The Intersection Mag LLC

12/19/2025

Chief Justice John Roberts has been working to neuter the Voting Rights Act since the beginning of his career—and he may soon achieve his goal, David Daley argues. https://theatln.tc/mXEbh12S

“In 1982, when the Voting Rights Act was up for reauthorization, the Reagan Justice Department had a goal: preserve the VRA in name only, while rendering it unenforceable in practice,” Daley writes. “A young John Roberts was the architect of that campaign.” Last month, during oral arguments for Louisiana v. Callais, a majority of the conservative justices seemed to signal their willingness to forbid any use of race data in redistricting. Such a decision could lead to the end of the VRA’s Section 2 protections for minority voters, and allow states across the South to redraw congressional districts currently represented by Black Democrats into whiter, more rural, and more conservative seats—potentially before the 2026 midterms, Daley writes.

A central question of Louisiana v. Callais is whether Section 2 should prohibit election laws and procedures that have a racially discriminatory effect, or just those passed with clear racially discriminatory intent—the same question that was at the center of the 1982 reauthorization fight, Daley writes.

The Reagan administration was divided over the VRA. “Moderate Reaganites did not want to battle over the landmark law, which was popular. Ideological conservatives within DOJ spoiled for a fight. They were content to extend the act, just so long as it was impossible to use,” Daley writes.

Roberts’s job at the time was to design the Department of Justice’s VRA strategy. “Roberts’s papers from this era, housed at the National Archives, show his determination and dedication,” Daley continues at the link. “They include memos and talking points, draft op-eds, scripted answers for bosses to deliver in meetings and before Congress, and presentations he gave to senators and Hill staff. These files show how Roberts devised the messaging strategies that made it possible for the administration to claim it supported the VRA, while actually helping to neuter it—an approach he has since mastered as chief justice.”

🎨: Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Sources: Win McNamee / Getty; Bettmann / Getty; Chip Somodevilla / Getty.

12/19/2025

From The Washington Post:

“Critics warn that the plan signals an impending crackdown on political dissent under the banner of counterterrorism — one that could land large numbers of liberal activists on government watch lists and chill Americans’ First Amendment right to protest the administration’s policies.”

The Justice Department’s program to root out violent “Antifa” extremism is raising First Amendment concerns.

12/16/2025

From Our Newsletter (January 2025):

At the top of 2025, we were paying attention to the county's ambition to become a tech hub. So, we used our newsletter to inform various communities in Prince George's County about the county's ambition to build data centers to generate revenue.

The Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation put together a fact sheet on why the county was ready for data centers. Then it listed four reasons, and it cited some economic bills that would aid in the package.

Additionally, in 2023, The Chesapeake Bay Journal's article reported on how activists and environmentalists were concerned about the negative impact of data centers on their communities. We also cite that article. All documents can be viewed inside this newsletter.

The County Government believes Data Centers Can Solve It's Economic Problems

12/15/2025

From Capital B, a national news organization that covers Black people:

ARLINGTON, Virginia — “Not right now, baby girl. Now’s not the time for you.”

That was the advice that Tavorise Marks, who served in the U.S. Army for 15 years, recently had for his niece. An honors graduate of her high school’s Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program, she dreamed of joining the military.

But Marks, 42, who grew up in the city of Richmond and in Brunswick County in Virginia, doesn’t believe that the military is a particularly safe or tolerant environment for Black Americans right now.

As the Trump administration purges the U.S. Armed Forces of Black senior officers, decries diversity, and engages in military operations in the Caribbean that raise moral concerns for those in uniform, some Black veterans, including Marks, are encouraging prospective service members to find another career path, if they can. Others think that Black Americans should still enlist, believing that it could be dangerous to cede the military to the current administration.

Some say prospective service members should find another path. Others think that it could be dangerous to cede the military to the current administration.

12/15/2025

In our latest newsletter, we not only announce that Lumi AI - cofounded by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick - partnered with the Prince George's County Public School system, but also the company's other partnerships. Read more

Thank you to all of our new subscribers.

11/03/2025

The Intersection Magazine:

Baltimore, Maryland —While at the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project’s 8th annual conference, two of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s commissioners showed attendees, in the form of a slide show, a list of recommendations for a statewide policy to help remedy and repair communities injured by lynchings and racial discrimination.

Dr. Nicholas Creary, who co-wrote House Bill (HB) 307 with Del. Peña-Melnyk that helped to establish the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission (MLTRC), and Civil Rights Attorney and author of “Black Was The Ink” Michelle Coles, Esq., told the attendees that there are around 130 recommendations. Creary said the actual report is still in its early stages and that the commission has some “tweaking to do.” However, he maintained that the commission is on schedule to have it ready for the Maryland General Assembly’s viewing on Dec. 1.

