Despite the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under which Iran agreed to use its best efforts to provide safe, toll-free commercial passage for 60 days and to discuss the strait’s future administration with Oman, the U.S. attempted to establish an alternative shipping route outside Iranian control.

The U.S. also carried out new attacks on Iranian military systems around the strait. U.S. officials said the strikes targeted Iranian missile, drone, naval and coastal-defense systems in an effort to reopen the strait and reduce threats to commercial shipping. On July 13, President Donald Trump formally notified Congress that the conflict had resumed, although renewed U.S. strikes and Iranian counter strikes had begun earlier.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the strait “closed until further notice” on July 12. Iranian officials subsequently said restrictions would remain until U.S. intervention ended.

“The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war. Commercial traffic moved freely through it. What disrupted that traffic was the decision to wage war against Iran. To now invoke ‘the global economy’ as a justification for more force is beyond hypocrisy,” Reza Nasri, an international lawyer and foreign policy analyst, said in a post on X.

He cited the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international treaty the U.S. has not ratified. The convention generally protects transit passage through straits used for international navigation and provides that such passage shall not be impeded. Separate rules governing armed conflict at sea permit belligerents to inspect, divert or target particular vessels under limited circumstances when they contribute to military operations.

“A waterway that carries commerce deserves protection. A waterway transformed into a military supply corridor, arming and equipping foreign bases in the Persian Gulf littoral states so they can be used against another littoral state, is something else entirely,” Mr. Nasri argued. A littoral state is a sovereign country with a coastline bordering an ocean or sea.

Iranian political analyst and University of Tehran professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi characterized Iran as “the victim of aggression.”

“Trump violated the MOU, not Iran. Iran hasn’t taken anyone for ransom, but it won’t let oil from regimes that helped Trump/Netanyahu wage war pass through the Strait until the MoU is implemented. Pipelines take years and vast funding to build,” he said in a post on X.

In a July 13 statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as the U.S. government’s acts of aggression.

“Although only 25 days have passed since the signing of the Memorandum on the Termination of the War, the U.S. regime has openly violated every component of that agreement and, by attacking Iran’s transportation infrastructure, fishing boats, cargo vessels, meteorological facilities, and related buildings, has committed some of the most heinous war crimes,” the statement said. The Foreign Ministry also accused the U.S. of causing insecurity to return to the strait and disrupting international commercial shipping.

Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks toward U.S. military facilities in Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Amid the dispute, the Pakistan-mediated Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 17 has largely unraveled, and diplomatic negotiations have stalled. The agreement called for the immediate and permanent termination of military operations and was supposed to end the months of fighting.

In a July 14 letter to the United Nations, Iran accused the U.S. of violating the memorandum. According to Press TV, a state-owned news network in Iran, the letter documented 42 alleged breaches and called for the UN Security Council to take “immediate, effective and decisive measures” against the U.S.

In the letter, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, declared that the U.S. “is the aggressor—not the victim,” and stated that the U.S. began undermining the agreement “almost immediately” after signing. The alleged breaches included repeated military attacks against Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the unlawful revocation of licenses for Iranian oil sales, interference with Iran’s arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. government’s failure to prevent Israel’s continued military aggression in Lebanon and new sanctions.

The Strait of Hormuz is a major oil chokepoint lying between Iran and Oman. Before the war, more than one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade and roughly one-fifth of global liquefied-natural-gas trade passed through the strait. The U.S. and Iran have both exchanged strikes in or around the strait.

In a July 13 post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. would stop Iran’s ships and customers from entering or leaving the strait and said the U.S. would be “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT.” He also threatened charging a 20% fee on non-Iranian cargo receiving U.S.-protected passage through the strait.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, quickly challenged the president’s assertion that the U.S. would serve as the strait’s guardian.

“POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service. Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair,” he said in a post on X.

President Trump abandoned the proposed fee the following day, citing “highly productive conversations” with Middle Eastern leaders and saying Gulf states would instead make major investments in the U.S. The separate U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping remained in effect. Iran, which had established an authorization system for commercial passage, continued limiting vessels to approved routes. 

Iranian media outlets have accused the U.S. of striking civilian facilities, including an environmental ranger post and other infrastructure, and have reported civilian deaths. Iran also condemned the U.S. for striking near Shahid Baqaei Hospital, a children’s cancer treatment center in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, on July 15.

“This barbaric attack, reminiscent of Israel’s atrocities against healthcare facilities, caused severe suffering and anxiety upon the hospitalized children, and forced the emergency evacuation of 211 patients undergoing chemotherapy,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a post on X. “This constitutes a cowardly war crime against the most innocent of human beings—children who are bravely fighting for their lives. Those who ceaselessly preach human rights, yet deliberately turn a blind eye to the targeting of hospitals and health centers, have forfeited every shred of moral credibility.”

President Trump threatened future attacks on Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to negotiations. According to Press TV, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Military Headquarters warned in a July 16 statement that if the U.S. government’s threats are carried through, Iran would attack infrastructure throughout the region. The military command’s spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaqari called U.S. interference in the Strait of Hormuz an “inviolable red line.”

Iran’s Health Ministry reported that more than 300 people had been injured and 35 killed by midday July 15 in what it called the latest wave of U.S. aggression.

Several countries have expressed diplomatic support for Iran while also calling for de-escalation.

Russia warned that any attack on Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant would constitute “a crime and a gross violation of international law.” Iran and Russia have also called for faster implementation of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreements, including economic, energy, industrial and infrastructure projects.

China has argued that the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, subsequent sanctions and military action contributed to the current crisis. At recent UN Security Council briefings, Chinese Ambassador Sun Lei called for Iran’s sovereignty and right to peaceful nuclear energy to be respected, an end to attacks and threats and the restoration of safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, the security chief of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah, said resistance groups would participate “immediately and decisively” if war broke out against Iran, according to Press TV.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran had no current plans for negotiations and remained focused on defending the country amid continued U.S. attacks.

by Anisah Muhammad Staff Writer @MuhammadAnisah

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His family and their attorney, Ben Crump, met with Jackson County, Miss., District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath and members of her staff on July 15. The DA shared that once the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office completes its investigation, she would present the case to a grand jury, Atty.

Crump said in a news conference following the meeting. “We also agreed that we will have a mutual inspection of the cellphone with our experts and their experts,” Atty. Crump said. Former law enforcement experts are aiding independent investigation, he added.

A complete picture of what happened that day has yet to emerge. Atty. Crump said the meeting focused largely on the legal process, and the DA did not provide the family with information about the investigation.

Nolan traveled from Ocean Springs, Miss., where he grew up, to Horn Island with friends. He was pictured on a boat with three young White men, who returned to the mainland without him.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter has said investigators believe Nolan may have chosen to remain on the island and planned to return with someone else. His family questions that account, as his phone remained on the boat after it left the island.

“Every morning they wake up and there‘s a hole in their heart, and they are trying to say what happened to my son. Obviously, they feel strongly that he would not have just stayed behind.

He wouldn‘t have left his cellphone, and so we‘re trying to get to those answers,” Atty. Crump said. He previously shared that messages appeared to have been deleted from the phone.

At the news conference, Atty. Crump said the legal team received dozens of calls a day from people who were on Horn Island that day or know people who were there.

“The hope is that when this is presented to the grand jury, all relevant witnesses and evidence will be presented to them, so that we can have a fair and impartial investigation into the death of Nolan Wells,” he said. “Our lived experiences tell us that we must question everything, everybody‘s role, law enforcement‘s role. That is the lived experience of us as Black people in America.”

The family and legal team were awaiting results from an independent autopsy performed by a forensic pathologist in Washington, D.C. The official cause and manner of death have not yet been released.

Nolan’s family, friends, coaches, teammates and community celebrated his life on July 20 at a homegoing service. Former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick paid for the independent autopsy, while producer, actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry paid Nolan’s funeral expenses, according to Atty. Crump.

—Anisah Muhammad, Staff Writer

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“We are now entering the second stage of this movement, the stage of negotiation,” Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, declared during a media briefing at the University of London that was live streamed. There is a growing sentiment among Caribbean nations that “Europe owes us!”

The four-day mission to Britain from July 13-16, marked the commission’s second official visit as a collective body. It comes after a series of major international developments that supporters say have shifted reparations from a moral appeal to a growing legal and diplomatic movement.

In March, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark Ghana-led resolution declaring the Trans-Atlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and chattel slavery the “gravest crime against humanity.” The measure passed 123-0, though the United Kingdom was among 52 nations that abstained.

The vote represented another milestone in what Caribbean leaders describe as a growing international consensus that slavery and colonialism require legal remedies, not simply historical acknowledgment. Caribbean leaders say the resolution strengthens the commission’s position that reparations have moved beyond moral appeals into the realm of international law and diplomacy.

Sir Beckles, an internationally recognized historian, said the movement has moved decisively beyond symbolic gestures. “We have had an avalanche of apologies—governments, corporations, institutions, churches, and families that were directly enriched are offering apologies,” he stated. “Now those apologies must become programs of reparatory justice.”

The CRC delegation included Dorbrene O’Marde, chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission; Eric Phillips, chairman of the Guyana Reparations Committee;

Professor Verene Shepherd, vice chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Ambassador David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to CARICOM, and Dr. Ron Daniels, convenor of the U.S. National African Reparations Commission.

The London mission followed the June 2026 High-Level Consultative Conference on Reparations in Accra, Ghana, which brought together governments, legal scholars, international organizations, and civil society leaders to develop a unified strategy for advancing reparatory justice throughout Africa and the African diaspora.

