Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried rejected Sellers’ call to redirect Senate money after Nixon’s primary victory, arguing that Democrats cannot rebuild Florida, or the South, by refusing to invest where the party has already lost ground.

Angie Nixon won Florida’s Democratic Senate primary.

Bakari Sellers’ response was to tell Democrats that money earmarked for the race should now go somewhere else.

That set off Nikki Fried.

Appearing on CNN after Nixon defeated Alexander Vindman, Sellers rejected the idea that her victory represented some broader ideological surge on the Democratic left. He pointed to other Florida primary results and argued that Vindman simply ran a poor campaign.

“You saw a poor candidate lose a race cuz he ran poorly,” Sellers said. “This isn’t some referendum on the far left or this left versus establishment narrative that people want to talk about.”

Then Sellers turned to the money.

“We won’t be wasting money in Florida,” he said.

Sellers said Democrats had been prepared to spend heavily on a Florida Senate race he did not believe they could win with Vindman. With Nixon now the nominee, he argued those resources should instead be directed toward Senate contests in states such as North Carolina, Ohio and possibly Iowa.

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“And now you’re going to see that money not go to Florida,” Sellers said. “It’s going to go to the places that are necessary, that we have a fighting chance, that we have an ability to win.”

For Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, that argument represented exactly the kind of national thinking she has been fighting against.

“The people of Florida deserve better than what we’ve been getting,” Fried told Roland Martin, pointing to 30 years of one-party control of the state.

Fried said she ran for chair of the Florida Democratic Party after leaving statewide office as Republicans intensified attacks on DEI programs, Black history, voting access and political representation.

“We are resilient here and we are going to fight back,” she said.

Fried acknowledged that Florida Democrats will continue to face a massive financial disadvantage. But she argued that the party has already demonstrated what sustained organizing can accomplish even when Republicans dramatically outspend Democratic candidates.

According to Fried, Florida Democrats made calls or knocked on the doors of 1.7 million Floridians and have flipped 46 seats. She pointed specifically to Brian Nathan, who she said flipped a state Senate seat despite being outraised 10 to one.

“He knocked on doors. He was genuine,” Fried said. “He showed up at those doors with a willingness to listen to the voters, to come up with solutions to their problems and gain their trust that he’s going to fight for them.”

That work, Fried argued, is building something in Florida that cannot be measured simply by comparing campaign bank accounts.

“Regardless of what national pundits and national donors want to say about Florida, there’s something going on here,” she said. “There’s a secret sauce that we have been working on for many, many cycles at this point.”

Fried said Florida Democrats would welcome national money, but made clear that its absence would not stop the organizing already underway.

“We are not going to be deterred by what money comes or doesn’t come into the state,” she said.

Martin challenged the logic of treating Nixon’s decisive primary victory as a reason to pull money out of Florida. Democratic voters had made their choice, he argued, only to hear the winning candidate’s race immediately dismissed as unworthy of further investment.

He was particularly irritated by what he saw as an attempt to minimize Nixon’s victory, saying Sellers was treating “her win” as “a nothing burger” before declaring, “Oh, we’re not going to waste any money now.”

Martin then turned the argument around on Democrats who have spent years pointing to Florida’s Republican dominance as a reason not to invest.

“This is precisely why Florida is no longer a competitive state,” Martin said. “It’s no longer competitive because what Bakari said is what Democrats have always done, which was ridiculous.”

Martin pointed to Georgia and Texas as examples of states national Democrats historically dismissed as too red to warrant sustained investment. He recalled asking then-Rep. Chris Van Hollen after Barack Obama’s 2012 victory why Democrats were not investing more heavily in those states.

The answer, Martin recalled, was that they were red.

Martin said organizers including Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock refused to accept that political reality as permanent. Years of organizing in Georgia eventually helped create the conditions for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to carry the state in 2020 while Warnock and Jon Ossoff won its U.S. Senate seats.

“If you don’t invest in candidates, in party infrastructure, in a ground game, then you’re not going to be able to turn voters out,” Martin said.

His larger point was simple: Democrats cannot use the consequences of years of underinvestment as justification for continuing to underinvest.

“You will never be competitive if you only put money in places where you somewhat are assured to win,” Martin said.

Fried widened the argument beyond Florida.

“The South has been consistently uninvested,” she said.

For Fried, there is a critical difference between spending money during the closing weeks of an election and investing in the infrastructure necessary to change a state’s politics over multiple cycles. She cited Michael Bloomberg’s massive late spending in Florida during the 2020 election as an example of spending rather than sustained investment.

