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America Mourns the Passing of Toni Morrison, a ‘National Treasure’

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“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Toni Morrison

For almost half a century, Toni Morrison has been known for wielding words like a weapon to awaken the sleeping conscience, sowing them as seeds to help the stunted grow and skillfully mixing them as a balm to help the wounded heal.

And though she may be gone, because of the words she left behind, she will never be silent.

Morrison, 88, died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, publisher Alfred A. Knopf said.

Her family released this statement to the media: In a statement released by Princeton University, where she taught, the author’s family said that after a short illness, “our adored mother and grandmother, Toni Morrison, passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends. She was an extremely devoted mother, grandmother, and aunt who reveled in being with her family and friends,” the statement said. “The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing. Although her passing represents a tremendous loss, we are grateful she had a long, well lived life.”

On Tuesday, authors and artists, editors and historians as well as other luminaries pay tribute to the American author. They were joined by thousands of her readers on Facebook and Twitter who spoke of her lasting impact on their lives.

“In the beginning was the Word. Toni Morrison took the word and turned it into a Song of Solomon, Sula, Beloved, Mercy, Paradise, Love and more,” Oprah Winfrey tweeted. “She was a magician with language, who understood the Power of words. She used them to roil us, to wake us, to educate us and help us grapple with our deepest wounds and try to comprehend them. She was Empress-Supreme among writers. Long may her WORDS reign!”

Morrison, who was best known for her bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved, has been a guide to others said Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.

“For nearly half a century, we have been looking to Toni Morrison for guidance — to help us think, through literature, as we find our way through the world. With grace and wisdom, she respected, represented and rendered the beauty and complexity of the black experience,” Gates said, according to The New York Times.

Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. She became a Catholic when she was 12 years-old and was baptized as Anthony. She then gained the nickname, Toni. An avid reader, Morrison was a fan of Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. She grew up listening to her parents telling traditional African American folktales and ghost stories.

Before she wrote her first novel, Morrison was an editor who sought and found new voices, diverse voices – bringing black literature into the mainstream. She became Random House’s first black woman senior editor in the fiction department.

Among the books she worked on was Contemporary African Literature, a compilation of works that included contributions from Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and South African playwright Athol Fugard. She also fostered a new generation of African American authors before taking her place among them.

Still, one of her best sellers was “The Black Book,” an anthology of artifacts that documents black life in America from the time of slavery to the 1970s. It included slave auction notices, lynching photos, blackface advertisements and a clipping from an 1856 newspaper, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It told the story of Margaret Garner, a runaway. As she was about to be captured, Garner killed her three children, believing death was preferable to captivity.

Morrison wondered what could lead a mother to commit such a crime. She answered that question with her bestselling novel about the legacy of slavery, Beloved, according to the LA Times.

But it wasn’t her first work.

“Toni was already 39 when she published her first novel, and she knew what she was doing,” Robert Gottlieb at Knopf said, according to The New York Times. “One of the remarkable qualities of “The Bluest Eye” is its calm confidence, “Sula” was perfect in structure and tone — like a superb sonnet. “Song of Solomon” was an explosion of energy and daring. “Beloved” was simply a masterpiece. And so, it went.”

Gottlieb would go on to edit most of Morrison’s novels. She also wrote Tar Baby, Jazz, A Mercy, Home and God Help the Child.

She also wrote children’s literature with the younger of her two sons, Slade Morrison, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2010 when he was 45. They include: The Big Box, The Book of Mean People, Peeny Butter Fudge and Please, Louise.

Morrison obtained her Bachelors of Arts from Howard University in 1953 and Masters of Arts degree from Cornell University two years later. She taught English at Texas Southern University in Houston and then at Howard, inspiring others.

She became the first black woman of any nationality to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she obtained in 1993. And when Morrison was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, then-President Barack Obama said, “Toni Morrison’s prose brings us that kind of moral and emotional intensity that few writers ever attempt.”

After learning of her death, he shared a picture of her sitting in a chair in the White House, smiling as she looked up at him.

“Time is no match for Toni Morrison,” Obama said Tuesday on Facebook. “She sometimes toyed with it, warping and creasing it, bending it to her masterful will. In her life’s story, too, she treated time nontraditionally.

“Toni Morrison was a national treasure. Her writing was not just beautiful but meaningful – a challenge to our conscience and a call to greater empathy. She was as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page. And so even as Michelle and I mourn her loss and send our warmest sympathies to her family and friends, we know that her stories – that our stories- will always be with us, and with those who come after, and on and on, for all time.”