Earlier in July, CARICOM Heads of Government approved the revised “CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice: A Manifesto for the Coming Enlightenment,” strengthening its legal arguments and emphasizing the disproportionate impact of slavery and colonialism on women and girls.

Armed with the revised reparations framework and strengthened by recent international developments, commission leaders arrived in London expecting former colonial powers to engage the issue directly. Instead, Britain’s decision to abstain from the United Nations vote underscored the political challenges that remain.

Members of the CARICOM Reparations Commission expressed disappointment that Britain abstained from the United Nations vote. “We are calling for a dialogue of decency,” Sir Beckles said. “For us, this is a moral and ethical matter.”

As the CARICOM Reparations Commission outlined its priorities, members emphasized that reparatory justice extends well beyond financial compensation. They argued that unfinished decolonization remains one of the Caribbean’s greatest reparatory issues. Nearly 20 British, French, Dutch and American territories throughout the region remain under colonial administration.

“Reparations is a legal remedy,” Sir Beckles argued. “The first component of repair has to be the recovery of nationhood, national sovereignty, and self-determination.”

Supporters and advocates of reparatory justice say the movement has reached a turning point. Following years of apologies from universities, churches, financial institutions and corporations that profited from slavery.

Caribbean leaders insist the next phase must involve direct negotiations with European governments over legal responsibility and concrete programs of repair. For the commission, acknowledgment without meaningful action leaves the legacy of slavery largely untouched.

Ambassador Comissiong said Caribbean leaders sought reparations as part of independence negotiations decades ago, but Britain rejected those appeals. “We are determined,” he said, “that the colonies that still exist today will pursue reparations and decolonization together, ensuring that compensation for centuries of colonial exploitation becomes part of their journey to full independence.”

The delegation also met with senior leaders of the Church of England, which has acknowledged that it profited from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and has begun exploring reparatory measures. “The Church of England, in doing what it did, sent a very positive signal to the rest of British society and to the British government in particular,” Sir Beckles said.

Commission members reaffirmed that repatriation remains a longstanding demand, particularly among Rastafari communities. “We believe that the governments that participated in the kidnapping and theft of African people should come to the table to negotiate how those who wish to return home may do so and be resettled,” Eric Phillips said.

The divine perspective

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, raised the question of what the UK and other European countries owe to Black people they held in bondage and continue to colonize.

In a message he delivered August 5, 2017, titled “Reparations: What Does The U.K. And Europe Owe Us?” Minister Farrakhan said, “The subject matter that you desired for me to address is, ‘Reparations: What Does the United Kingdom and Europe Owe to Us?’

And by ‘us,’ we mean the sons and daughters of Africa that are in the Caribbean, or from the Caribbean; the sons and daughters of Africa from the continent of Africa, and those from Africa—the sons and daughters of Africa—in European capitals.”

Minister Farrakhan also stated, “What does the United Kingdom and Europe owe to those whom they formerly enslaved and colonized?  Well, if the Biblical law of justice is applied, ‘a life for a life’: 

Tens of millions of us have been destroyed in the Middle Passage of the Transatlantic Slave Trade; tens of millions of us have been destroyed on the African continent. 

If Europe were to pay for the lives of Black and Brown and Red and Yellow people who have lost their lives under colonialism and slavery, I don’t think too many Europeans, White Europeans, would be left if that law were applied,” he said.

“And then when you think of what Europe gained from our enslavement: When I was last in London—they don’t allow me to come there now; but, when I was last there, what a beautiful capital city London was, London is, as the capital of the British Empire.  What a beautiful city Paris is, and Amsterdam and Berlin, and Rome and Palermo. 

But all those capitals, all the stones in the streets, all the beautiful buildings that your artists and craftsmen have built, were built on the backs of those whom your ancestors enslaved and colonized,” Minister Farrakhan continued.  

Student Minister David Muhammad is the Nation of Islam Student Minister for Trinidad and the Eastern Caribbean. He is also chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Board of Directors of the National Library and Information Systems Authority. He told The Final Call that in his view, the CRC’s 10-point plan aligns with the Nation of Islam’s historic demands for freedom, justice and equality.

The CRC’s 10-point plan includes: a full and formal apology; an indigenous peoples development program; repatriation and resettlement; restitution of cultural heritage and cultural reconnection; remedying the public health crisis; capacity-building and development through education and training;

Compensation for gender-based violence and assault on family; psychological rehabilitation; the right to sovereignty and development: technology, innovation and entrepreneurship and debt cancellation, monetary compensation and decolonization.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad introduced The Muslim Program which includes, “What the Muslims Want,” and “What the Muslims Believe,” which is published on the inside back page of  The Final Call.

The Muslim Program calls for land sufficient to establish an independent territory where Black people can build their own economic base, educational institutions and businesses within a Nation of our own

In “What the Muslims Want,” in Point Number 4 it states: “We want our people in America whose parents or grandparents were descendants from slaves, to be allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own—either on this continent or elsewhere.

We believe that our former slave masters are obligated to provide such land and that the area must be fertile and minerally rich. We believe that our former slave masters are obligated to maintain and supply our needs in this separate territory for the next 20 to 25 years—until we are able to produce and supply our own needs.

“Since we cannot get along with them in peace and equality, after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced, we believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced upon us by white America, justifies our demand for complete separation in a state or territory of our own.”

Student Minister David Muhammad emphasized that the Nation of Islam teachings are rooted in self-determination, self-help, and the responsibility to “do for self.”

He referenced the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s 2004 Saviours’ Day address titled, “Reparations: What Does America and Europe Owe? What Does Allah (God) Promise?”

He said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan made clear that while governments bear responsibility for repairing the damage caused by slavery and colonialism, Black people also have a responsibility to participate in their own restoration.

While insisting that governments and institutions enriched by slavery have a moral and legal obligation to repair the damage they caused, the Nation of Islam has consistently taught that Black people must simultaneously rebuild themselves through faith, education, economic development and self-determination.

“What do you owe?  You owe us everything,” Minister Farrakhan said in his 2017 message.  “But of course, you can’t pay with all your lives; you can’t pay with the ill-gotten wealth that you have, and what you have stored away for the ‘rainy day’—but you must pay. 

So reparatory justice is the cry of all of the Caribbean; it’s the cry of Africa, it’s the cry of Asia.  It’s the cry of those who are the sons and daughters of those who paid with their lives, and with their slave labor and their colonial labor,” he said.

Building a broader movement

While Caribbean leaders focused on negotiations with Europe, reparations advocates in the United States discussed expanding representation in the growing international movement.  The London mission also highlighted efforts to unite reparations movements across the African diaspora.

Dr. Ron Daniels, convenor of the National African Reparations Commission (NARC), addressed representation for the African diaspora in the United States, noting that the revised framework seeks to include stateless people within the Global African partnership on reparations.

“We are delighted that our relationship with the CARICOM Reparations Commission has resulted in an increased awareness of the need to provide a formula for stateless people like we in the United States to be represented,” Dr. Daniels stated.

The Commission also welcomed Martinique as the newest associate member of CARICOM and expressed its commitment to integrating all Caribbean territories, including French, Dutch, and British colonies, into the reparation’s framework.

Professor Verene Shepherd, who also serves as vice chair of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, emphasized the importance of Article 15 of the International Convention in monitoring territories that remain under colonial administration and ensuring that decolonization remains an international priority.

Looking ahead, Sir Beckles noted that King Charles III has previously acknowledged that reparations are “a conversation whose time has come.” Commission leaders said they expect reparatory justice, sovereignty and decolonization to figure prominently when Commonwealth leaders gather in Antigua and Barbuda later this year.

For Sir Hillary Beckles, reparatory justice is ultimately about completing a process that should have begun generations ago.

“Were I the king,” he said, “I would arrive in Antigua and Barbuda and say … ‘The time has come to let the people go … to usher in the decolonization process … to break the chains of imperial governance.”

Final Call staff contributed to this report.

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Her impact has reached Black women far and wide, from social justice activist Tamika Mallory to photojournalist Monica Morgan to media personality Vicki Dillard, all of whom extended their love and condolences to the Farrakhan family and to the Nation of Islam on social media.

The Final Call spoke to several women who described Mother Khadijah as a woman of faith who submitted entirely to Allah, as a humble woman who never sought praise or recognition, someone who led by example and who always made those in her presence feel seen and loved.

The list of adjectives used to describe her is long. She was dignified, graceful, wise, compassionate, loving, gentle, strong, elegant, modest, disciplined, patient and courageous. She was a dedicated mother, a selfless helper, an encouraging mentor and beautiful inside and out. 

“Her faith in Allah Who intervened in our affairs, in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, and His Messenger-Messiah the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Their Servant among us, her husband, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, continue to add strength to our strength and faith to our faith beyond her physical presence,”

Sister A’ishah Muhammad, Student National Auditing Supervisor, a member of the Shura Executive Council and former National M.G.T. and G.C.C. Captain, told The Final Call. She described Mother Khadijah’s presence as “strong yet peaceful, firm yet loving.”

“Her keen observation and sense of humor was always on time in a good and wonderful way, and a smile and a wink from Mother was absolutely everything!” she continued. “Mother Khadijah was honest and truthful as a woman of noble character who was always found saying what she meant and meaning what she said.”

She thanked Allah for Mother Khadijah’s tremendous sacrifice and dedication. “We are forever thankful to the Farrakhan family for sharing such a magnificent woman of Allah with a grateful nation.

We will miss her physically, but her quiet voice and her loving spirit will remain in those whose lives she touched. May Allah continue to strengthen and comfort the Farrakhan family as we celebrate her life and legacy,” she said.

