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On the Sunday before Election Day, Black women gathered on Zoom as they had done every Sunday for four years in a moment of unity, sisterhood and gratitude.
For the last 15 Sundays, they came together as part of the coalition Win With Black Women to strategize and organize to help elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States. Harris joined the final call to thank them for their support and to ask for their help one more time.
“I thank everyone for building a coalition that has been hard at work to support our campaign,” Harris said at the beginning of the two-hour call with thousands of supporters. “We can have an impact on people’s lives. … We know it is our calling. … It is about lifting people up and reminding them that we are a community of people who care. We have more work to do … We will get this done, and we will win, and it will be because we know what’s at stake. We know how to fight for all that is good and right for the future.”
Previous calls had gone largely unnoticed by mainstream media, but the July 21 call was historic and quickly went public, gaining attention and spawning a massive grassroots movement that was an early indicator of enthusiasm for Harris’ nascent campaign. Within days, dozens of other groups — from Black men, White dudes, Jews, comics, nerds, cat ladies, and more — were each hosting their own Zoom calls in support of Harris.
The group’s founder, Jotaka Eaddy, was inspired by The Colored Girls, a legendary band of veteran Black women political strategists. On the eve of a historic election that could elect Harris, a Black and South Asian woman, as the country’s first woman president, they spoke on the call of the weight of the moment and the work still left to do.
“I’ve always realized that timing is everything in politics,” said Colored Girls member Yolanda Caraway. “This is Kamala’s time. This is our time. I always felt that she was going to be president. I am so proud of her and of us and what we’ve done.”
The Rev. Leah Daughtry, a member of the Colored Girls and past CEO of the Democratic National Convention, said Harris’ candidacy has felt like the culmination of three decades of work and the sacrifices of ancestors who worked for but did not live to see this moment.
Donna Brazile, who worked on Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign and was the first Black woman to run a major presidential campaign in 2000 for Democrat Al Gore, said that the next 48 hours were time for what she called “a rally effect” to turn out any remaining persuadable voters.
“We have really experienced something that our ancestors probably knew would exist one day, but we have seen it in our own time,” Brazile said. “You all have been at the table and you’ve made so much happen. We are proud to be the descendants of those who have fought for the right to the polls for our people. Thank you to Fannie Lou Hamer for knocking on the door of a party that didn’t have a seat for you. Thank you for not quitting when it got tough, for standing up with determination because you simply wanted to be free.”
Also on the call were representatives from the other Zoom-mobilized groups who expressed their appreciation for Win With Black Women’s leadership, as well as the heads of the four national Black Greek sororities who are working to mobilize voter turnout.
Participants were urged to continue to call and text their networks encouraging them to vote, and provide transportation or whatever other support is required leading up to and on Election Day. Other speakers also offered encouragement at the end of a long political season that for some has felt unending.
“I needed this call tonight,” said organizer Melanie Campbell. “Every state is a battleground if you’re living in it. But don’t let doubt get in the way on this last leg … #WinWithBlackWomen is more than a hashtag, it’s a movement.”
As a reminder of the marathon nature of their work, 92-year-old former NAACP President Hazel Dukes and Johnetta Cole, 89, former president of Spelman College, closed out the evening.
“Jotaka Eaddy has called us together and dared to say, ‘My sisters, here is what we can win as Black women: We can have as the president of the United States of America, a Black woman whose name is Kamala Harris,’” Cole said. “When Black women win, the whole world wins with us.”
To check your voter registration status or to get more information about registering to vote, text 19thnews to 26797.
Jewelry isn’t just pretty accessories or be worn. Jewelry are often given as a special gift or someone buys luxury items or accessories. When someone buys jewelry and how it is presented can make it feel even more special. The moment they unbox first time they see the jewelry. so it’s really important to make…
Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.
Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and leaving behind a vast musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American song and rhythm. Over the past half century, it was hard to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with Jones’ name on it or someone in the music, television or movie industries who did not have some connection to him.
Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World.”
In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, singling out any work seems unfair. But honors likely go to his productions with Jackson on “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” albums universal in their style and appeal. Jones’ versatility and imagination fit perfectly with the bursting talents of Jackson as he sensationally transformed from child star to the “King of Pop.” On such classic tracks as “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” Jones and Jackson drew upon disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-defying “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.
“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone, helped Jackson become the first major Black artist to have a video played on MTV and influenced countless performers.
“Michael had the look and the voice, and I had every sound you can think of,” Jones would explain.
The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”: 28 Grammys (out of 80 nominations), an honorary Academy Award and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur and the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy. In 2001, Jones was named a Kennedy Center Honoree for his contributions to American culture. He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones,” and his memoir made him a best-selling author.
“Despite all the Grammys and the special awards and testimonials that maturity bestows, it will always be the values you carry within yourself — of work, love, and integrity — that carry the greatest worth, because these are what get you through with your dreams intact, your heart held firm and your spirit ready for another day,” he wrote in his book.
Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones would cite the hymns his mother sang around the house as the first music he could remember. But he looked back sadly on his childhood, telling Oprah Winfrey that “There are two kinds of people: those who have nurturing parents or caretakers, and those who don’t. Nothing’s in between.” Jones’ mother suffered from emotional problems and was eventually institutionalized, a loss that made the world seem “senseless” for Quincy. He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing and fighting.
Music was his passion, and, almost literally, his salvation. As a boy, he learned that a Chicago neighbor owned a piano and he soon played it constantly himself. His father moved to Washington state when Quincy was 10 and his world changed at a neighborhood recreation center. Jones and some friends had broken into the kitchen and helped themselves to lemon meringue pie when Jones noticed a small room nearby with a stage. On the stage was a piano.
“I went up there, paused, stared, and then tinkled on it for a moment,” he wrote in his autobiography. “That’s where I began to find peace. I was 11. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”
Within a few years he was playing trumpet and befriending a young blind musician named Ray Charles, who became a lifelong friend. He was gifted enough to win a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out when Hampton invited him to tour with his band. Jones went on to work as a freelance composer, conductor, arranger and producer. As a teen, he backed Billie Holiday. By his mid-20s, he was touring with his own band.
“We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving,” Jones later told Musician magazine. “That’s when I discovered that there was music, and there was the music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.”
His survivors include actor Rashida Jones and five other daughters: Jolie Jones Levine, Rachel Jones, Martina Jones, Kidada Jones and Kenya Kinski-Jones; son Quincy Jones III; brother Richard Jones and sisters Theresa Frank and Margie Jay.
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AP Entertainment writer Andrew Dalton and former AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.
It’s Halloween, and Donald Trump is once again playing dress-up.
His latest costume is a garbage worker. Before that, he pretended to be a McDonald’s worker at a franchise that wasn’t even open.
Trump wants you to think that he and his family, who fly around in a private plane and live in opulent luxury, are actually just like you. But as Kendrick Lamar reminds us, “They not like us.” Trump grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, spent his childhood being driven around New York City by a black chauffeur in his daddy’s Cadillac, and spent his adulthood living in a tacky, gold-plated penthouse on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
I don’t know what the Trump campaign’s internal polls look like, but his behavior in the last few weeks suggests that he’s losing. He’s desperately flailing around, putting on fake outfits he would otherwise never dare to wear, doubling down on hateful messaging that doesn’t expand his base, and rage-posting about nonexistent election fraud so he can prime his voters to cry foul if he loses.
But all those photo ops from Trump’s recent visuals actually contradict Trump’s reality.
He visited a barber shop and spread lies about transgender kids instead of focusing on how he can help self-employed workers.
He speaks like a tough guy around police officers but whines when law enforcement conducts a lawful search to obtain stolen documents from his home at Mar-a-Lago. And he did nothing to help the Capitol Police and DC police who tried to protect the seat of government from his mob of insurrectionists on January 6.
He dressed up like a McDonald’s worker but won’t answer a simple question about whether he supports raising the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009.
And now he’s dressed up like a garbage worker for a photo op but won’t support labor unions fighting for fair wages. And when asked about a speaker who called the island of Puerto Rico “garbage” at the recent Madison Square Garden hate rally, Trump refused to apologize.
So why even bother to get dressed up?
Trump doesn’t do policy; he does performance. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The MAGA cult members hate it when people call them “racist,” but Trump’s actions suggest he thinks his own supporters are racist bigots. That’s why his campaign ads in the swing states don’t focus on his economic agenda; they focus on outrageous lies about Kamala Harris bringing “illegal immigrants” into the country to take your job and forcing kids to become transgender.
That’s why Trump never apologized for his racist remarks about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. And that’s why he won’t apologize for the attacks on Latinos at his New York rally.
Trump knows that working-class voters don’t support Project 2025, Trump’s plans to cut taxes for billionaires and repeal Obamacare, or his friend Elon Musk’s plan for “temporary hardship” for Americans.
That’s why he wants to distract his voters with fear. He complained about inflation but never produced a plan to fix it and introduced tariffs that would drive inflation higher by taxing consumer products. And after nearly 10 years of running for president, this guy only has “concepts of a plan” for health care.
Trump doesn’t do policy; he does performance. And he’s been doing this routine for years.
First he pretended to be a successful businessman on “The Apprentice.” NBC put him in a fake office with a fake board room and let him host a reality TV show to pretend that he knew something about business when, in reality, he inherited $400 million from his daddy and lost it all in his six bankruptcies and numerous failed businesses.
Then he pretended to be a Christian, even though he didn’t know how to pray, couldn’t name a Bible verse, mispronounced Second Corinthians, and was forced to admit that he had never asked God for forgiveness.
But the most offensive costume he ever wore was that of president of the United States. Although he took an oath to uphold the Constitution, Trump violated it repeatedly from the moment he walked into the Oval Office and refused to comply with the emoluments clause prohibiting presidents from receiving foreign money to the moment he was kicked out of office and still tried to overthrow the election as he refused to attend his successor’s inauguration.
As Kamala Harris says, he is not a serious man. But there is one costume that fits him perfectly: Donald Trump is a clown. Not a president.
Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.
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