That distinction carries enormous consequences as population and political power continue shifting toward the South, Fried argued. She noted that a large share of the American population now lives in the region and that many Black voters live there.

Fried warned that the stakes will grow even larger with the next round of congressional reapportionment. If Southern states gain congressional seats and Electoral College votes while states such as California, New York and Illinois lose them, Democrats will eventually have to win more of the states they have spent years treating as unreachable.

She pointed to the organizing already underway across the region, saying there are “incredible state party chairs all over the South” who are “working around the clock trying to lift up the South.”

Her warning was that Democrats cannot afford to wait until those states become competitive before deciding they are worth the investment.

“If we don’t start winning these seats, by the time we get to actual redistricting in 2032, not only is Florida and Texas pick up four more congressional seats, but we also get more electoral votes both in Florida, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee,” Fried said.

Nixon’s victory, Fried argued, offers evidence of what that kind of ground-level political work can produce.

“I think that’s also why Angie won,” she said. “She hustles, she works hard, she is a consistent leader in those communities that they trust her.”

Fried said Nixon’s connection to voters reflects the model Florida Democrats are trying to build statewide: candidates who show up consistently instead of appearing when an election approaches.

She also acknowledged one of the biggest numbers hanging over any Democratic comeback effort: Florida’s Republican voter-registration advantage. But Fried pointed to the state’s large independent electorate and said those voters have been breaking toward Democrats by significant margins in recent elections.

Florida is also expensive. Its major media markets make statewide television campaigns enormously costly. Fried said that reality makes year-round organizing and direct contact with voters even more important.

“This is not something to sleep on Florida in this moment,” Fried said. “We are putting in the work. Our candidates are on the doors every single day. And that’s how we’re going to win this state.”

Sellers looked at Nixon’s victory and concluded that Democratic Senate money could be put to better use in states where the party has a stronger chance of winning.

Fried and Martin challenged the premise underneath that calculation: how does a state ever become competitive if Democrats refuse to invest until it already is?

For Fried, Nixon’s victory is evidence that organizing, candidate relationships and sustained work on the ground can move voters even without financial parity.

“We’re going to prove everybody wrong,” Fried said.

Want more #RolandMartinUnfiltered? Visit YouTube.com/rolandsmartin

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Disclosure: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence for drafting and editing. It was reviewed, fact-checked, and approved by a human editor before publication.

Current District 13 Florida State Representative Angie Nixon won Tuesday’s Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate.

Nixon defeated Alex Vindman, receiving 56.1% of the vote to his 43.9% — despite the fact that Vindman raised $16 million compared to Nixon’s $1 million.

The results of the Florida Democratic primary set up the November special general election for the Florida U.S. Senate Seat. Nixon will run against Republican candidate Ashley Moody, who was previously the incumbent senator in place of U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“It took grit for us to win this race, but we were able to pull it off,” Nixon said during an appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered on Wednesday, the day after her victory. “This was all about good-ole grassroots organizing.”

Watch the full interview with Nixon in the video above.

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In Indiana, buildings and homes in Gary are still without power one week after a historic tornado.

As of this morning, the local utility provider, NIPSCO, had restored power to 282,000 customers, but more than 83,000 businesses and homes remain in the dark due to the storm that tore across Northwest Indiana on August 11, packing winds near 100 miles per hour.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 51,600 to 52,466 Black residents live in the city, making up roughly 76 percent of Gary’s total population.

NIPSCO expects to restore 100 percent of power by Friday.

Gary Councilman At-Large Myles Tolliver joined Roland Martin Unfiltered on Wednesday to discuss the cleanup efforts.

“Our residents need help,” said Tolliver, who added that supplies and other items can be dropped off at Gary City Hall. Tolliver said that contact with federal officials, including FEMA, has been limited. “Our people are really hurting at this moment.”

If you need to report flood and storm damage, you can call 211 or 1-866-211-9966

Also, you can report it online at in211.communityos.org

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Democrat Dr. Jermaine Johnson has served in the South Carolina House of Representatives since 2024. Now, he is now running for the state’s top office, taking on Republican Alan Wilson in this year’s governor’s race.

Johnson and his running mate, Sam Skardon, a former congressional aide to the late Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis, say they will slash income taxes, build affordable housing, pass hate-crime bills, and more.

“The simple fact is South Carolina has been under a single party rule for…two decades. What has happened is, it has gotten us nothing,” Johnson said during an appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered, noting that S.C is ranked 43 in education and has the worst roads and bridges of any state in the country.

“This state is primed to be turned purple,” he said.

Johnson said that he believes the people in South Carolina are ready for political change, but that the biggest obstacle is the number of people who stay home rather than vote — including 300,000 Black voters who have not showed up at the polls since Barack Obama was on the ballot.