Sister Aminah Bayyinah Muhammad is the Executive Administrative Assistant for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and is a member of the N.O.I. Shura Executive Council. She shared with The Final Call that she first met Mother Khadijah in 1991 at The Palace in Chicago.

Sister Aminah explained that she was coming to get measured for her regulation M.G.T. uniform. To her surprise, Mother Khadijah took her measurements for her uniform. “She was just a kind person and she remained that same person, kind, genuine and down to earth,” said Sister Aminah.

Mother Khadijah made Sister Aminah her beige princess uniform herself. “During all of my years knowing her, Mother Khadijah remained that same humble and beautiful person. She had a heart of gold,” she added.

An example to the sisterhood

For the women serving as the Nation’s Student Regional M.G.T. (Muslim Girls Training) Captains, Mother Khadijah is remembered as a true mother figure.

“Her life has influenced my thinking, strengthened my faith and expanded my understanding of what is possible when a woman submits herself to Allah and dedicates her life to service,” Mid-Atlantic Student Regional M.G.T. Captain Saadiqa Muhammad told The Final Call.

“Mother Khadijah Farrakhan’s legacy is not only found in the work she has done beside the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. It is found in the countless women whose lives she has quietly transformed through her example,” she added.

Western Regional Student M.G.T. Captain Sajdah Karriem recounted one conversation that speaks to Mother Khadijah’s character.  “She said, ‘Look, how beautiful the women look.’ She said, ‘Look at the garment that I designed.’

She said, ‘I love to see the sisters in the garment.’ And I told her, I said, ‘Mother, thank you for dressing us. You make garments that’s fit for a queen.’ And she smiled and said, ‘Thank you.’”

“We can never forget about her. We have to make sure we tell the story of Mother Khadijah and keep telling it … and pass it down to generation and generation,” she added.

Mother Khadijah reminded Southwest Regional Student M.G.T. Captain Maalikah Muhammad of her own mother, who made all her children feel like her favorite. “In the midst of whatever was going on, she would take the time either to touch my hand or give me a wink or just acknowledge that she saw me and nod her head and smile,” she said.

As a student captain, she feels the same duty to reflect Allah’s love, especially to those who never met Mother Khadijah or Minister Farrakhan.

“If I have the opportunity to share their spirit, which is Allah’s spirit, … because of what was put into me from them, then that is a blessing, and I take that as a tremendous responsibility,” she said.

Seventh Regional Student M.G.T. Captain Aaniyah Muhammad saw Mother Khadijah as an example of a righteous woman who embodied the women in scripture. “She showed us that a woman can be gentle without being weak, humble without thinking less of herself and powerful without seeking attention.

Her life has left footprints that many of us are trying to follow,” she said. “I pray that as I continue to grow and serve, some of the qualities I witnessed in Mother Khadijah will become evident in my own life. That, to me, would be one of the greatest honors I could ever hope to achieve.”

Southern Regional Student M.G.T. Captain Nusaybah Muhammad had been serving on Mother Khadijah’s security detail since the 1990s, and she had the opportunity of serving Mother Khadijah shortly before she returned to Allah.

“As I was feeding her food, she would look back at me and say, ‘Now you eat some. Now you have some.’ And that was so precious to me, because she wasn’t just concerned about herself. She was concerned about me, even though she was in pain,” she said.

“Mother was a soldier who stood in rank striving to be pleasing to Allah,” she shared, adding that Mother Khadijah is the foundation upon which the Nation was rebuilt.

“May Allah forever bless her legacy,” she said. “As long as I live, whoever I will touch, I will forever give examples of the power of this great and powerful woman, Mother Farrakhan. I’ll always love her.”

Historic contributions

Mother Khadijah was always at her husband’s side, especially during major historic events such as the historic 1995 Million Man March on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Fredrica Bey, and her daughter, Newark, N.J. City Councilwoman Amina Bey played an important role in helping to get Black men to the March. They started the organization, “Women in Support of the Million Man March.” Mother Khadijah visited their newly opened center in August 1997.

“She thanked us for coming together as women and building an institution and building a facility that serves the people, children and families,” Fredrica Bey shared. “What a role model for women everywhere, not only Muslim women, but women throughout the diaspora.”

Amina Bey remembered how proud Mother Khadijah was of their work. “We were honored to be in her presence that day. I carry a little bit of that day with me every day since,” she said.

She expressed how Black women are often told they are too much, but although Mother Khadijah championed the traditional roles of women, she also “encouraged us not to make ourselves small to make other people feel comfortable.”

She shared her gratitude, love, prayers and condolences. “We want to make sure that everyone knows that on behalf of Women in Support of the Million Man March here in Newark, New Jersey, we will continue to pray for Mother Khadijah, for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, for the entire family and for the Nation of Islam, because that’s our sister, too, and she’s our family, too, and we love her,” she said.

Former National M.G.T. Captain Charlene Muhammad met Mother Khadijah in 1986. “We were not in uniform when we came in. We were kind of like a hodgepodge kind of group, and we just had on anything,” she said. “Mother Khadijah set up the M.G.T. factory to help us look as M.G.T. should look.” 

She affectionately remembers Mother Khadijah as “the wind beneath Minister Farrakhan’s wings”: a powerful, unseen force that lifts and inspires. “I’m not saying that you couldn’t see her, but she was just that force, that powerful force [beside] the Minister to inspire him to become the man he is today,” she said.

Sister Loray Muhammad, wife of the late Brother Abdul Hafeez Muhammad, who served as the Nation’s Eastern Regional Student Minister, joined the Nation in 1982 and became a minister’s wife shortly after. Because there was no handbook for being a minister’s wife, she observed and emulated Mother Khadijah.

She saw Mother Khadijah as another mother. “Every woman who you admire and who you appreciate becomes your mother, because there’s something that you’re going to learn from that woman that you might not have learned from your mother,” she said.

“When you come into the mosque, you need someone to look at to know that when I grow up, I’m going to be like that person. If I strive, I can be like that person. You need a model, and that’s what she did for me. She was my model.”

The next generation of Muslim women

Young Black Muslim girls and sisters in the M.G.T. Vanguard class, ages 16-35, are striving to follow in Mother Khadijah’s footsteps, recognizing the example she set and the path she paved.

Sister Qayyimah Muhammad, 12, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, admired Mother Khadijah for her generosity, creativity and fashion.

“I know there were probably a lot of responsibilities, but whenever you saw her, she always had a smile on her face,” she said. “She shows you that no matter what you go through, you always will make it through when you trust in God, Allah.”

Mother Khadijah was a big part of Sister Janiah X’s goals this year in shaping the woman she is striving to become. Hearing Mother Khadijah speak for the first time years ago and the love she exuded made her cry. “It was someone who I often saw, but seeing her that close and hearing her speak, … it really, really struck me, and I was just in awe,” she told The Final Call.

Sis. Janiah X, an M.G.T. Vanguard at Mosque No. 29 in Miami, revered Mother Khadijah’s sense of fashion. “She literally had a crown on her head every time we saw her, and I think for me that represents how bold we should be and feel in our dress as women who follow the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and honoring what it is that Master Fard Muhammad came to give us,” she said.

“Insha’Allah (God-willing), each and every single one of us who were impacted by her, who continue to be impacted by her, can continue the work that she left us,” she added.

New York M.G.T. Vanguard Sis. Jadayah Muhammad recalled a story on Minister Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah’s travels to a country where women were praying in the heat while men had air conditioning.

“She gracefully but gently led a revolution where she’s like, ‘No, I’m going to be in the A.C.,’ and the Minister stood by that, and the other women went and followed her,” she said. “We set the standard for what kind of treatment the woman should receive.”

“Without yelling and screaming or kicking and fussing, … she was able to [demonstrate] how she herself is willing to be treated,” she added. Mother Khadijah also showed that “the place for women in Islam is not nine paces behind your husband, but right next to him,” she said.

Growing up, Sis. Khaliah Muhammad, an M.G.T. Vanguard and student officer in Atlanta, always saw Minister Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah as “the prime example for what a married couple and what a healthy marriage should be.”

“I didn’t have a whole lot of married couples in my family, and even those that were married, unfortunately, they did not stay married. And then of those in my family that stayed married, unfortunately, it was not necessarily the healthiest marriage dynamic. And so, the biggest aspect was learning about what she did in her marriage and as a wife,” she said.

Many of the Vanguard, including Qadira Muhammad in Oklahoma City, acknowledged Mother Khadijah’s impact in not only creating Newell Apparel, which manufactures the official uniforms of the M.G.T., but also in creating the specialized Vanguard uniform.

One of Mother Khadijah’s lasting impacts on the children of the Nation of Islam is her Children’s Village, a staple at the annual Saviours’ Day convention. Sis. Qadira credited the village with gifting her a prayer rug and a small Holy Qur’an. “When I was praying on my prayer rug after hearing of her transition, it was the prayer rug from the Children’s Village,” she said. 

She questioned how she could be like Mother Khadijah. “How can I be a stronger M.G.T., a stronger woman, in the sense of my relationship with Allah and my confidence in myself?” she questioned.

“I think her legacy and impact is further than even some people realize or know, because there are people who may not even know who Mother Khadijah is; they may not even know the Nation of Islam yet, but her legacy and impact has made ripples.”

We have a responsibility, especially the women, but also all of us in general, to not just uplift her name, but to live what she stood for and to continue her legacy and her impact. I pray that we carry that torchlight forward of Mother Khadijah, of all of the great believers who have come before us.”

The post Mother Khadijah Farrakhan: The standard for women  appeared first on Final Call News.

