Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
Black History Month, which runs from the first of February to the first of March, itself has a long backstory with many twists and turns.
It started out as a weeklong observance called “Negro History Week,” established in 1926 by an historian and Howard University professor named Carter G. Woodson – the first child of freed slaves to earn a PhD, and from Harvard, no less – and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which Woodson founded in Chicago in 1915.
Woodson was a fervent believer in the power of education to change lives for the better, and also that Americans should be informed of – and celebrate – the many often overlooked achievements of Black individuals to this country.
Negro History Week was initially observed during the second week in February, reportedly selected because it contained the birthdays of both President Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14).
Not surprisingly, given the culture at the time, the idea wasn’t quick to catch on. The departments of education in only a handful of states and cities – including New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. – agreed to cooperate by putting an emphasis on teaching Black history in the public schools.
The idea of extending the week to a month was the brainchild of Black educators and students at Kent State University in 1969, and the concept was put into practice a year later – from Jan. 2 to Feb. 28, 1970. (This was indeed, for all you amateur historians out there, just a few months before the infamous Kent State Massacre, which occurred on May 4).
Five years later, President Gerald Ford became the first sitting president to recognize Black History Week, issuing a message that called on all Americans to “recognize the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by black citizens.” In 1976, the renamed Association for the Study of African American Life and History formally expanding the week-long observance to a full month, which Ford then recognized, too.
There are far too many accomplished Black individuals to be able to cover each and every one of them in a single month. But I would be seriously remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that civil rights activist and trailblazer Rosa Parks was born on this day in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
There’s a lot of misconception and misinformation surrounding Parks’ story of her December 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, which subsequently sparked the Montgomery bus boycott – a sustained, year-long campaign against the racial segregation of the local public transit system.
Parks was not a meek lady who was simply tired and fed up with being told to move over to make room for someone white. She was a seasoned, trained advocate and knew exactly what she was doing and why when she declined to give up her seat – the specific goal was to light the match that lead to a civil rights firestorm, which is, of course, exactly what happened.
There was also quite a bit of stagecraft involved in publicizing Parks’ arrest, which, for the record, wasn’t the first time she had been kicked off that bus by the exact same driver.
Not to detract from Parks’ accomplishments, but she was also not the first woman to challenge Montgomery’s bus segregation laws. A young girl named Claudette Colvin, just 15 years old at the time, was, in fact, arrested for the very same thing nine months before Parks was. Why then did SHE not become the face of the movement? Well, I’ll leave it for her to explain. (Click here).
I point this out not to diminish in any way the story of Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, but rather to underscore what the founder of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson believed: “The mere imparting of information is not education.”
You’ve got to really pay attention, look deeply into a situation, and sometimes past the initial story you’re told to try to find the “truth” – assuming that actually exits. These days, we have the freedom and the privilege to acquire knowledge from a vast array of sources and then come to our own conclusions. Let’s not squander that gift.
Down from my soapbox now.
It will be partly cloudy and windy today, with temperatures in the mid-30s. Gusts could reach 40 mph (!) Hang on to your proverbial hats.
In the headlines…
President Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada struck last-minute deals to postpone the imposition of hefty tariffs on goods exported to the US, averting at least temporarily a trade war that would roil North America and the global economy.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that proposed 25% tariffs to be levied by the US will be put on hold for 30 days following a phone call with Trump.
A Canadian man has been charged with stealing $65 million in cryptocurrency from a pair of crypto platforms and also with laundering his illegal gains, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said.
China countered Trump’s tariffs on its products with tariffs of its own on multiple U.S. imports today as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures.
Those include 15% tariffs on American coal and liquefied natural gas and 10% tariffs on crude oil, farm equipment and certain other vehicles. The Chinese counter-tariffs are slated to take effect on Feb. 10.
The Chinese finance ministry said the U.S. tariffs “severely violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and not only fail to address [America’s] own problems but also disrupt normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States.”
Trump earlier said he planned to speak on the phone to his Chinese counterpart soon. He described the 10% import taxes as the “opening salvo” and said they could become “very, very substantial” if no agreement is made.
Trump suggested linking continued American aid for Ukraine with a deal in which Kyiv would supply the United States with rare earth minerals, the clearest sign yet of his transactional approach to foreign policy.
Trump has put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on an acting basis. He replaces Rohit Chopra, who was fired by the president on Saturday.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said that he was now the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal humanitarian aid agency that has been targeted for closure by Elon Musk.
Empowered by Trump, Musk is waging a largely unchecked war against the federal bureaucracy — one that has already had far-reaching consequences.
Two employees of the authority that manages Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were arrested over their alleged involvement in leaking surveillance footage of last week’s deadly midair aircraft collision to CNN.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York signed a bill yesterday that is intended to give the state’s health care providers an extra layer of protection to shield them from prosecution in states that ban abortion.
The new law will take effect less than a week after a New Paltz physician was indicted by a grand jury in Louisiana on felony charges related to providing an abortion pill to a young patient in that state.
The new law allows doctors to keep their names off of prescription labels for mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs commonly used to terminate early pregnancies.
“Reproductive freedom will always be protected in the State of New York — and I’ll never back down from this fight,” Hochul said in a statement.