“There is a pathway to victory,” Johnson said. “We have the numbers to win here.”

Watch the entire interview in the video embedded above.

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Last weekend, the National Association of Black Journalists issued its “Thumbs Down Award” — issuing it to five different individuals and organizations.

Stephen A. Smith, ESPN personality and political commentator, was awarded for what the NABJ described as a “recurring public pattern of disparaging public commentary directed at prominent Black women across politics, sports, and media.”

Brendan Carr, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, received the award for regulatory oversight and policy decisions that impact minority-owned media spaces. CBS News was called out for its for structural, diversity, and internal newsroom equity concerns. The Washington Post is criticized for its institutional media practices and reporting failures regarding the Black community. DuJuan McCoy, Owner & CEO of Circle City Broadcasting, got called out for corporate and newsroom management decisions at WISH-TV.

Current NABJ President Errin Haines and former NABJ President Dwayne Wickham joined Roland Martin Unfiltered to discuss the history of the award, and Stephen A. Smith’s response to being one of this year’s recipients.

Watch the full conversation above.

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Previous NABJ Thumbs Down Award Recipients

2025 - NOT GIVEN

2024 - the NFL for the lack of Black managers and full-time Black journalists on staff.

2023 - NOT GIVEN

2022 - NOT GIVEN

2021 - Walter Hussman for opposing tenure for the “1619 Project’s” Nikole Hannah-Jones at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

2020 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for unfairly prohibiting two Black journalists from covering protests in the city following the death of George Floyd.

Cleveland Plain Dealer for job cuts and changes which sparked a huge exodus of non-White journalists from their newsrooms.

2019 - American Society of News Editors for not voluntarily providing information on staff diversity for its 2018 Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey.

CNN for not acknowledging NABJ’s call to elevate and hire black employees with critical and executive-level, daily news-decision-making roles

2018 - KTVU TV displayed an insensitive Facebook photo of Nia Wilson, an 18-year-old Black woman who had been stabbed to death on a BART platform.

2017 - FOX News for numerous reasons: lawsuits accusing the cable news network of sex harassment, racial discrimination and the lack of diversity in key positions.

EBONY Media Organization and its parent company, the Clear View Group, for failing to meet a self-imposed deadline to compensate as many as 50 freelance writers who are owed as much as $200,000.

2016 - Dow Jones & Company, The New York Times, and The Washington Post for paying white male employees more than journalists of color.

2015 - NOT GIVEN

2014 - NPR for canceling the multicultural show “Tell Me More” and eliminating 28 positions across its newsroom in an effort to cut costs.

2013 - NOT GIVEN

2012 - TIME Magazine for a lack of diversity within its reporting corps

2011 - Fox, Fox Business, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg for their lack of diversity and a failure to hire or place African American journalists in prime-time anchor and decision-making roles.

2010 - NOT GIVEN

2009 - NOT GIVEN

2008 - Fox News Channel and Pat Buchanan for his controversial commentary, including columns like “A Brief for Whitey” and “The Way Our World Ends,” which featured racially insensitive remarks about Black Americans and demographic shifts.

2007 - BET for not airing the Coretta Scott King full funeral service live.

2006 - NOT GIVEN

2005 - Armstrong Williams for disclosing he accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration to promote the “No Child Left Behind” law.

2004 - Jayson Blair, who tied his fabulism to diversity hiring.

2003 - NOT GIVEN

2002 - William McGowan for his book “Coloring the News”

2001 - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for a nasty editorial after the Washington Post’s Katharine Graham died.

U.S. News & World Report received the Thumbs Down Award for its photo of a black woman in a tree used to illustrate the floods in Mozambique that year.

2000 - NOT GIVEN

1999 - NOT GIVEN

1998 - NOT GIVEN

1997 - NOT GIVEN

1996 - New Republic Magazine for a story by writer Ruth Shalit that disparaged diversity efforts at the Washington Post.

Buckley Broadcasting Corp., for syndicating talk-radio host Bob Grant after he was dropped by WABC radio in New York after a string of racially offensive comments.

1995 - New Republic Magazine featured a story called, “The Decline of the Black Intellectual.” The piece, by literary editor Leon Wieseltier, wasn’t about black intellectuals at all, only one, Cornel West, author of “Race Matters.”

The Atlantic Monthly featured a cover piece titled, “The New Intellectuals,” making a case that today’s black intellectuals have assumed the pacesetting role of “public intellectual” that a white coterie of literary lights played in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

1994 - The New York Daily News received the award for laying off Black male reporters during its downsizing.