Beauty. Grace. Style. Dignity. Compassion. Strength. Love.

Mother Khadijah Farrakhan embodied each of those attributes. The beloved wife of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, matriarch of the Farrakhan family and First Lady of the Nation of Islam (N.O.I.), returned to Allah (God) on June 27 at 90 years of age, leaving behind a grateful Nation and family.

Known and loved by many, Mother Khadijah was a humanitarian, teacher, fashion designer and world traveler. She is remembered by the Nation of Islam as a “Mother of the Faithful,” defined, in her words, as: “Being true to your God and being true to your religion.”

Most importantly, Mother Khadijah was a servant of Allah (God) and a student and follower of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam.

On the return of his childhood sweetheart, companion, helper and wife of 72 years, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, expressed in a personal conversation that he is very glad for the life Mother Khadijah gave him, her family and her Nation. Mother Khadijah will give life to the world, he said.

Minister Farrakhan also shared that Allah has him in His grip, and He feels the strength of Allah’s arms around him. He expressed that he is not in pain or grief and though saddened, he is not sorrowful.

In the Nation of Islam’s official statement announcing Mother Khadijah’s return to Allah, Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to Minister Farrakhan and member of the N.O.I. Shura Executive Council, expressed the following words:

“We thank Allah for the precious life of a loving wife, mother, a faithful, devoted follower of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Mother Khadijah will forever be cherished and remembered.

May Allah give His unequaled comfort to the family as we mourn this tremendous loss and lift the family in our prayers and thoughts. Allah, there is no God but He, He gives life and to Him is our eventual return.”

Mother Khadijah was born Betsy Ross, on November 26, 1935. On September 12, 1953, she married her childhood sweetheart, then known as Louis Eugene Walcott.

Upon hearing the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad for the first time in 1955, Mother Khadijah did not hesitate to accept the message.  “She got up and went to the back and was joining on,” Minister Farrakhan said in Part 7 of his 2013 series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

“I was still sitting in my chair. I wasn’t quite, y’know, ready. And my uncle came with his beautiful West Indian accent, and he said, ‘Get up, your wife done gone already. Get up!’” From there, Minister Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah joined the Nation together.

“My wife has been with me throughout all of my striving. She knew me in the days of my ignorance, and she knows me in the days of my struggle. She stood by me.

When I decided to rebuild the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, she was the first in my family to say, ‘Go on with it. I’m with you,’” Minister Farrakhan shared in a personal video montage during a celebration of his 92nd birth anniversary in May 2025. 

He also shared words on naming his wife, “Khadijah.”

“I would like her to wear the name of the wife of that servant of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, Khadijah. From this day forward, she will be known in this community and any other as Khadijah Farrakhan Muhammad,” he said.

To their beloved union, nine children were born: Sister Betsy Jean, Sister Maria, Sister Donna, Brother Louis Jr. (may Allah be pleased), Brother Joshua (may Allah be pleased), Student Supreme Captain Brother Mustapha, Sister Fatima, Sister Khallada and Brother Abnar.

In helping her husband in his mission to rebuild the N.O.I. and the work of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Mother Khadijah assisted with editing The Final Call newspaper, which was first published in the basement of the couple’s home in Chicago in 1979.  Minister Farrakhan said she was the first National Secretary, and she accounted for every penny!

As a fashion designer, applying the sewing skills she had first cultivated as a child, she created uniforms for Muslim women of the N.O.I., including the special uniforms worn by the M.G.T. Vanguard class. She founded Newel Apparel, which manufactures the official uniforms of the Muslim women, and she has represented the Nation in official delegations on the world stage.

At her 90th birth anniversary in November 2025, her youngest daughter, Sister Khallada Farrakhan, described her mother as having a pure heart of God, a love for humanity and a sense of community, never leaving anyone out and accepting others as family.

Mother Khadijah’s love extended to children. In the early 2000s, she established Mother Khadijah’s Children’s Village, a staple at the annual Saviours’ Day convention, ensuring the children in the N.O.I. have a fun, enjoyable and educational time at Saviours’ Day.

She was a beautiful and wonderful example of womanhood to so many. For Mother’s Day 2006, Mother Khadijah shared answers to questions posed by then-Final Call Managing Editor Dora Muhammad. Here are some of the insights she shared on various topics.

On motherhood: “First, we must understand that each child is an individual that has different wants and needs. We must know, as a mother, that you are a born nurturer of your family. And always keep the principles of Islam as your guide.”

On marriage and what helps sustain her commitment and love of her husband’s mission: “My love and continued love for Allah and His Messenger, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and my love and faith in Islam has helped to sustain me and my support for my husband.”

On women who want to adopt or become single moms because they do not believe they will ever find a suitable mate: “We never give up hope on marriage, for there is someone for everyone. However, if you choose to adopt, remember these words: You are a born nurturer with or without a father in your home. Happy adopting!!!”

As news of her return to Allah was released, heartfelt tributes and sentiments flooded social media and news outlets. “Mother Khadijah was a beautiful and loving Queen who served her family, community and inspired many.

Each time you were in her presence, you felt her love, grace and brilliance. Her contributions to the Minister and the Nation is truly immeasurable. She will be truly missed,” L. Londell McMillan, attorney and owner of The Source, wrote on the outlet’s website.

Mother Khadijah Farrakhan lives on through the example she set for Black women and girls and the lives she transformed. She is remembered for her loyalty to her husband and to her Nation, her unwavering faith in Allah and her loving and kind spirit to the human family. May Allah (God) be pleased with our Mother of the Faithful.

The Final Call will continue to pay tribute to our beloved Mother Khadijah Farrakhan in an upcoming edition.—Anisah Muhammad, Staff Writer

The post Mother Khadijah Farrakhan: A Virtuous Woman of Allah (God) appeared first on Final Call News.

“There is no such thing as living in peace with White Americans. You and I have tried without success,” He wrote in his book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” in a chapter titled, “Separation! Independence!” on page 204.

“Night and day they are seeking a chance to beat and kill you, while at the same time you are out seeking to show them how much you love them,” he added. “A very foolish people you are. How can anyone, other than you (so-called Negroes) love an open enemy?”

Black people’s 471-year sojourn in America has been marked by slavery, suffering, death, and mistreatment at the hands of White people and the U.S. government.  And, as the country prepares to celebrate and commemorate the 250th  anniversary of its founding, it is becoming more evident and clearer that Black and White still cannot coexist in peace.  

Anti-Black incidents

During the first half of 2026, White people have shouted racial slurs at and have attacked Black people who were simply living their lives.

Below is a timeline compilation of just some of those incidents.

Feb. 13: Kenneth K. Smith, a 40-year-old White man in Branson, Missouri, allegedly approached a Black man who was standing outside his own apartment complex, struck him in the face, kicked him multiple times and referred to him as “gorilla.”

“In security footage a male, identified as Kenneth, is seen walking up to Victim 1 and punching him in the face. Victim 1 is seen falling to the ground and remains laying on the ground as Kenneth begins to kick him several times,” the probable cause statement says.

“Victim 1’s arms are seen rigid and sticking straight up as if they are locked into place and he is unable to move them. After kicking him, Kenneth walks away.”

Police believed Mr. Smith had recently moved to the apartment complex and called the attack “unprovoked.” Still, despite a criminal history going back to 2005, Mr. Smith was arrested and charged with third-degree assault, sparking anger that the incident was not charged as a “hate crime.”

Feb. 19: Two White men livestreamed an encounter with a Black woman on a Manhattan, New York, neighborhood street corner. During the encounter, one of the men demanded a kiss.  The woman refused him.

He then used racial slurs and burned her boots with a lighter. The men were charged with harassment, criminal tampering, arson and hate crimes in the form of criminal mischief and menacing and attempted assault, according to The New York Times.

Feb. 27: A Black student at the University of California, Irvine was walking on campus when a group of teenagers allegedly spat at him, shouted racial slurs and hit him with an electric bike, causing injuries to the student’s ankle.  The incident was investigated as a hate crime. 

“They were close enough that they were spitting on me, trying to grab at me, trying to do all sorts of heinous things,” the student, who remained anonymous, said to NBC Los Angeles. “I’m being called ‘monkey,’ ‘blackie,’ completely out of my name.  Obviously, this is stuff I never expected to hear.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles (CAIR-LA) issued a statement condemning the “anti-Black hate crime.”

“This disturbing attack is a reminder that racism and hate continue to endanger African American students and undermine the safety of our campuses.  No student should have to fear being chased, assaulted, and subjected to racial slurs simply for existing in their own community,” Amr Shabaik, CAIR-LA’s legal director, said in the statement.

March 2: As Jama Abdi Said, a Black man from Africa, entered his apartment in Grand Island, Nebraska, Johnathon A. Dimmitt, a 35-year-old White man, allegedly approached him and said, “You f***ing Black guy, you’re dead,” according to local media outlets.

Mr. Dimmitt allegedly pointed an unknown object believed to be a gun at Mr. Said. Mr. Said then ran to a neighbor’s apartment, where Mr. Dimmitt kicked the door in. Mr. Dimmitt was charged with terroristic threats/hate crime, criminal trespass and criminal mischief.

March 10: A Black woman pulled into an Aldi parking lot in Cascade Charter Township in Kent County, Michigan, when a jeep driven by 55-year-old White man Randall Lee Miller cut her off. The man allegedly hurled racial slurs. He was arraigned on hate crime charges.  CAIR-MI welcomed the charges.

“Acts of racism targeting Black Americans are part of a broader pattern of hate that must be addressed with seriousness and accountability,” Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-MI, said in a statement.

