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  • Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, Inc. Mourns the Passing of Civil Rights Icon Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

    February 20, 2026 by 0 Comments

    WASHINGTON, DC (February 17, 2026) – Thomasina W. Yearwood, President and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, Inc. (TMCT), in conjunction with Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, President of the Board of Directors, issued the following statement on the passing of civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who died today at the age of 84. “I’m at a loss for words as I reflect on the sacrifices, service, and lasting impact achieved by Rev. Jackson throughout his life,” Yearwood said. “Rev. Jackson was a member of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle, where he learned and carried forward the strategies of non-violent resistance in the ongoing quest for […]

  • Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, Inc. Marks 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board Decision with an Innovative Series of Events and Displays

    October 24, 2024 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir It’s been a banner year for the officers, board of directors and staff of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust (TMCT or the Center), Inc., as the Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit organization hosted several entertaining and intellectually charged programs in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education Decision and to honor the contributions of Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall. During the first event, held on Thursday, April 25, the legacy of Thurgood Marshall was touted at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore, Maryland – the city in which Marshall was born and where he established […]

  • Rosalynn Carter showed the world a new vision of the first lady with mental health care as her primary focus

    January 18, 2024 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir   Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, an ardent supporter of women’s rights and a champion of mental health and caregiving, died peacefully on Sunday, Nov. 19, at her Plains, Georgia home, surrounded by her family. Mrs. Carter, who died at age 96, and Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, now 99, were married for 77 – the longest married presidential couple in U.S. history. Among her favorite sayings, Mrs. Carter often said, “Do what you can to show you care about others and you will make our world a better place.” Following her move from life in a rural farming community to the […]

  • For African American seniors, even 60 years after his death, JFK remains ‘our president’

    January 18, 2024 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir In the not so distant past, three portraits held a prominent place in the homes of thousands of African Americans – a fitting tribute to men who had been an integral part of the road traveled by Blacks in their long journey toward achieving equality. The first was Jesus, the quintessential model of unconditional love and hope. Second, there was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the personification of the moral crusade which led to the end of legal segregation. Finally, there was JFK – President John F. Kennedy. Including Kennedy in this triad of men may seem puzzling, particularly for those born after the turbulent 60s […]

  • Shiloh Baptist Church stands proudly as one D.C.’s oldest Black churches

    November 6, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir Shiloh Baptist Church (1500 Ninth Street, NW) was founded during the tumultuous years of the Civil War in 1863 by 21 former slaves who left Fredericksburg, Virginia with other slavery refugees under the protection of the Union Army. The North was fighting for reunification while the South was fighting for independence. However, as the war progressed, the Civil War gradually evolved into an effort to include not only reunification but also the abolition of slavery. After settling in Washington, D.C. and meeting in various homes, the 21 founding members organized a Sunday School in a small building located on L Street, between 16th and 17th Streets, […]

  • St. Louis monument honors Dred Scott’s fight for freedom

    November 6, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir Dred Scott, born in Southampton, Virginia in 1799, was a slave living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1846 with his wife and their two children, when he, like so many others before and after him, set his mind on securing their freedom. However, instead of hitching a ride on the Underground Railroad, he chose a less common means – the U.S. court system. Now, 165 years after the U.S. Supreme Court case was decided and which bears his name, Scott’s gravesite at Calvary Cemetery & Mausoleum, in St. Louis, that went unmarked for nearly 100 years after his death, serves as a memorial to his life […]

  • Sixty years later, songstress Candi Station relives the 16th Street Church bombing

    November 6, 2023 by Comments are off

    New song, ‘1963,’ pays tribute to the four girls killed in heinous attack By D. Kevin McNeir Years before she was known for classic R&B tunes like “Young Hearts Run Free,” “You Got the Love,” and “Nights on Broadway,” the legendary soul singer Candi Staton was provided with a front row seat to civil rights history. She was a young mother with two toddlers when four members of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter, with 19 sticks of dynamite, blew up the historic 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, in Birmingham, AL. The explosion killed four young girls; Addie Mae Collins (14), Carol Denise McNair (11), Carole Rosamond Robertson (14) and […]

  • Sixty years later, Americans commemorate March on Washington, lament its unfinished agenda

    October 30, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir On a picture perfect summer day, thousands gathered on the National Mall on Saturday, August 26, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, many demanding that America overcome its centuries-old history of racial inequities so that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream may finally be fulfilled. One icon in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association, said he attended the event with fears that far too many Americans underestimate the impact of poverty, hatred and racism, which are all “very alive and well.” “Yes, we have achieved significant progress since 1963 and the Civil Rights […]

  • Despite the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voter suppression continues

    October 30, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir On March15, 1965, a week after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson delivered a nationwide address in which he declared that “all Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race.” Johnson informed the nation that he was sending a new voting rights bill to Congress, and he urged Congress to vote the bill into law. Congress complied, and President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6, 1965. The impact of the bill The bill outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests and other practices that had effectively prevented southern blacks from voting. It authorized the U.S. attorney general to send federal officials to the South to register […]

  • National monument established to honor Emmett Till and mother, Mamie Till-Mobley

    October 30, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir On July 25, 2023 – what would have been the 82nd birthday of Emmett Till – President Joe Biden established a new national monument that will honor a mother and her son – two figures at the center of one of the darkest and most tragic periods in civil rights history. The monuments will span three sites across two states, each dedicated to a different part of the tragedy experienced by Emmett Till, the Black teenager abducted and murdered in 1955, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who was determined to make sure her son’s story and sacrifice were not forgotten. Biden established the monument during a […]