CBS earned the “Thumbs Down” award for its story titled “Drawing the Line” on “Street Stories,” which was criticized for a one-sided stereotypical story following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

1993 - WKBQ for two disc jockeys who had directed a racial slur at a black female caller on the air in St. Louis.

1992 - The Chicago Reader for a political cartoon of a black Chicago alderman, Dorothy Tillman.

Tillman was depicted by cartoonist David Nelson as a paper doll in a bra and underwear. The cartoon included two outfits - a dress and a soldier’s uniform.

The Chicago Sun-Times for its article by Tom McNamee about raccoons getting into suburbanites’ garbage. It compared the animals to Chicago gang members.

1991 - Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe Columnist for statements he made during a television appearance saying he knew more about how to cover the inner city and black people than any black reporter in Boston.

1990 - The Richmond Times-Dispatch for its editorial on the death of Mickey Leland.

1989 - NBC News for its disparaging report on the death of NABJ co-founder Max Robinson.

Pat Buchanan for writing racially insensitive commentary regarding young Black and white males.

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In Florida, Miami-Dade Mayor and other leaders are condemning a smear sent out to voters in Florida’s 24th Congressional District falsely claiming that State Senator Shervin Jones, who is openly gay, is HIV positive.

Jones is one of several candidates running for the congressional seat held by retiring Rep. Frederica Wilson.

The anonymous text message was sent out just 24 hours before Florida’s primary on Tuesday, turning an already high-stakes race into a vile smear fight.in Florida Congressional District 24. Equality Florida is investigating the text and considering legal action against the perpetrators.

“It’s old school. It’s the same type of stigma that has been used from years ago, when you equate LGBTQ people to have HIV,” Jones said during an appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered on Monday. “Listen, I don’t have HIV. But even if I did: so what Would that make me less qualified to serve? Would it erase 14 years of public service? Would it make me less deserving of dignity and respect? Absolutely not.”

Watch the full segment above.

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Thirty years after Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas, the murder trial of Dwayne Davis is set to begin.

A jury of 6 men and 10 women was selected Thursday to hear the case against Davis, an ex-gang leader who is accused of orchestrating Shakur’s killing. Opening statements began on Monday.

Family members and fans of the rapper have been waiting for decades to learn the truth behind the September 7, 1996 drive-by shooting. Tupac was just 25 years old when he was shot and killed at the height of his career near the Las Vegas Strip.

The shooting happened in the middle of a fierce battle for dominace in a music scene by rival gangs.

Three years ago investigators charged Duane “Keffe D” Davis with murder, describing him as the “shot caller” who planned the killing. Davis has pleaded not guilty and could be sentenced to life in prison if he’s convicted.

What does the Roland Martin Unfiltered panel think of how the trial will play out? Watch the segment above to find out.

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“We’re taking up this fight to search for truth and to demand transparency concerning the tragic death of Nolan Wells,” Kristen Clarke, the NAACP’s general counsel, said in a statement.

“Our investigation will be victim-focused, community-based and sensitive to the ongoing pain felt by Nolan Wells’ family and his community,” Clarke continued. “Drawing on the Association’s long history of pushing for full and fair investigations when Black lives are lost under suspicious circumstances, we will bring additional investigative and legal resources to bear and ensure that no stone is left unturned in the quest for truth and accountability for Nolan’s family.”

The NAACP said that its role on the legal team will include working alongside other attorneys, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, to press for comprehensive fact-finding, advocate for transparency from relevant authorities, and support efforts to ensure that Nolan’s family receives information and accountability.

“The world is watching, and Nolan Wells’ family deserves a thorough accounting of what happened,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said. “Too often, the deaths of young Black people are dismissed, downplayed, or inadequately investigated unless we demand answers. Our involvement in this case is part of our ongoing commitment to make sure those answers are pursued with urgency and respect for Black lives.”

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By Ben Jealous

Last week I had lunch with an old friend.

He is a Black Republican and a popular commentator, which means we have spent twenty years disagreeing in public and liking each other in private. He would be welcome in any barbershop in America. He keeps it real in the way men in any true community require of one another.

We talked about our kids. That was most of the lunch.

Nothing about that would surprise any Black man reading this. Nothing about it would surprise most Black people.

But every Black father carries something else around with him. We know the stereotypes: that we do not stay, that we do not provide, that we are not there.

Those stories are as old as the country itself.

So is the proof against them. And the proof was written down by the men who owned us.

In November of 1836, a man named Richard escaped near Morganton, North Carolina. He got away while the brother of the man who claimed him was hauling him to Alabama.