“Standing against anti-Black racism is essential to building a just society. We encourage community leaders and residents alike to speak out against hate in all its forms and support those who are targeted,” he added.

April 3: Danville, Illinois, Alderman Jaleel Jones and two of his cousins were fishing in Paris, Ill., when three White men pulled up in a white pickup truck. The men allegedly hurled racial slurs. 

One pulled out a shotgun, threatened to “blow” Alderman Jones’ head off and discharged multiple rounds. One of the Black men allegedly pulled out a gun he owned legally and shot the armed man three times.

“After the dude tells his brother to come down there and blow our heads off, the dude with the shotgun comes down there and puts it towards me and my other cousin,” Alderman Jones said in an interview with Illinois Public Media.  “Me and my other cousin, we just ran because [we thought] we’re gonna get shot.  And that’s when my cousin had returned fire towards them.”

He recounted that after he and his cousin ran, gunshots went off. The two ran behind some houses and heard the pickup truck rev up. Shortly after, they heard the shotgun go off. 

All three White men were arrested and received hate crime charges. CAIR-Chicago welcomed the charges.

“This incident is a stark reminder that racially motivated violence remains a serious threat in our communities. The explicit anti-Black hatred reportedly expressed before and during the attack underscores the urgent need for accountability and for continued efforts to combat racism in all its forms,” the organization said in a statement.

April 14: A Black woman was delivering mail in a Miami neighborhood when Lourdes Portugues, a 34-year-old White Latina woman, allegedly used a racial slur and sprayed the woman with a water hose. 

Ms. Portugues then reportedly entered her SUV and intentionally sped the vehicle towards the Black woman and repeatedly attempted to hit her. She was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with prejudice.

May 9: Kyle Parrish, a White man, allegedly knocked on the door of a Black veteran, Dr. Otis Lane, in Sumter County, Florida. When Dr. Lane, who is 80 years old, went outside, Mr. Parrish made a remark on how people of his kind were “not wanted here” and punched him in the face. Mr. Parrish was arrested and charged with battery on a person 65 or older.

Dr. Lane shared reflections of the incident, according to the Fox TV station in Orlando, Fla. “Listen, I was born in the South under Jim Crow laws, and I’ve had to deal with racism all my life.  I didn’t get to be Dr. Otis C. Lane by accident.

It was through sweat and tears, and in some cases, I was made to feel degraded as a second-class citizen,” Dr. Lane said. “And I reached this level in my life. The last thing I would think would be a young White man that would come into my development and target me and assault me.”

June 7: Jeffrey Kinzer, a White man, allegedly started yelling the N-word at a Black family during their gathering in Leesburg, Georgia. He left the scene only to return wearing body armor and carrying an AR-15. He opened fire on the Black family. 

One of the Black individuals, a Marine veteran, grabbed his gun and returned fire, wounding Mr. Kinzer.  Mr. Kinzer was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. He was placed on administrative leave as a lead firefighter at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting the investigation. The Black family and their attorney expressed the desire for additional charges.

“We do not understand or agree with the initial decisions made by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to only charge Jeffrey Tyler Kinzer with one count of aggravated assault,” the Law Office of J.B. Collins, P.C. said in a statement. “In addition, we do not understand why Jeffrey Tyler Kinzer received a bond in the amount of $5,000 prior to any of the victims being notified prior to the granting of this bond.”

June 13: A nine-year-old Black boy in Naperville, Illinois, was building a fort when a girl damaged the fort. The boy went to the girl’s residence and knocked on the door. Jeffrey Feigenbaum, a 29-year-old White man, allegedly yelled a racial slur at the boy, pushed him and threw his bike.   He received hate crime charges, along with misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct.

The divine solution

These incidents spanning across the first half of 2026 demonstrate that anti-Black hatred and hostility remain present in American society, despite promises of so-called racial progress.

More than half of all hate crimes are committed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or ancestry, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer for hate crime incidents reported between June 2021 and June 2026. Of race-based hate crimes, about 50% are anti-Black.

So, while cookouts, parades, barbeques, and the pomp and circumstance surround the upcoming July 4 “holiday,” and the Semiquincentennial anniversary of America commences, peaceful co-existence between Black and White people is looking more unlikely and improbable.

When talking about race relations in the country, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, used the metaphor of the “natural seed” versus the “transgenic” seed.

“Coexistence between transgenic seed and organic seed is impossible because transgenic seed contaminates and eventually overcomes organic seed. … In other words: The ‘grafted thing’ is disagreeable to live with in peace. There must be separation, for one will absolutely destroy the other,” he said in Part 38 of his 2013 weekly broadcast series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

“If there is no coexistence between the natural seed and the transgenic (altered) seed, and the altered seed will destroy the natural seed, then the same is also true in our race relations,” he further stated.

“Because race relations will continue to get worse, because the government cannot provide food, clothing, shelter and jobs for us anymore! As we sit around, waiting for somebody else to do this for us.

We are making our former slave masters and their children angrier with us; and they are becoming completely disagreeable to live with in peace! And that is why we must be separated if we don’t want to continue to suffer great loss!”

Separation is a divine solution from Allah (God) Himself. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad accused the former White slave master of continuing to hold Black people as hostages and prey.

“If White America wanted to free her slaves, she could easily do so,” He wrote in His book, “The Fall of America,” in a chapter titled, “The Fall of America Foretold, Separation is the Answer,” on page 165.

America’s actions show two things, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote: one, “she wishes to cause fear among the so-called Negroes, with a display of many deadly weapons, but Allah is removing the fear”; and two, “she fears to approach her unarmed slave unless she is armed.”

He then advised Black people on what they should be doing at this time, which is “seeking some of this earth on which to live and build an independent nation out of self.” 

“The White master only offers us a job. Allah, God, has come in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are due forever, to free us,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote. “The Negro slave must be freed! This is the meaning of the resurrection.”

The post 250 years later, Black and White still cannot coexist in peace appeared first on Final Call News.

“She was like, ‘Mom, I haven’t spoken to Derek,’ and I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’” his mother, Nishae Samuel, said to 11Alive, Atlanta’s NBC affiliate.  She said her son had gone to the store with friends but stayed behind after the group separated, 11Alive reported.

Derek Samuel disappeared after leaving a Target store in East Point, Georgia, on April 29.  His family filed a missing person’s report on April 30.  Human remains later found in a wooded area behind an apartment complex were believed by police and family members to be Derek Samuel’s.

Despite being missing for an entire month, Mr. Samuel’s story did not reach national media outlets. 

Research shows that when a young White woman or girl goes missing, she receives massive news coverage and broad public attention. But when the skin color and/or gender change, a different picture is painted.

More than 560,000 people were reported missing in 2023, according to the Black and Missing Foundation, Inc.  Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population but account for nearly 40% of all missing persons.

“Thousands of people are reported missing every year in the U.S.  And while not every case will get widespread media attention, the coverage of White” and non-White victims “is far from proportionate,” the foundation says on a webpage displaying the numbers.

In recent years, more attention has been on missing and murdered Black women and girls, highlighting racial disparities between media coverage and law enforcement search efforts for White women versus Black women. But Black men are often another forgotten population.

“Not only are missing Blacks and missing men less likely at the outset to garner media coverage than other types of missing persons, but they also receive a lower intensity of coverage when their stories are, in fact, picked up by news outlets,” Zach Sommers.

A law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, wrote in an article analyzing race and gender disparities in online news coverage of missing persons, published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology in spring 2016.

His research focused on race, perceptions and media coverage of crime. “Women and girls are more readily accepted as victims that need saving, and White women and girls in particular are more easily seen as ‘universal’ victims with whom all viewers and readers can identify,” he wrote.

He noted that discussions about “Missing White Woman Syndrome”—the term describing the disproportionate media attention missing White women receive—often overlook men and boys, and his findings indicated that missing men, especially Black men, receive substantially less attention than White women and girls.

In Georgia alone, several Black men have gone missing from January 2025 to May 2026 with relatively little sustained media coverage.

Christopher McKoy, 34, was last seen in the Norcross, Georgia, area of metro Atlanta on January 7, 2025.  He had been driving for a rideshare service and had crashed his car on the day he disappeared, 11Alive reported. Police only found his car.

A review of online news coverage found only a handful of stories from Atlanta-area outlets, including Fox 5 Atlanta, 11Alive and WSB-TV, Atlanta’s ABC affiliate, published between Jan. 14 and Jan. 29, 2025.

Mr. McKoy’s parents, Bernard and Jackie McKoy, have posted on Facebook several times since their son’s disappearance, reminding the public that the family is still searching. His mother’s last post, dated January 16 of this year, simply said, “Still missing!”

In another case, Timothy McSears, 65, was last seen at his home in LaFayette, Georgia, in Walker County, on March 6, 2025.  A review of online news coverage found a few stories from local outlets in 2025 and a few more in March 2026, marking one year since his disappearance. The Walker County Sheriff’s Office has classified the case as a large-scale and ongoing investigation, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

Gregory McNeal, 56, has been missing since September 16, 2025. He was staying at a hotel in Richmond Hill, Georgia, near Savannah, for work. Footage from a Ring doorbell camera showed him running through a backyard with apparent injuries to his face. A review of online news coverage found six news stories from local outlets published in September, October and November. 

His family is still searching for him, with a recent social media post by a family member dated March 16.

A fourth and more recent case involves 25-year-old Malik Polk out of Coweta County, Georgia, in metro Atlanta. He was last heard from on May 17, and his family filed a missing persons report on May 19.  Authorities found his vehicle abandoned.

