Company headquarters and the design legacy of Arthur Elrod and William Raiser.

The post Inside 820 S. Michigan: New Book Captures the Lost World of Ebony and Jet appeared first on Chicago Defender.

Based on reporting by Chicago Defender.

Instead of it taking place at an Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York, what would it look like if a national story concerning rape allegations from fraternity members took place on an HBCU campus in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., or Nashville?

Would President Donald Trump still feel “badly” for the alleged?

Do you think the Kappas, Sigmas, and Alphas would face the same scrutiny?

Might people use more compassionate language when discussing the case’s legalities?

We already know the answers to those questions.

Sunny Hostin from “The View” recounted a call she received from actress Cynthia Erivo, who said, ‘Sis, I know you, and I know your heart and your life’s work has been about protecting women and children. But the clip that I saw doesn’t reflect who you are.” Hostin’s initial remarks about the case focused on its legal aspects, lacking compassion for the alleged victims and other survivors who might have been affected. Hostin reflected, “Instead of leading with the law, I need to lead with empathy so that people can receive the message about the law. I was accused of defending these young men and victim-shaming, which is something I would never do since I spent the majority of my career prosecuting sex crimes.”

If you’re reading this, then you are already aware of the allegations against the “Cornell 7.” The news comes just weeks after 14 people were charged in connection with the alleged trafficking of kilos of cocaine on Penn State’s campus by members of white fraternities. A decade ago, the rape scandal at Baylor University dominated the news, which was around the same time as the Brock Turner case at Stanford.

I ask again: how would the news coverage, social media chatter, and podcast conversations differ if such incidents happened on HBCU campuses and included members of Black Greek-letter organizations?

Based on reporting by Atlanta Daily World.

Families across the country are opening their monthly utility bills with a growing sense of dread. Groceries cost more. Rent costs more. Now electricity has become one more expense pushing household budgets to the breaking point, and for many in the Black community – as usual – the squeeze is being felt hardest of all.

Residential electricity prices are expected to average more than 18 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2026, about 5 percent higher than last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. At the same time, demand for power is climbing fast as the nation adds data centers, factories, and other large energy users. And consumers remain exposed to a market rattled by global conflict and swings in fuel prices.

These costs do not land on everyone equally. For a family with little left over at the end of the month, even a modest jump in the light bill means less for food, transportation or medicine. Low-income households spend three times more of their income on energy than other households, and Black households spend 43 percent more than white households, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The question every public official should be asking, then, is simple: How does America add the reliable electricity it needs while keeping costs down for the families least able to absorb them?

Instead, a group of state attorneys general has chosen a very different fight.

In November 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued three of the nation’s largest asset managers, BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, and was joined by a coalition of other states. The lawsuit claims the firms bought up large stakes in major coal producers and then used their influence as shareholders to pressure those companies to cut production in pursuit of climate goals. The attorneys general argue this restricted coal supply, raised coal prices and, in the end, raised electricity prices for consumers.

Paxton and his colleagues have presented the case as a way to bring down power bills. But when Paxton’s office announced its settlement with Vanguard, it billed the deal as an agreement “to protect the coal industry.” That wording tells us a great deal about whose interests are really at the center of this case.

Attorneys general have only so much time, staff, and money. Every hour spent on litigation against investment firms is an hour not spent on the problems that actually drive up household energy costs: transmission bottlenecks, permitting delays, an aging grid, energy efficiency and the shortage of new power generation.

There is actually an even deeper problem with making coal the centerpiece of an affordability strategy. Coal has been losing ground in the marketplace for decades.

Around 1990, coal supplied more than half of the nation’s electricity. By 2025, its share had fallen to about 17 percent. Most of that decline came from competition, chiefly cheaper natural gas, along with the growth of renewable energy and tougher environmental rules. In the first three months of 2026 alone, coal plant output fell 11 percent from a year earlier, while renewable generation grew. And this summer, Lazard’s annual analysis found renewables remain the lowest-cost option for new power plants, even as existing plants have become more competitive and continue to provide real value to the grid.

Coal’s decline did not begin with Wall Street, investment policies or the climate movement. It is the result of decades of change in America’s energy economy. Where a coal plant remains affordable and necessary to keep the lights on, utilities should keep running it. But keeping a useful plant open is very different from treating the survival of an entire industry as public policy. If other sources can provide power more cheaply, government has no business shielding coal from that competition.

For Black communities, the cost of coal does not stop at the utility bill. Burning coal produces air pollution and coal ash that must be managed, and the Environmental Protection Agency notes that coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. A landmark NAACP study found that the roughly 6 million people living near coal plants had lower average incomes than the nation as a whole, and that people of color made up a majority of those living near the worst polluters. Too many of our neighborhoods carry both burdens at once: high energy bills and a greater share of the pollution. Any policy that claims to help consumers should account for both sides of that ledger.

The truth is that families do not much care whether the power running their refrigerator comes from a coal plant, a natural gas facility, or a wind farm. They care that it is there when they need it and that they can afford to pay for it.

Critics of environmental policy often complain that government should not pick winners and losers in energy markets. That principle should apply evenly. Financial firms should not be allowed to break antitrust laws in pursuit of climate goals. But government should be just as cautious about using its power to guarantee coal a permanent place in the market. Coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, battery storage, and new technologies should all compete on cost, reliability, and what the grid needs.

The real challenge before the nation is building enough reliable power, and building it quickly. Clinging to coal’s past, especially through the courts, does nothing to solve that.

At a time when so many Americans are struggling just to pay bills, it is fair to ask why state officials are pouring so much energy into protecting one industry. Attorneys general should be working to make power more plentiful and more affordable. Families facing economic hardships deserve more than to be invoked as props in a political fight between government officials and some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Based on reporting by Our Weekly Los Angeles / Our Weekly Antelope Valley.