The enslaver bought newspaper space to get him back. His advertisement did not guess where Richard was headed. It told readers exactly where to look.

Richard had a wife, a free woman of color named Jane Tucker. She was arranging to return to Raleigh. The ad said there was no doubt her husband would try to get to her.

The man who owned Richard was not speculating. He put money behind it. He had seen enough men run toward a wife or a child to know where to send the search party. He expected his readers to know it too.

Historians have been collecting those advertisements for years. The Freedom on the Move project indexes close to ninety thousand. They name wives. They name children. They name the road the man was likely taking to reach them.

Capture meant brutal punishment. Escape itself could be deadly. They ran anyway.

They did not wait for the war to end, either.

On December 27, 1862, Henry Christian placed a notice in a Philadelphia newspaper. He was searching for Richard, Rebecca, and Rachel Christian. His children. Last known to be traveling out of Winchester, Virginia.

Historians at Villanova University have recovered nearly five thousand notices like it. Freed people paying for newspaper space, year after year, hunting for family sold away. Judith Giesberg, who leads that project, estimates the success rate may have been as low as two in a hundred.

They kept paying anyway.

Many of those notices were placed by men. Fathers. Husbands. Brothers.

Herbert Gutman went through the records community by community. In the places he studied, most Black families had two parents in the house. In some rural areas it ran above eight in ten.

Now come forward to our own time.

Among fathers living with their small children, Black fathers were the most likely of the groups the study counted to bathe, dress, and change them every day. Seventy percent did. For White fathers, 60 percent. For Hispanic fathers, 45.

Among fathers of school-age children, 41 percent of Black fathers helped with homework or checked it daily. For White fathers, 28 percent.

That study covered 2006 to 2010. It is still the most recent we have, because the government stopped asking.

A later look at federal data, from 2017 to 2019, found the pattern holds for fathers living apart from their children. Nearly six in ten Black fathers saw their children weekly. For White fathers, about four in ten.

That survey also has the hard number, and I will not skip it. Forty-three percent of Black fathers have at least one child living somewhere else. For White fathers it is 14.

That is not a shortage of men who want to father. Black fathers who live with their children are among the most involved in this country. The ones living apart report showing up more than anybody.

Something keeps pulling them out of the house.

Work left those neighborhoods. Violence rose. Prisons filled. Researchers have spent forty years untangling how the three feed one another.

None of it is new. None of it is only ours. It hit Black neighborhoods first and hardest, then kept going until it reached everybody.

Next week I will show you those numbers. They belong to every man in America.

My friend and I did not talk about any of this over lunch. We talked about our kids.

That is what fathers do.

Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and former president and CEO of the NAACP.

As is the case for many residents, Erin Goldson, 39, feels a deep connection to Martha’s Vineyard. Though she was raised in D.C. and then lived in New York, five generations of her family have roots here.

Her parents first met and were married on Martha’s Vineyard.

When, later, her father died suddenly, they buried him on the Vineyard. Goldson’s grandmother, almost 100-years-old, lives there year-round. “For me, Martha’s Vineyard is very much home,” said Goldson, a marketing executive who has worked with companies including Unilever, American Express, IKEA and British Airways.

Like many who spend time on the Vineyard, Goldson grew up surrounded by family and friends who were themselves iconic figures. Among her aunties were Sylvia Rhone, CEO of Epic Records, and Suzanne de Passe, the executive who helped Motown find talent like The Jackson 5. Her father, Dr. Alfred Goldson, was chair of the cancer department at Howard University, and her mother, Amy Goldson, Esq., was an attorney for the Congressional Black Caucus.

“Over the years, I’ve watched Martha’s Vineyard become more and more commercial,” she continued. “I felt like what was missing was an event less about the companies and more about the people who make Martha’s Vineyard iconic.”

And so last year, Goldson launched the Vineyard Icon Awards — an idea she took from concept to execution in about 60 days. “I took a grassroots approach and followed my heart. I self-funded everything with my savings, and committed to use my executive experience to play all of the roles so no detail would go unnoticed. I reached out to every honoree, every guest, every contractor,” she explained to Forbes last year. “I truly put my heart on my sleeve.”

About 300 people attended the first Vineyard Icon Awards last year — which honored Troy Carter, Shelley Stuart III, Floyd and Stephanie Rance, Dawn Porter and Keisha Lance Bottoms — including Sen. Cory Booker and CBS Mornings host Gayle King. “The event just looked so good—as did the people,” King said at the time. “Everyone understood the assignment.”