Damon K. Jones, a 33-year law enforcement veteran, community advocate and publisher of Black Westchester Magazine, cited the first 48 hours as a critical window in missing persons cases.

“That’s a proven investigative timeframe with any crime. My wife is a detective … and she deals with a lot of the youth, missing youth in Mount Vernon, New York.  So, you have that time that you want to get them as fast as possible,” he said to The Final Call.

“A mother knows when her child is not doing what they’re supposed to do, and a mother knows if the actions of a child, if a child is not home at a certain time, something’s wrong. What does the law tell them? They got to wait 24 hours,” he added. “So, now, when you’ve got the 48-hour window of investigation, you’re already behind 24 hours.”

Dr. Michelle Jeanis, criminology professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Dr. Bryanna Fox, former FBI agent and criminology professor at the University of South Florida, collaborated on a project to determine how social media, traditional media and law enforcement’s techniques help bring missing people home safely and sooner.

They studied how many media reports were written about each person listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database, how many words were written about each person and how long it took to find the person, alive or dead, or if they were found at all.

They found that women received nearly 12 times more media coverage, on average, than male victims, and White victims received nearly three times as much total media attention than non-White victims, as well as higher word counts within articles, ABC News reported.

In Malik Polk’s case, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office posted about his missing status on social media on May 22, three days after the missing person’s report was filed. A review of online news coverage found five stories about Mr. Polk’s disappearance, though four were not published until May 27 or later, roughly one week after he was reported missing.

What happened to Derek Samuel?

Questions surrounding media attention and law enforcement response also persist in cases where missing Black men are later found dead.

Two missing Black men were found dead and received limited follow-up media coverage—Tremaine Moore, 41, whose body was found in the Savannah River on Nov. 20, 2025, one week after he was last seen;

And Kenny Darnell Jackson, 21, from Acworth, Georgia, who was last seen on Nov. 19, reported missing on Nov. 21 and whose remains were found in a wooded nature area and later identified in December.

Then, there’s the case of Derek Samuel.

The Target he was seen leaving is in Camp Creek Marketplace, off Commerce Drive in East Point, in metro Atlanta. According to his mother, surveillance video showed him walking out of Target and heading down the sidewalk toward Commerce Drive, 11Alive reported. Going north, Commerce Drive quickly turns into Redwine Road, where his phone had last pinged.

“He walked through, came out of Target, walked down the sidewalk and down towards Commerce Road and that was it,” his mother, Nishae Samuel, said to 11Alive.

Human remains were found on May 31 behind the Reserve at Redwine apartment complex on Redwine Road, after a month of searching for Mr. Samuel. The apartment complex is about half a mile away from Target.

East Point Police Chief Shawn Buchanan said during a June 3 news conference that Mr. Samuel walked into the gated apartment complex behind a vehicle. “The cellphone records showed triangulation in the woods behind the apartment complex,” the police chief said. 

Police searched the woods on May 16 but did not find anything. They returned to the woods on May 31 and found human remains after three hours of searching. They found additional human remains on June 1, along with Mr. Samuel’s cellphone, a handgun and a shell casing. Police strongly believed the remains were Mr. Samuel’s, but had not yet identified the young man.

“Based on facts of the case, at this point, we do not suspect any foul play,” Police Chief Buchanan said.

There were several delays in the search for Mr. Samuel, as reporters noted at the news conference. The family filed the missing person’s report on April 30, but police did not issue an alert about Mr. Samuel until May 11. The first search in the wooded area where the cellphone pinged was conducted on May 16, more than two weeks after Mr. Samuel’s disappearance. 

The reporters questioned: Why did it take nearly two weeks to issue a public alert, and why was the area where his phone last pinged not searched immediately? Reporters also brought up the family’s disbelief that Mr. Samuel would have harmed himself.

East Point Detective Lieutenant Rick Michaud and the police chief responded that police had to wait until the weather was conducive to do the search, that it was very difficult to locate Mr. Samuel due to the area being heavily dense with vegetation, that there was a delay after issuing a search warrant for the cellphone and that police received a lot of erroneous tips and information.

Police Chief Buchanan said they could not release any further information and did not disclose whether Mr. Samuel was shot. He said police had not ruled out suicide. 

While Mr. Samuel’s case has received far more news coverage than the other Black men mentioned, aside from widespread social media coverage, his story has mostly circulated among local news outlets based in Atlanta. Advocacy groups like the Black and Missing Foundation argue that delays in media coverage can limit public awareness and slow search efforts. 

Black people make up about one-third of metro Atlanta. Atlanta and many of the surrounding cities and counties are run by Black mayors and Black city councils. When it comes to the issue of missing Black people, Mr. Jones believes Black elected officials could and must also do more.

“The justice system still does not see value in Black life. We have yet to force it, even in communities that are run by Black faces,” he said in part. 

More than a month after Derek Samuel disappeared, his family was still searching for answers. The families of Christopher McKoy and Timothy McSears have been searching for more than a year. When someone’s son, brother or father disappears with little attention from law enforcement, what can be done?

Mr. Jones urged Black families with missing loved ones to organize and speak out under a collective voice. “Families need to be voices.  In the Atlanta area, they need to come together as a voice and as a voting bloc,” he said.  Politicians understand votes, he argued. 

“They don’t understand pain. They don’t understand when a family is grieving. They don’t understand that. They only understand it when it affects their vote, and we have to start having that conversation, because too many families are hurting out here.”

The post A forgotten population Missing Black men receive limited media coverage and law enforcement response appeared first on Final Call News.

In the conclusion of a multi-day trial, jurors deliberated for approximately eight hours before reaching a verdict. The verdict was handed down on June 1.

“I’ve been practicing law for almost 30 years. I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t understand it. I’m at a loss to explain it to his father, Troy, standing beside me. I’m at a loss to explain it to his mother, who couldn’t take it and had to leave.

I’m at a loss to explain it to his family, because I too don’t understand it,” the Carmack/Belton family attorney, Todd Rutherford, said in a statement to reporters that night.

On May 28, 2023, Cyrus Carmack-Belton walked into an Xpress Mart Shell station then owned by Rick Chow, who is Asian. While inside of the store, Cyrus was followed and watched closely by Mr. Chow’s wife, Alice Chow, according to surveillance footage. 

Video footage shows the teen opening a refrigerated container door and taking out four bottles of water then immediately putting all four bottles back inside. After being questioned by Ms. Chow and her son, Andy Chow, on whether he had taken a water bottle, Cyrus shook out his hoodie then left the store.

Mr. Chow, accompanied by his then 20-year-old son, followed the teen out and pursued him for more than 100 yards, roughly the length of a football field, before fatally shooting him in the back.

“The anger is palpable tonight. You can feel it, you can touch it, because people saw a child that looked like their own, that did nothing wrong, a child that all the witnesses described had fear in his eyes when he left the store,” Atty. Rutherford said.

“He started to run as two grown men chased him down over a football field and shot him dead. This should not happen. This makes us feel as if our children don’t matter, and they do. This makes us feel like Cyrus’s life did not matter, and it did.”

Protests, rallies, memorials and vigils were held in the days following the verdict, including demonstrations outside of both the gas station and the South Carolina State House. 

“It was devastating for me to get a call from Alvin S. Glenn [Detention Center] letting me know that Rick Chow was released. That broke me more than you can ever imagine, because [the] murderer of my son was set free, and it’s not fair, and it’s unjust,” Cyrus’ mother, Nicole Carmack, said at a June 3 gathering at the site where her son was killed.

She described her son as strong, smart, loving and kind and expressed her thoughts that the entire Chow family should be held accountable.

“Every day I will not be able to speak to my son, hear his voice change, see him grow, go to prom. He will never get married. I will never hold my grandchildren. Nothing,” she said. “But Chow is able to go home with his lying son, Andy Chow, and they’re able to have dinner with the wife, Alice.”

The trial

Kinnedy Carson was sitting inside her mother’s SUV when she saw Cyrus running with two men behind him. “His eyes were big,” she said to the 12 jurors during the trial, according to WLTX, Columbia’s CBS affiliate. “His shoe had fell off, and he was holding his pants up with one hand and pumping his arms with the other.” 

In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, Mr. Chow accused Cyrus of stealing a water bottle, and claimed the teen pointed a gun at his son and said he acted in defense.

Investigators with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said surveillance video showed Cyrus had not stolen anything from the store, and prosecutors argued that Rick Chow and his son, Andy Chow, created the confrontation by leaving the store and chasing the teen, according to WLTX.

In addition, witnesses Kinnedy Carson and her mother, Lori Ann Carson, testified they never saw a gun pointed at Rick Chow or Andy Chow, according to the media outlet.

Richland County Sheriff’s Department deputy Derrick English, one of the first deputies to respond after the shooting, testified that while a handgun was recovered near Cyrus, witnesses did not initially tell deputies they saw Cyrus point a gun, the media outlet reported.

Fifth Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson asked jurors: “In what world do you get to falsely accuse a 14-year-old of stealing? Chase a 14-year-old 130-plus yards down the road while you’re armed with a pistol. Shoot that person in the back, then claim you’re defending your son?” 

Next steps in fight for justice

Richland County is nearly 50% Black, and Columbia is about 41% Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Seven of the 12 jurors in the case were Black.

Still, critics raised concerns about what took place inside the courtroom, as Mr. Chow’s prior history was not brought up during the trial. South Carolina law generally prevents prosecutors from introducing prior crimes, wrongs or other acts to argue that a defendant acted in accordance with a past pattern of behavior.

According to The State, a South Carolina newspaper, Mr. Chow was involved in two prior reported shooting incidents, one in 2015, when he fired six shots into the side of a vehicle, and another in 2018, when he fired two shots at a person identified as an alleged shoplifter, striking the person in the leg.

