Thousands of Americans gathered on the grounds of Chicago’s Jackson Park, home of the long-awaited Obama Presidential Center, to celebrate the grand opening of the museum honoring the legacy of the nation’s first Black president. 

Marty Nesbitt, Chairman of the Obama Foundation Board of Trustees, said, “This Center is more than a building, it is a promise. A promise that leadership matters, that democracy depends on participation.”

In a show of presidential support, former presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Joe Biden and their wives attended the opening day festivities. Former heads of state Justin Trudeau of Canada and Angela Merkel of Germany also joined the Obamas.

The former president recounted the day he arrived in Chicago. He was 23 years-old, and he had been hired by a group of churches on the Southside of Chicago to lead some organizing efforts.

“I was possessed with this abiding faith that if we could give people more of a say in the forces that guided their lives … we could build an America where everyone counts, everyone has a fair shot even a kid with a weird name. I found what I was looking for.” 

He added, “For me, this Center could not be anyplace else. It is an expression of thanks.”

Famous politicians, leaders and celebrities sat in the VIP section, and on the lawn, guests from around the world took pictures and shared memories of the night a young Illinois senator became the President of the United States.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama described her husband’s eight years in office by highlighting his many accomplishments and personal attributes, including his work ethic, integrity, and empathy.

She listed, “[Your work] expanding healthcare, ending a war, ordering the Bin Laden raids, saving an auto industry, winning a peace prize, keeping us safe from Ebola, regulating the banks, standing up for marriage equality, listening to science, and comforting us through unspeakable tragedies. You did it all with such grace, and class, and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.”

Grammy award-winning singers Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Bono, Tems, Stevie Wonder, and Marc Anthony performed. 

A woman from Africa, who traveled to Chicago for the opening of the Obama Center, said, “In 2008, I was studying journalism at Harvard, and what happened is that Barack Obama became a candidate, and I called my family in Africa, and I said, ‘You know what? I think I know who the next president’s going to be.’ It inspired me a lot, and three years after that, I created the first American school in my country because of him.”

For more information about the Obama Presidential Center, please visit www.obama.org.

The spotlight returns to Tulsa this weekend, the 105th commemoration of the Race Massacre that decimated one of the nation’s most prominent displays of Black success. After a white mob swept through the area in 1921 burning and looting, hundreds were killed and even more fled the area. Some of the dead were buried in mass graves in the southwest corner of Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery.

In 2019 – almost a century after the massacre – a ground penetrating radar survey detected the presence of remains. Months later in 2020, the City of Tulsa started physically digging for bodies and mass graves. 

Since the initial 2020 dig, the city has led multiple rounds of archaeological excavations. The first mass grave containing the remains of multiple massacre victims was found in October 2020. A larger, full-scale excavation and exhumation process began in the “Original 18” site, which is connected to a newspaper article that reported 18 bodies were being held at funeral homes and would be transported to Oaklawn Cemetery because their loved ones had not claimed their bodies due to the chaos following the massacre. Many of the residents who survived were also placed in internment camps, leading to displacement and scrutiny from whites.

The most recent multi-week excavation wrapped up in November 2025, which led to the discovery of dozens of additional unmarked graves.

Historians recall the Greenwood district in 1921, also dubbed “Black Wall Street,”  as an area with hundreds of Black-owned businesses, luxury hotels, theaters, and doctor’s offices. The area rose because economic discrimination created the need for independence, but the whites, who oversaw the system of oppression, became envious of the prosperity and sought to destroy the demonstration of collective determination.

Today, only one person is still alive who survived the massacre. Lessie Benningfield Randle is 111, and she continues to fight for justice and reparations for the victims and descendants of the residents of the Greenwood district.

The Congressional Black Caucus recently sounded the alarm, calling the Republican-led gerrymandering efforts across the country an assault on Black voter protections.

According to the CBC, 19 of its 62 members may lose their seats after the redistricting and the Supreme Court’s gutting of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The high court sanctioned Congressional maps providing a “partisan” advantage, but not a racial one. Critics say the developments open the door for dramatically decreased Black representation in Congress.

Representative Yvette Clark, who chairs the CBC, described the national redistricting strategy as a “power grab.” 

CBC members and political scientists describe the mid-decade redistricting plans, which were initiated by President Donald Trump, as an attack on Black voters.

In Tennessee, the state legislature successfully split the district that includes Memphis, a predominantly Black urban area, into three districts.

“Overall, the Congressional district plan is Black vote dilution at an industrial scale,” stated Dr. Sekou Franklin, the executive director of the John Lewis Center for Social Justice at Fisk University. “It eliminates the largest urban and naturally-cohesive Congressional district, of which Black voters can elect a candidate of their choice. This has not happened since before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, who has represented the 5th Congressional District which includes Kansas City for more than two decades, faces an uncertain future. The Missouri legislature targeted Cleaver by dividing the district, a Democratic stronghold, into three districts. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected challenges to the map, declaring it constitutional.

Vice President J.D. Vance campaigned today in the now Republican-friendly district, remarking on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling. 

“We had that great Supreme Court case that said a crazy thing, like maybe we shouldn’t discriminate against people based on race, right, very common sense,” said Vance.

The CBC has pushed back against the gerrymandering trend and announced plans to continue challenging the Republican efforts.

In a statement, members added: “We are working with partners in state legislatures across the South, alongside the legal and civil rights communities, to challenge these maps in court and mobilize our communities to the ballot box.”