This year’s Vineyard Icon awards — being given out today, Saturday, Aug. 15 — will honor former Attorney General Eric Holder and physician and women’s health advocate Dr. Sharon Malone who will receive the Trailblazer Couple Award; music industry executive Sylvia Rhone, recipient of the Cultural Vanguard Award; and entrepreneur/ investor Tarrus Richardson, recipient of the Business Impact Award.

“When I talk about the recipients, it’s all around people who consider the Vineyard their happy place, but are making an impact even beyond it,” Goldson said in a recent interview with BSN. “It’s about being a good person, it’s about blazing paths, mentorship, giving back.”

The celebrations kicked off on Wednesday with the Vineyard Icon dinner, held in partnership with the VC firm, Slauson & Co. Among those in attendance was actress and model Lauren London.

Also new this year was the creation eight need-based college scholarships, for which applicants were asked to respond to one of the following questions:

-What makes you a future icon?

-What does legacy mean to you?

-Give an example of when you had to overcome a challenge.

Ultimately, more than 150 applicants submitted applications. “I’m really excited to see how this continues to grow,” she told Black Star Network.

“I wanted the scholarship process itself to be meaningful,” Goldson said. “Even for students who were not selected, I loved the idea that they had taken time to name what makes them an icon and consider the legacy they want to create.”

—Wesley Lowery

By Rev. Charles Reginald Johnson

Washington’s housing affordability crisis is real, and Black families are among those paying the highest price.

Across our state, rising rents have made it harder for working families to save for a home, build wealth, and remain in the communities they’ve called home for generations. When policymakers look for ways to address those challenges, they deserve commendation.

Only about 36% of Black families own homes in Washington, compared to 67% of White families. Black renters spend more of their income on housing. than White renters do Every year that new homes are not built is another year that these families fall further behind building wealth and security for their children.

As cities like Bellingham, as well as lawmakers around the state, consider restrictions on algorithmic rent-pricing software, they should resist the temptation to ban every use of housing data. Instead, they should follow the lead of jurisdictions like Rockville, Maryland, and Berkeley, California, which have drawn an important distinction between public information and nonpublic competitor data. For protecting affordable housing across our state, that difference means a lot.

Some competing landlords are sharing confidential information that isn’t available to the public. Governments have every reason to scrutinize that practice. Consumers deserve competitive markets. Private information-sharing, which leads to collusion and higher prices, is anything but competitive. But lawmakers should make sure their ban doesn’t extend to publicly available information, as some measures, like Bellingham Initiative 26-01, would do if not modified soon.

Apartment listings, advertised rents, neighborhood vacancy rates, census data, construction trends, and local market conditions are available to everyone. They are used not only by landlords, but also by developers deciding whether to build new housing, lenders evaluating projects, affordable housing organizations, researchers, and local governments themselves. As such, banning the use of this data could end up hurting the very people it’s intended to help.

Treating public information as though it were part of an anticompetitive conspiracy doesn’t solve the housing shortage. If anything, it risks making it worse. This is because, if affordable housing developers have less data, they have less confidence that now is the right time to build. This leads to fewer units constructed. Fewer units mean higher prices for the ones that are currently standing (because prospective residents begin to bid each other up).

At the same time, corporate landlords that are secretly sharing private competitor information that no one else should see must be stopped — and soon. This inexcusable collusion is doing serious damage to the cause of affordable housing, and it’s encouraging to see our elected officials taking action against it.

But while this is a step in the right direction, the truth is that Washington doesn’t have a rent algorithm problem nearly as much as it has a housing supply problem. For years, our state has failed to build enough homes to keep pace with demand. The result has been higher rents, fewer vacancies, and fewer opportunities for first-time homebuyers to enter the market. Those pressures fall especially hard on Black communities.

Fortunately, our political leaders understand this and are making significant progress in getting more affordable units online. As former Washington State Senator Kevin Van De Wege recently put it, “Washington lawmakers have actually been leading on this. Last year, the legislature passed HB 1217, capping annual rent increases statewide and giving tenants new protections against junk fees and short notice.

In 2023, it passed HB 1110, legalizing duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes in neighborhoods that used to allow only single-family homes — a real, supply-side answer to a supply-side crisis. Both were the right calls, and both deserve to be built on, not overshadowed.”

This progress matters because every year that housing remains scarce is another year that many families are forced to delay building equity and passing wealth on to the next generation.

The families struggling most with housing costs need more homes, more choices, and more opportunities to build wealth. Let’s protect competition and renters. But let’s also protect the public market information that helps make new housing possible. Washington can do both at the same time.

Rev. Charles Reginald Johnson is Senior Pastor, Mt. Zion Baptist Church Seattle, Washington. The church was established in 1890, shortly after Washington became a state, reflecting the growing African American community in Seattle. He is also a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Urban League.