“He’s had multiple accounts, assaults, accounts caught on video, and this is not even the first shooting that was reported on him. This is just the first time that we’ve had a fatality,” Nation of Islam Student Minister Anthony Muhammad of Mosque No. 38 in Columbia said to The Final Call. “It took someone to actually die to put some attention on this man.”

Cyrus’ parents, Troy Belton and Nicole Carmack, filed a civil lawsuit in July 2024 with similar allegations. The complaint alleges that Rick, Andy and Alice Chow had a pattern of intimidating, threatening and harassing customers whom they suspected of shoplifting. It also argues that Shell and the business entities operating the store failed to prevent those practices.

Mr. Belton and Ms. Carmack are seeking damages from Mr. Chow and his family, Shell USA and related business entities, including Grene Investments, Grenefrog Stores and Xpress Mart.

The lawsuit alleges that Cyrus was a lawful customer in the store when he was racially profiled, falsely accused of shoplifting, unlawfully detained, chased and ultimately killed. It brings eight legal claims, including negligence and recklessness, wrongful death, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, false imprisonment, assault and battery and kidnapping.

Cyrus’ parents are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, funeral and related expenses, damages for emotional distress and grief, attorney’s fees and costs and a jury trial.

The civil suit was put on hold until the criminal case concluded. After the not guilty verdict, the family’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, said the family would be moving forward with the lawsuit.

“Rick Chow, while found not guilty, we’re still going to sue him. He owes. He owes for what he did to Cyrus. He owes for what he did to the family. He owes for what he did to this community,” Atty. Rutherford said in his statement following the verdict.

“What he did was wrong. He took a life that he should not have. He had no reason—no one ever does—to chase a child 130 yards and shoot them in the back. I don’t care what that jury said.

There is no justification for that. It should never happen again, and it is not open season on Black people for anybody to feel like they should be able to do it, because the jury found him not guilty.”

Black-Asian relations in the midst of tragedy

In a June 9 statement, Stop AAPI Hate, an organization exposing and combating racism and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., condemned the shooting of Cyrus and called for cross-racial solidarity.

“Cyrus’ death was a tragedy then, and it remains a tragedy today in the wake of Chow’s acquittal,” the statement said. “As Asian Americans, we can’t look away from the questions this case raises or the tensions it inflames. From Cyrus Carmack-Belton in South Carolina to Latasha Harlins in California, too many Black children have lost their lives over too little.”

Latasha Harlins was a 15-year-old Black girl who was shot in the back of the head by a Korean convenience store owner in 1991.

“That history demands self-reflection about anti-Blackness within Asian American communities. Anti-Black racism—just like anti-Asian racism—is a tool of White supremacy that divides communities of color against each other, reinforces racial hierarchies and encourages people to see one another as threats instead of allies. We must not give into it,” the statement said.

The group also called on Asian Americans to condemn the death of Cyrus Carmack-Belton and the “miscarriage of justice that allowed Rick Chow to walk free.”

The root of anti-Blackness is fomented and rooted in White supremacy that has engulfed the entire world.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad also teaches Black people to unite and “do for self,” which the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has commented about Asian communities for being able to do.

“Did you know that if we just spent one-tenth of 1 percent of what we spend for these holidays with Black businesses, they would be able to hire thousands of Black people, giving them jobs?  Imagine if we knew how to invest the money that we would save; we could be free, justified and equal, building our own economic base,” Minister Farrakhan stated in a 2015 Message titled, “Why We Are Calling You To Boycott Christmas.”

In the same message he points to the example of Asian and other communities and how the spend money with their own people.

“Did you know that the money that we get out of our economy, $1.1 trillion to $1.3 trillion, we spend it almost as fast as we get it?  I was shocked when I heard some statistics; that:  The Asian people, Chinatown, Koreatown: 

Their money circulates in their community nearly a whole month before it goes.  The Jewish people:  Their money circulates in their community for 20-some days before it leaves.  Even our Mexican family: 

They are better than we, in turning their money around in their own community.  But when I heard that our money leaves in six hours:  Where did that come from?” Minister Farrakhan pointed out.  

Following the South Carolina verdict, Black people are pointing out the need to establish and support Black businesses. 

“We must unite and do for self. Spend with ourselves before we can go and spend with another. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad even tells us in ‘Message to the Blackman in America’ that we must find those with like minds and go into business with one another and not have wanton criticism of Black owned businesses,” Student Minister Anthony Muhammad said. “Stop going into places where you’re not wanted,” he continued.

“Keep the Black dollar within the Black community,” said Student Minister Anthony Muhammad. “We must unite. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said our unity is more powerful than an atomic or hydrogen bomb. We must take that into consideration.”

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KSU students, alumni and prospective students filed a federal lawsuit on May 11. An additional group of anonymous KSU students filed a state lawsuit on May 21.

Both lawsuits challenge Kentucky Senate Bill 185, which was signed into law on April 13. The bill places the university in a state of financial emergency for up to five years and restructures the university into a polytechnic institution focused on technical, workforce-oriented applied learning programs.

It also reduces academic program offerings to no more than 10 and allows for faculty terminations. In addition, the state would have increased control and oversight over KSU and would have authority over admission policies.

James Morris, of the Kentucky law firm Morris & Morris, P.S.C., serves as counsel for plaintiffs in both lawsuits. The federal lawsuit focuses on civil rights law and the issue of historic underfunding while the state lawsuit focuses on Kentucky’s constitution. Both ask the courts to halt enforcement of the bill as the lawsuits move forward.

“The state action is alleging a constitutional violation under Kentucky state law,” Atty. Morris said to The Final Call. “Our state constitution requires that in order for a legislature to pass a bill, it has to be read in both House and Senate three times.”

He alleged that SB 185 started as a four-line branch budget recommendation bill that was sent to the Senate floor three times, but on the third read, the committee substituted the previous branch budget text with a seven-page bill related to Kentucky State University.

“They never said ‘wait, guys, we just changed everything.’ They literally said, ‘We want to read for the third time. All right, reading for the third time, Senate Bill 185, an act related to branch budget recommendation.’ Then they said, ‘We’d like to do a committee substitute number one.

All right, committee substitute number one to branch budget recommendation. All in favor?’ They voted. It passed,” Atty. Morris said. “The substitute was the seven-page new text that never got read to anything because they’re using the old title.

Then, after the Senate passed the bill, they said I’d like to move to change the title to an act related to Kentucky State University and declaring an emergency.”

He pointed out several things wrong with the passage of the bill: one, by Kentucky law, “you can’t substitute a different bill and say, ‘oh, we read it three times’”; two, “you can’t have a statute that is related to a single individual or a single entity when a general statute would suffice,” and three, every bill that impacts a person’s retirement must have a financial report attached.

“The entire statute relates to Kentucky State University; not one reference to the other land grant, not one reference to the other universities. There wasn’t something that said if any university has the following problem, then we would declare a financial emergency. It’s literally written solely for the HBCU. Our constitution says that’s illegal under Kentucky law,” Atty. Morris said.

Supporters of the bill, including state lawmakers and some university officials, have presented it as a rescue plan for KSU that will stabilize the school financially.

Located in Frankfort, Ky., KSU is one of 19 HBCUs established as a land-grant institution under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, and it is Kentucky’s only public HBCU. Like most land-grant HBCUs, KSU has been a victim of severe underfunding by the state. 

As early as 1981, Kentucky was found engaging in intentional segregation and discrimination by underfunding KSU, and the state entered agreements with the federal government to fix the issue, according to Atty. Morris. “They didn’t do that,” he said.

In September 2023, then U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack sent letters to 16 governors highlighting the more than $12 billion disparity in funding between land-grant HBCUs and White land-grant institutions. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, received one of those letters.

Land-grant institutions were first established under the Morrill Act of 1862, but the first wave of institutions, including the University of Kentucky, did not allow Black students to enroll.

When states opened a second land-grant institution to serve Black students in 1890, they did so with the requirement to provide an equitable distribution of funds between their 1862 White institutions and 1890 Black institutions, according to the letter. 

KSU, while “producing extraordinary graduates that contribute greatly” to Kentucky’s economy, “has not been able to advance in ways that are on par with [the] University of Kentucky, … in large part due to unbalanced funding,” the former secretaries wrote to Gov. Beshear.

If KSU received funding equal to the University of Kentucky from 1987 to 2020, the school would have had more than $172 million in additional funds. That $172 million could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants, the former secretaries said.

The former U.S. secretaries also sent letters to the governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Of the 18 states that have land-grant HBCUs, only Delaware and Ohio equitably funded their universities between 1987 and 2020, according to the federal review

In 2022, due to financial issues, the state of Kentucky loaned KSU $23 million with the expectation that the school would repay the loan.

“We’ll loan you $23 million but we want you to pay us back, and if you can’t pay us back, then there are consequences. Well, wait, why is this a loan? Here you are $200 million in the hole, and you couldn’t find a way to give Kentucky State University $23 million?” Atty. Morris questioned.

Despite the bill’s claims that KSU will still retain its status as an HBCU and as a land-grant institution, the lawsuits argue that the bill narrows KSU’s academic and historic missions.

The lawsuits also raise concern that the bill threatens traditional degree programs, gives the state excessive control over the university and could lead to reduced educational opportunities for students, along with faculty layoffs, staffing reductions and enrollment restrictions.

“They’re literally trying to avoid decades and decades of segregation and intentional discrimination by adopting a bill that would allow them to escape the responsibility for their neglect,” Atty. Morris said. Now, with the state’s plan to transform the university, students are leaving and scrambling to find a different school, leaving “nobody left” for the state to fund, he added.