“This has been a long, hard-fought process that has benefited from the contributions of so many people all around the state of Maryland,” said Coles on Oct. 25. “We're close to the finish line now.”
Maryland Historical Trust

The Committee produced a body of work aimed at repairing the horrors of lynching in Maryland

10/21/2025

From The Washington Informer:

"As the Trump administration strips away social safety nets and attacks programs that once supported working families, young Black Americans are charting their own path, heading to cities that offer opportunity, affordability and community, creating what many now call modern "freedom zones.” From Washington to Houston, check out the top cities leading this new migration."

Young Black Americans are creating 'freedom zones' in cities like Washington, Atlanta and Houston, seeking opportunity and community.

10/21/2025

From The Baltimore Beat:

“Kiara, can I see your Thing-A-Ma-Jig real quick?” asks Dyon Davidson, the founder and instructor of Beadly Speaking Kidz, a four-week jewelry making summer camp for girls.

It’s not that she can’t find the word she’s looking for — Davidson is calling out the name of a legitimate contraption, one her students have been using to make geometric shapes with wire. During week two of the program, they mastered the basics, like how to work with jump rings, which connect pendants, clasps, hooks, and more to metal jewelry. Next week, Davidson will teach them how to hand-paint their creations.

But this afternoon, the girls are free to show off what they’ve learned so far. When I walk in, Kiara Hinostraza, 12, is putting final touches on a pair of beaded ear cuffs.

“The best part was making the dangly things, and the hardest part was making the shape of the ear cuffs. They’re supposed to be exactly the same,” she told me.

“Kiara, can I see your Thing-A-Ma-Jig real quick?” asks Dyon Davidson, the founder and instructor of Beadly Speaking Kidz, a four-week jewelry making summer camp for girls. It’s not that she can’t find the word she’s looking for — Davidson is calling out the name of a legitimate contrapt...

10/21/2025

From Word In Black:

When Congress couldn’t agree on a budget to fund the government before Oct 1, officials used some budget trickery to guarantee that the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would continue through the end of the month.

But if Congress doesn’t pass a budget by Nov. 1, millions of people who put food on the table through SNAP — a disproportionate number of whom are Black — may have a lean Thanksgiving.

“Many people in America are a single-missed paycheck away from needing support from their local food banks,” Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, said when the shutdown started on Oct. 1. “A prolonged shutdown will deepen the strain, and more families will seek help at a time when food banks are already stretched due to sustained high need.”

The government shutdown could ruin Thanksgiving for millions of Americans.

10/21/2025

From The Intersection's Newsletter:

On Oct. 18, as thousands of people assembled in nearby Washington, D.C., for the “No Kings” rally, the region’s Black politicians, media representatives, and community members gathered at Fairmount Heights High School to remember the Million-Man March.

The meeting occurred inside the school’s auditorium. Madame Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, former county executive, County Executive of Howard County Calvin Ball, the first African American to hold that position, Calvin Hawkins, Daryl Barnes, and current County Executive Aisha Braveboy — to name a few — all recited their memories of the 1995 Million-Man March, and how this Black meeting shaped the rest of their lives.

Some key points taken from the meeting:

The meeting, like the Million-Man March, affirmed Black Men’s contribution to local communities, politics, media, and families.

Black women (Angela Alsobrooks, Aisha Braveboy, and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Tara H. Jackson) affirmed the need for Black men in Prince George’s County communities. They affirmed the positive role that Black men have played in their lives.

They affirmed the need for more Black solidarity amongst politicians and community members at large, especially during this time when the Trump regime is surgically dismantling communities across the country.

They affirmed the impact of the Million-Man March. Black men spoke about how that day of unity amongst Black men provided a foundation for dreaming of a better unity within Black communities.

Some believed the Million-March had a spiritual undertone to it. One speaker said it was a day of atonement. He said it was a day for Black people to forgive one another and an opportunity to forge better communal and political relationships.

The Million-Man March, along with the day of remembrance, was an act of resistance to white supremacist narratives of Black men.

The gathering also served as a time to understand the time in which Black people find themselves. Black people are under assault by the Trump administration. Local Black politicians encouraged residents to participate in forging a plan forward. Meeting organizers did encourage attendees to sign up for two coalitions that seek to lay out an agenda for Black communities, in general, and (specifically) for Black fathers and their sons. Residents of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. are encouraged to sign up. #

The Million-Man March happened nearly 30 years ago. It was led by the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan. Local leaders wanted to remember the day, and how it impacted their lives.

10/21/2025

From Politico:

Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, told a group of fellow Republicans in a text chain the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and said he has “a N**i streak,” according to a text chat viewed by POLITICO.

Ingrassia, who has a Senate confirmation hearing scheduled Thursday, made the remarks in a chain with a half-dozen Republican operatives and influencers, according to the chat.

“MLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his ‘holiday’ should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs,” Ingrassia wrote in January 2024, according to the chat.

“Jesus Christ,” one participant responded.

Paul Ingrassia’s bid to lead a whistleblower agency is set for a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

10/17/2025

From Propublica:

“If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”

But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers.

The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.