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In 2019, Aaron Ford became the first Black politician to be elected to statewide office in Nevada when he took office as attorney general. Now, he is eying another “first” — as the state’s Democratic nominee for governor.

He’s challenging Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo, and premising his campaign on the theme that the Trump Administration has been disastrous for the economy.

“The fact Joe Lombardo and Donald Trump have decimated our economy. It’s called the Lombardo-Trump economy for a reason” he said during a recent appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Ford linked Trump’s tariff’s to unemployment spikes and business closings, all of which have caused kitchen-table pain. “I talk to folks all over the state, they’re struggling right now,” Ford said.

“We should be focused on those individuals and not worried about these billionaires that Donald Trump and Joe Lombardo are cozying up to.

Ford said that, while traveling the state, he hears constant concerns from residents about the building of data centers — whether they will use up crucial water, who they will hire, and what their impact will be on local economies.

“One of the key differences between Lombardo and me is that he’s bankrolled by them - he’s taken millions of dollars from data centers,” Ford said.

What the full interview above, and tune into Roland Martin Unfiltered every night on the Black Star Network.

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Award-winning investigative journalist Nicole Carr joins Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton to discuss her book, The Price of Exclusion: The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation and how the closure of Black medical schools, discriminatory policies, financial barriers, and generations of exclusion continue shaping who becomes a doctor, who gets care, and who is left behind.

Later in the episode, Dr. Jahred Liddie breaks down the EPA’s approval of additional PFAS-containing pesticides, also known as “forever chemicals,” for use on major U.S. crops. And board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Donna Adams-Pickett separates fact from hype around estrogen, menopause, hormone replacement therapy, and the growing conversation about longevity. She explains why hormone therapy is not one-size-fits-all and what women should consider when making decisions about healthy aging.

In the Prescription of the Week, Dr. Hilton explains how ZIP code, housing, education, environmental exposure, healthcare access, and public policy can shape life expectancy and racial health outcomes.

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“Jesse Jackson: The Last Interview” assembles rare and previously uncollected interviews including:

• “I Was with Dr. King When the Assassin’s Bullet Was Fired” Interview by Arthur Kretchmer, Playboy - November 1969

• “To Be Ethnic, Ethical, and Excellent” Interview by Tony Brown and Diahann Carroll, Black Journal - January 17, 1975

• “Jackson’s Plan Stresses Negotiations, Not Arms” Interview by Ronald Smothers, The New York Times - December 28, 1983

• “Trump Wants to Pull Us Back Into White Supremacy” Interview by David Masciotra in The New Republic, August 1, 2023

The collection also includes an essay from the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“He was young himself, by the standards of movement leadership, but he carried himself with a gravitas that seemed ancient, as if he had been forged in some furnace the rest of us hadn’t yet been near,” Sharpton writes. “He spoke, and you did not merely hear words. You felt the architecture of history rearranging itself. I remember standing in that room thinking: This is what a leader sounds like. This is what it looks like when a man has decided, without reservation or apology, that his people’s liberation is worth everything he has.”

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In Wisconsin on Tuesday, David Crowley pulled off a stunning comeback victory over Francesca Hong in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

He had briefly dropping out and then re-entering the race — which also saw the recent exit of Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes — Crowley ultimately toppled the frontrunner Hong, who was seen as a much more progressive candidate, by about 3,000 votes.

He’s now headed to the general election in November where, he will face off against Trump-aligned Republican Tom Tiffany.

“It is a stunning, stunning, stunning comeback for him and puts him on the verge of becoming just the 4th elected Black governor in American history,” Roland Martin observed as he kicked off the segment.

His opponent Hong also addressed her supporters after it was all said and done. Here’s what she told the crowd.

Dr. Robert “Biko” Baker, the director of undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, joined Roland Martin Unfiltered to break down that Crowley’s victory says about the ongoing battles between establishment Democrats and the ascendent progressive wing.

“They woke up the sleeping giant,” Baker said. “Black women and people in the community rose up and got with David and pushed him forward.”

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Wilmington Police have previously said that around 11pm on June 24, Skinner came out of his home and waved a gun at a crowd - prompting officers to open fire. However, Skinner’s family insists that he was running away from a loose dog.

During a new conference last month, Bishop William Barber demanded transparency and fairness. Skinner’s family has called for charges to be brought against the officer.

Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon is running in the August 18, 2026, Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Ashley Moody.

The Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida is also supporting Nixon over her opponent, high-profile retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman.