“Right now, from what we understand, there’s less than 200 students now enrolling in the fall. That means that the system’s going to shut down. So, by the legislature doing what they did at the time they did in the spring and forcing it as an emergency bill, they’re basically going to choke out K-State and make it so that it self-implodes,” he said.

KSU enrolled more than 2,800 students in Fall 2025 but has not yet released enrollment statistics for Fall 2026.

The university’s board of regents approved a new academic plan on May 28 with the deadline to submit the plan to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education by June 1.

Atty. Morris said while the new plan hasn’t been fully explained, the university has shut down its political science program and some of its music programs. Other programs, such as nursing, have been impacted, and still others, such as criminal justice, have not been listed at all.

“The board of regents has selected programs, but we have not gotten the final list. Some of the plaintiffs are directly impacted. Some of them already received letters saying their program is gone,” Atty. Morris said.

The first court date for the state lawsuit was June 1, with a full hearing scheduled for June 10.

Historically, HBCUs provided Black students an opportunity for higher learning at a time when they were locked out of White institutions due to discrimination and segregation. Today, they are still major drivers of economic success for Black people.

Though most HBCUs both public and private are underfunded compared to White institutions, Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, published an article on how HBCUs “do more with less.”

HBCUs serve only about 3% of college students in the U.S., but they produce nearly 16% of all Black U.S. graduates and are responsible for 18% of graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to an article by Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund,

On “Why HBCUs Still Matter.” In addition, he wrote that HBCUs generate $16.5 billion annually in economic impact and provide more than 136,000 jobs a year nationwide. 

Dr. Denise A. Smith, former deputy director of higher education policy and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a public policy think tank headquartered in New York City, has done extensive research into educational equity and government funding of HBCUs. She wrote an article in 2021 on funding disparities.

“No longer should we be focused on questions about” the relevance of HBCUs, “but rather we should be highlighting their significant contributions—and making substantial public investment so that HBCUs’ future can be actualized,” she wrote.

“The present moment is an opportunity for this country to atone for decades of discrimination and restore what is rightfully owed to the Black community and Black colleges.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, is a longtime advocate for the success of HBCUs. In a 2014 address to Morgan State University students, he warned that all HBCUs are “under attack,” because of their history of producing great leaders for Black people.

“Brothers and sisters, we have [99] Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that are just scraping by,” he said in another message titled, “Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint: Ending Poverty & Want,” which served as Part 31 of his 58-week lecture series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

Minister Farrakhan noted that if Black people followed the economic program of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and if 16 million Black wage earners contributed one nickel a day to a national Black treasury, the resulting $291 million from the first year could be used to match the endowment figures for 37 HBCUs.

This would make “these institutions free to determine one, the direction, two, curricula and three, staffs to provide our children with an education which will surpass any on our planet,” he said.

“The HBCUs must become a part of a system where they are functioning for a bigger purpose than just to confer degrees. We want our HBCUs to be ours, and they can never be that unless they are financially independent,” he added. “Do you know our schools [and the curricula] are controlled?

The Enemy does not want you to learn what will make you free from dependency on others! But with money in our pocket, we tell them, ‘No!  This is the curriculum that has to be in here: The Curriculum that will make students that will build not only a nation but a world!’”

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Now, in this 21st century information and digital era, the U.S. is attempting to position itself as the primary contender in the “artificial intelligence race.”

President Donald Trump and his administration have positioned A.I. and data center expansion as part of a national “America beats China” strategy tied to A.I. dominance. The federal government is rapidly accelerating A.I. and data center deployment while straddling the line between oversight and deregulation. 

But who really benefits from accelerated development, who suffers the harms and disadvantages, and what would true regulation look like?

The White House’s A.I. push

The White House unveiled “America’s AI Action Plan” on July 23, 2025, which served as a catalyst for the government’s rapid A.I. expansion. In the plan, the U.S. government laid out more than 90 federal policy actions under three pillars: accelerating innovation, building America A.I. infrastructure and leading internationally.

Key actions included expediting permits for data centers and semiconductor facilities, removing federal rules seen as slowing A.I. and requiring federal A.I. vendors to avoid “ideological bias.” 

The president issued an executive order that same day on “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.” The order directed the federal government to speed up the development of data centers and related infrastructure by easing federal regulatory burdens and using federal land and resources. 

In a separate executive order also dated July 23, 2025, the government communicated plans to create an “American AI Exports program” that would make other countries dependent on U.S.-built A.I. systems and standards. 

From July 2025 to April 2026, the government has proceeded to carry out its plans. Here is a brief timeline summarizing White House press releases and presidential actions.

•        September 2025: White House officials met with major tech executives from OpenAI, Google/Alphabet, Oracle, Apple, Microsoft, AMD and Meta.

•        December 2025: President Trump issued an executive order that targeted state A.I. laws, created an A.I. Litigation Task Force to challenge and evaluate state laws and threatened to restrict state funding due to laws the administration claimed would hinder innovation. 

•        March 2026: The Trump administration issued a formal response to public concern on rising electricity bills due to data centers. Major tech companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a Ratepayer Protection Pledge agreeing to “build, bring or buy” the power needed for their data centers, cover grid upgrade costs, negotiate separate utility rates, support local jobs and contribute backup power during shortages.

•        April 2026: The White House announced the release of the “2026 Economic Report of the President.” The report included a chapter on “The Revolution of Artificial Intelligence,” which echoed the administration’s previous stances on A.I., characterizing regulation as slowing A.I. growth.

In meetings between late April and early May, White House officials reportedly told executives from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI about plans to create an A.I. working group and install a formal government review process for new A.I. models, The New York Times reported from U.S. officials and people briefed on the deliberations.

The Times reported that the working group would bring together tech executives and government officials to examine potential oversight procedures. The proposal would also give government officials early access to powerful A.I. models for national and cyber security reasons. 

Shortly after the meetings, a senior White House official clarified that the White House is looking for “partnership” with companies rather than pursuing “government regulation,” according to a May 7 article by Politico. 

The oversight contradiction

The White House press releases and presidential actions show an administration trying to make A.I. expansion into a national project by deregulating it, exporting it to other countries, protecting it from state laws and reassuring the public that big tech will pay its own way. Simultaneously, the government is looking into A.I. oversight.

The question becomes, how would A.I. oversight and A.I. deregulation exist at the same time, and who will be in the room shaping key policy decisions? 

The administration’s effort to override state A.I. laws raise questions about whether meaningful independent oversight can exist alongside rapid deregulation. Cities and states have been leading the charge on data center moratoriums, in the absence of comprehensive federal legislation. In addition, citizen concerns on A.I. and data centers are growing. 

Hyperscale data centers equipped to house A.I. require massive warehouses, enormous electricity and water consumption and transmission infrastructure.

These data centers occupy at least 10,000 square feet and require more than 100 megawatts of power, due to operation and cooling needs, according to a congressional report on data centers and their energy consumption, published in January. 

Communities across the country are fighting local data center growth, as families fear utility hikes and neighborhoods deal with threats to the environment, water usage and noise pollution. Those in the workforce worry about A.I. displacement. 

Black communities are especially disproportionately harmed by massive A.I. data centers and the resulting environmental racism and negative health outcomes that come with them, as reported in previous Final Call articles. One well-known example is xAI’s Colossus project built in a majority-Black neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee.

In previous Final Call interviews, activists voiced concerns over xAI’s usage of methane gas turbines, as methane is a toxic air pollutant that can cause or worsen breathing problems, heart disease, cancer and stroke, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. 

So far, the meetings and advisory discussions held at the White House have been attended by executives and representatives from major A.I., cloud, semiconductor and infrastructure firms, the same companies positioned to profit the most from A.I. and data center expansion. Investors, industry lobbyists and administration officials have also been present. 

Groups that appear to be absent from the conversations are labor groups; civil rights groups that have raised concerns about algorithmic bias, increased surveillance and discrimination; environmental justice advocates concerned about water usage, energy demand, pollution, land use and utility prices; consumer watchdogs; and independent oversight groups.

Americans do not want more A.I. data centers. More than 70% of Americans oppose local construction of A.I. data centers, according to a new Gallup survey.

Right now, the U.S. does not have a comprehensive A.I. law. A.I. oversight comes from existing consumer protection laws, civil rights laws, privacy laws, other rules and regulations depending on the sector (i.e., medical, finance, transportation, workplace) and state legislation.

Some states passed laws related to bias audits, transparency mandates, child safety protections and other regulations, but these laws are now under attack by the federal government.

The government’s previous A.I. framework emphasized A.I. safety testing, transparency and agency oversight. President Trump replaced this framework with one centered on the idea of American A.I. dominance, deregulation and speed. 

Questions remain: 

•        If an A.I. working group were put into place, what authority would the working group actually have? 

•        What will be the transparency requirements of A.I. projects, if any? Will testing results be public? Will companies self-report risks? Who decides what counts as “safe?” Can the public challenge decisions?

•        And why are the big tech companies that are positioned to profit the most from weak regulation and massive expansion of A.I. infrastructure the same companies invited to closed-door meetings helping to shape policy around A.I.?

The administration argues that the U.S. cannot afford to lose the global A.I. race, but critics warn that prioritizing speed, infrastructure expansion and corporate partnership over independent oversight could negatively affect the people of America in the long run.

As the famous saying goes, “the race is not to the swift but to those who endure to the end.” The winners of the A.I. race may ultimately be crowned not by the faster speed but by the meaningful safeguards put in place.

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