The latest Siena College poll showed that voters in New York hold low opinions of Hochul and mixed feelings about Trump. While New Yorkers worry about the economy statewide, those polled nonetheless supported several of Hochul’s proposals.
Trump’s approval rating in the Empire State climbed to 41% in the latest Siena College poll, matching his highest ever in the survey.
Hochul sparked confusion about New York’s role in deportation operations this week when her office released a list of four broad circumstances under which state officials can collaborate with federal immigration enforcement.
A new study has revealed just how much time kids spend on their phones during the school day, and it lends some credence to Hochul’s call for a cellphone ban.
Hochul’s plans for the Empire State to go green are going south as local communities refuse to build massive battery plants that would store wind and solar energy.
In a series of phone calls and a private lunch with Hochul, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries reportedly aggressively pushed for legislation that would give the governor far more time to call special elections for unoccupied legislative seats.
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler vowed to request a federal racketeering probe against New York over Albany Democrats’ plot to keep an Empire State congressional seat open – and hobble the Republican majority.
New York Attorney General Letitia James notified health care providers in a letter yesterday that they could run afoul of state anti-discrimination laws for refusing gender-affirming care to patients.
Withholding services such as hormone therapy to trans people, while offering those services to other patients, is considered illegal discrimination under state law, the letter said.
James’ warning puts hospitals at the center of a conflict between the federal government and state authorities. “Regardless of the availability of federal funding, we write to further remind you of your obligations to comply with New York State laws,” she stated.
A key source of national immigration data that policymakers, the public and hundreds of news outlets have relied on for more than 30 years went dark in January at the direction of Syracuse University, which had been housing the database online.
Federal and state officials are celebrating the opening of a first-of-its-kind hospital in New York focused on children and young people with complex disabilities, including autism.
New York City election officials are raising the stakes in their audit of Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign — a move that could foreshadow the beleaguered mayor being forced to repay $10 million.
Adams may be making strides in his administration’s war on rats, but he’s still struggling with a battle closer to home. The mayor is facing a $330 fine over an allegedly persistent rat infestation at his Brooklyn apartment building, city records show.
Adams wants to entice companies from abroad and out-of-state to fill pandemic-era vacancies in the city, announcing a pilot program he hopes will bring 15 new corporations to fill over 800,000 square feet of unused office space.
Adams refused to speak out against the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs in his latest break with Democrats – instead turning questions about local impacts toward border security.
Nearly 7,800 New Yorkers were taken to hospitals against their will for psychiatric assessments in 2024, although the majority were released without being admitted, according to a new report from the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health.
Outgoing Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan has netted endorsements for his city comptroller bid from two key New York unions — TWU and Teamsters Local 831 – becoming the first candidate in the competitive race to lock in major labor support.
Longtime Manhattan Rep. Jerrold Nadler is endorsing Scott Stringer’s campaign for mayor, making Stringer the first candidate in the 2025 race to secure support from a member of New York’s congressional delegation.
Two special NYPD units formed at the start of the Adams administration to counter gun crime continue to make illegal stops of New Yorkers at a rate far above that of regular patrol cops, a new report by the city’s $40 million federal monitor concludes.
The report, based on 2023 data by the court-appointed independent NYPD monitor, found that Neighborhood Safety and Public Safety Teams made legal stops 64% and 75% of the time, respectively, compared with 92% by colleagues in regular patrol units.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch has been cracking down on overtime hours, even as thousands of officers may respond by retiring to avoid seeing their pensions shrink and recruitment is down.
Richard Davis, who was removed last month as president of Transport Workers Union Local 100 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, has retired from the the MTA, a spokesman confirmed.
New York City officials say the fallout from a proposed federal funding freeze caused them to delay rent payments yesterday to landlords who lease apartments to tens of thousands of tenants with Section 8 housing assistance.
Assembly Member and Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani proposed an ambitious plan to build 200,000 new “affordable” homes over the next decade financed directly by the city.
Some businesses in New York City were closed yesterday as part of A Day Without Immigrants, a nationwide protest strike calling attention to the role immigrants play in the U.S. economy.
NYPD anti-crime units stopped, frisked and searched too many New Yorkers unlawfully in 2023 — and at levels that far outstripped those of regular patrol units, according to a new report from a court-appointed monitor.
The US Department of Education is launching an investigation into five colleges, including Columbia, over alleged “widespread” anti-semitic harassment following the tumultuous spring term where anti-Israel protests escalated on campuses countrywide.
An investigation into a series of episodes in which state prison workers have been rushed to hospitals has not produced evidence that the physical reactions were caused by exposure to toxic substances or the synthetic drugs rampant in the facilities.
A billboard on Interstate 787 that calls on lawmakers and state officials to more deeply examine possible health and environmental hazards emanating from the S.A. Dunn Landfill in Rensselaer was paid for by activists who have been fighting the dump for years.
Multiple Albany County employees received opened or damaged W-2 tax statements in the mail this past weekend.
A week after the special election for Saratoga Springs commissioner of public works, the hand count of write-in ballots continued yesterday, narrowing the race further, leaving Democrat and write-in candidate Hank Kuczynski with a slim, unofficial five-vote lead.
A team of mostly fourth graders from Guilderland walked away with second place in a recent robotics competition that pitted them against students who were several years older.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