Nixon has spent almost six years in the state House opposing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ agenda. She also staged a May sit-in at DeSantis’ office protesting the GOP’s mid-decade redistricting process. As a result, she was charged with two misdemeanors that she’s fighting court.

However, that has not stopped Nixon, nor those who believe in her as support continues to build less than three weeks before the primary.

Rep. Angie Nixon joined Roland Martin Unfiltered earlier this week, to talk about her campaign strategy and issues that will be most important to voters when they head to the polls in November.

“I am a community organizer and I have built a large coalition of folks all across the state of Florida,” Nixon said, noting that Vindman is refusing to debate her. “Unfortunately my opponent is acting like a politician.”

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Further analysis, by Prosperity Now, further details the current state of financial distress for many Americans under the policies of the Trump Administration.

According to the group, nearly 37 percent of Americans already report having difficulty paying their usual household expenses, and just 64 percent of U.S. households report having savings for emergencies.

“Inflation tells us what is happening with prices. This additional analysis tells us how much room families have to manage increasing costs alongside everything else in their budgets,” Marisa Calderon, Prosperity Now’s President and CEO, said in a statement. “Looking at income alongside savings, housing costs and other household conditions gives us a fuller picture of threats to financial stability.”

Prosperity Now produces its analysis based on raw on federal data — including U.S. Census Bureau datasets — that is then aggregated into a scorecard, allowing the organization to consider not just how much prices are changing (inflation), but also measures such as liquid savings, emergency saving and income volatility.

“Income, housing costs, and savings all tell us something uniquely valuable,”Calderon said. “When we bring them together as part of the bigger picture, we can ask much better questions about how people are actually doing and what that means for the decisions being made around them.”

—Wesley Lowery

The settlement in the Cabrera v. Department of Labor case comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which brought legal action on behalf of seven Job Corps students.

“The suspension of the Job Corps program was a critical mistake that threatened the futures of thousands of young people,” Aaron Fleisher, senior supervising attorney, SPLC, said in a statement issued Wednesday.

“Since 1964, the Job Corps program served students in securing housing, training and economic opportunity — young adults already burdened by an unreliable job market, and in some cases without a place to live,” Fleisher continued. “This administration cruelly tried to take away one of a handful of options for them to support themselves. We are proud to have stood with them and prevented that from happening.”

Established by Congress in 1964, Job Corp currently limits its enrollment to low income individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who face barriers to employment. Participants are given housing, a biweekly living allowance, and healthcare services.

As of Jan. 2025, there were 99 Job Corps centers across the country. But last May, the Department of Labor announced it had suspended the Job Corps program and that it intended to close all 99 centers by the following month. Ultimately, a district court stayed the Labor Department’s directive to close all privately operated Job Corps centers, finding that the directive likely violated provisions of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

Now, the Trump Administration has agreed to abandon the effort all together. A spokesperson for the Labor Department referred inquiries to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Today’s settlement puts an end to the unlawful threat hanging over Job Corps students’ heads for the last year,” Adam Pulver, attorney and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Public Citizen Litigation Group, said in a statement. “As the court previously recognized, Congress was clear that DOL cannot close any center without following a specific procedure — a procedure DOL did not even pretend to follow here.”

By Gabrielle Speight-Leach

Civil rights activist and former Color of Change President Rashad Robinson is calling on Americans to rethink how they approach advocacy and power.

In his new book, “From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter—and Win,”released Tuesday, Robinson draws on his years leading campaigns focused on corporate accountability, media representation, voting rights, police reform and net neutrality. His goal, he said during an appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered, is to provide a framework for navigating modern power structures and confronting institutions that shape public life.

“(The book) is really a framework, a 21st century framework, for how we understand taking on big tech, taking on Hollywood, taking on government, taking on all the forces that stand in your way,” he said. “We’re gonna need more of us to find our power.”

During the discussion, he and Roland talked about how the media can be effectively deployed to rally people against systemic injustices. While conservative media networks and right-wing movements benefit from an interconnected ecosystem that amplifies their messaging and supports their political goals, racial justice movements and progressive causes lack such amplification.

“You cannot find your power though unless you understand the power of the collective,” Roland said. “So what you described when it comes to the right is, what they’ve done is they sort of all move and operate and support one another, drive one another’s content that builds this eco-system, whether its groups or whether its media.”

Robinson agreed, saying new approaches will be necessary to meet today’s political and social challenges and that his goal is to help readers move beyond visibility and representation and instead focus on building the leverage needed to create lasting change.

“We are going to have to find new strategies and engage in new ways if we’re going to win with everything stacked against us,” Robinson said. “But we’re going to need to recognize that as we have these platforms, the task and the demand and the political advocacy is going to get better.”

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