“What a gift to breathe the same air as her, if only for a while,” he tweeted.

 Author Tayari Jones said Morrison, “is the greatest chronicler of the American experience that we have ever known,” according to The New York Times. “Now that she is gone and we are facing a moral dilemma greater than any that I have seen in my lifetime, her Nobel acceptance speech is as haunting and urgent as ever. In that speech, she tells the story of an old woman who is taunted by a pack of boys who hold a bird. She is blind, but is known to have second sight, and they challenge her to tell her if the bird is alive or dead. The old woman says simply, ‘The bird is in your hands.’ And this in many ways could be her parting message to us now.”

Black History

Trump Signs Executive Orders That Will Impact HBCUs and Black Schoolchildren

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and establish a White House Initiative on HBCUs to “deliver high-quality education to a growing number of students.”

According to the White House, the Initiative will help develop private-sector partnerships, institutional development and workforce preparation in technology, health care, manufacturing and finance. 

The president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Dr. Harry L. Williams said, “Today’s executive order serves as strong reaffirmation of President Trump’s support of investment of historically Black colleges and universities. This executive order should serve as a call-to-action for corporations, foundations, members of Congress and state lawmakers to redouble their efforts to support HBCUs and their students. TMCF looks forward to continued engagement with the administration and Congress to deliver results for HBCUs and the students they serve via appropriations and other legislative actions.”

On the same day, Trump signed another executive order that removes safeguards for African American schoolchildren by eliminating an Obama-era initiative to protect Black schoolchildren from excessive disciplinary action.

During the Obama administration, the first Black president’s administration created guidelines that sought to prevent school discipline from having a disproportionate effect on minority students. Trump revoked the civil rights initiative during his first term and Biden did not formally restore it. 

At his signing today, Trump said his decision was especially important to the current Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who held the signed order.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, schools were forced to consider equity and inclusion when imposing discipline,” McMahon said in a statement. “Their policies placed racial equity quotas over student safety – encouraging schools to turn a blind eye to poor or violent behavior in the name of inclusion.”

She added, “Disciplinary decisions should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions.

Studies show that Black students are punished more often than their white counterparts.

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Black History

President Jimmy Carter Appointed the First Black Woman to Lead a Federal Agency

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President Jimmy Carter advanced opportunities for African Americans throughout his life,
advocating for justice and peace consistent with the Christian values he embraced. Since his
death on December 29 at age 100, Mr. Carter’s praises have been sung from his home state of
Georgia to points around the globe. And while the former president’s one-term in the White
House is dismissed by some political pundits for a lack of policies or accomplishments that
changed the course of history, his character and integrity set him apart.


Carter became the first president to appoint a Black woman head of a federal agency. He chose
Patricia Roberts Harris to lead the Housing and Urban Development when he took office in
1977.


Harris said, “I feel deeply proud and grateful this President chose me to knock down this barrier, but also a little sad about being the ‘first Negro woman,’ because it implies we were not
considered before.”


Senator William Proxmire questioned Carter’s choice, saying Harris came from too much wealth and influence to be an effective leader. But Carter stood by his decision, and Harris stayed in the position for two years.


The 39th president’s name is also included on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.


Civil rights activist, Rev. Al Sharpton recalled a conversation he shared with Carter.


“It was very significant, I was talking there at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, and I was talking to President Clinton and President Carter,” Sharpton recalled. “And when Clinton and I finished talking, President Carter touched me on my arm and said, ‘How are you doing with your ministry, Al? I see you out there with your activism. Don’t leave your ministry … keep your prayer life going.’ And you could tell he sincerely meant it. He was not one who talked about his religion as a political kind of something you could say to voters.”


President Joe Biden declared January 9, 2025, a national day of mourning. Millions watched the former president’s funeral on television as he was remembered as a man of honesty,
compassion and faith – which included championing the rights of Americans who knew firsthand the struggle of injustice

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Black History

The Congressional Black Caucus Prepares for “Important” Work

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The Congressional Black Caucus started the 119th Congress with its largest membership. There were 62 members sworn in today.

“On behalf of the entire Congressional Black Caucus, congratulations to the members of the Executive Committee of the 119th Congress. 53 years after our Caucus’ founding, our work to improve the lives and conditions of Black people in America is more important than ever before,” said CBC President Steven Horsford.

Photo Credit: Ron Busby, U.S. Black Chambers Inc.

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