The year was 1985. I (Sister Nisa Islam Muhammad) was pregnant with my son Nasser, sitting among some 25,000 people packed into Madison Square Garden in New York, waiting to hear the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan speak. When he took the stage, he was flanked by a group of sisters, his M.G.T. and G.C.C. Vanguard, and one of them stopped me cold. She was tall, statuesque, unmistakably beautiful, and she carried herself like security itself: Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan, his eldest daughter.

I kept watching her watch the crowd. I wanted to meet her. I wanted to be her. I wanted to learn whatever secret allowed her to stand that close to greatness and still seem so entirely herself.

Years later, that wish came true. As the Mid-Atlantic Regional M.G.T. Captain, I had the honor of serving under her, and she turned out to be everything I had imagined from that arena floor and more. She was a sister and a soldier. She taught me that Allah (God) loves beauty and that we are meant to reflect that beauty in everything we do: our dress, our posture, and our discipline. She was kind and gracious, but no one mistook her kindness for weakness. In the high-pressure work of providing security for her father at public events, her grace never cracked, and she expected the same steadiness from those serving beside her.

Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan, the eldest daughter of Minister Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, returned to Allah (God) on September 18. Her Janazah (funeral service) was held at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, on September 25.

She was appointed National M.G.T. and G.C.C. Captain by her father in 1988 and she helped train and shape generations of women in the Nation of Islam. Later, her service also extended to agriculture and producing healthy food for the community. Yet for many women who knew her personally, her legacy lives most vividly in the standards she set: discipline without hardness, beauty without vanity, and authority grounded in care.

She taught internal strength and resilience. If you were selected to work with her, you learned quickly to raise your standard. She taught her captains to see the beauty in every sister and cultivate it, and to care for women who belonged to Allah with consideration and concern. She always took her work seriously. But when the night was over, the crowd had cleared, and her father was safe, she was a joy to be around. She could fill a room with laughter and loved to hear about our lives.

In the days since her return to Allah, sisters who served alongside her across four decades and several cities have used many of the same words to describe her: soldier, sister, mother and warrior. Although public references often identified her as Minister Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah Farrakhan’s eldest daughter, generations of women in the Nation also knew her as a captain, teacher, and model of disciplined service.

A trainer of women

Sister Dr. Nusaybah Muhammad is the Student Southern Regional M.G.T. and G.C.C. Captain of the Nation of Islam. She told The Final Call she first met Sister Betsy Jean in the early 1990s. “I remember being on a security detail at the airport to pick her up. As she stepped out of the vehicle, I remember freezing in place. I was struck by her stunning and captivating beauty.

But what impacted me even more was the blessing of hearing her speak. Her words carried a passion, strength, and spirit I felt immediately. Her beauty caught my attention, but her voice, her spirit, and the passion she carried captured my heart. In that moment, I knew I had developed a deep love and admiration for her,” said Sister Nusaybah.

“I will never forget that first encounter. It was one of those moments that stays with you, not simply because of what you saw, but because of what you felt.” Sister Nusaybah described Sister Betsy Jean as “the epitome of a soldier.”

“She accepted nothing less than excellence. As a National Captain, she was the kind of leader who never asked you to do what she wasn’t willing to do herself. She led from the front. She demonstrated discipline by example. Her expectations were high because she knew what was possible when a woman was properly taught, developed, disciplined, and given the opportunity to discover the power within herself.

“She was and will always be one of my guiding examples of leadership. Her leadership was so profound because she understood that you cannot solve a problem if you are unwilling to go to its root. She had a remarkable ability to look beneath the surface and identify the deeper issues affecting Black women and girls. She understood our struggles, our strengths, our wounds, our hopes, and our potential. More importantly, she knew how to offer solutions that were practical, relatable, and rooted in the real experiences of Black women,” said Sister Nusaybah.

Sister Dr. Sabora Muhammad was a member of the Chicago M.G.T. Vanguard. She vividly remembers that same Madison Square Garden event. She first heard Minister Farrakhan when she was a Five Percenter (Nation of Gods and Earths). When she pushed through the crowd at the Garden and saw the women surrounding Minister Farrakhan to secure and protect him, she said to herself, “I don’t know who they are, but I want to be that” and she remembers thinking, “I want to do what they’re doing.”

Sister Dr. Sabora later moved to Chicago and she told The Final Call that Sister Betsy Jean was a pillar in her adult life. “She exhibited that perfect balance of strength and softness,” she said. “She was disciplined. She was firm, unwavering. Yet she carried such a gentle, nurturing soul.”

Sister Betsy Jean asked about the women’s families, children, and households. Sister Dr. Sabora, who later became Mosque Maryam’s M.G.T. Vanguard Captain, believes she understood that “we could only do what we had to do to protect Minister Farrakhan if our home front was straight.”

The M.G.T. Vanguard are young women of the Nation of Islam ages 16-35 and are the warrior class of the M.G.T. and G.C.C., which was established by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Sister Dr. Sabora still carries one piece of advice Sister Betsy Jean gave her directly: “Sabora, don’t dim your light for anybody, sister; you got to shine.”

That balance of firmness and tenderness runs through nearly every account of those sharing their reflections about Sister Betsy Jean.

Sister Bronda Muhammad was also a Chicago M.G.T. Vanguard and remembers Sister Betsy Jean returning Sunday after Sunday to conduct inspections personally, even after her tenure as National M.G.T. Captain. “She was mothering,” Sis. Bronda told The Final Call. “She no longer had that direct responsibility, so she was really hands-on when she was around us.”

Sister Betsy Jean taught the M.G.T. Vanguard how to walk, how to dress, and how to hold a security post while remaining “deadly, but dainty,” said Sis. Bronda.

In the 1990s, Sis. Angela Muhammad arrived in Washington, D.C., from Buffalo and was assigned to a post at Sister Betsy Jean’s suite. She recalls a “quiet confidence” and “effortless grace” that reshaped how she understood service. “Her devotion to the sisterhood expanded my heart,” Sis. Angela said, adding, “and (it) inspired a deeper love for the M.G.T. through her powerful example.”

A soldier

Baltimore Student M.G.T. Captain Leslie Muhammad remembers the choreography of Sister Betsy Jean’s workdays. She walked the security areas in flat shoes as sisters arrived for an event, then changed shoes when it was time to head toward the stage, where she remained on post throughout the program. She pushed her captains to be mindful of their appearance and encouraged Sis. Leslie to continue serving as long as she felt able. “She has always been my ‘shero,’” Sis. Leslie said.

Sister Victoria Muhammad, who served on Sister Betsy Jean’s personal security detail, explained that Sister Betsy Jean modeled a particular kind of femininity under pressure: firm, but never rough. “Whenever there was a situation, you would say, okay, what would Betsy Jean do?” Sis. Victoria said.

For Sis. Abiola Muhammad of the Chicago M.G.T. Vanguard, who entered the mosque in 1990 and trained under Sister Betsy Jean in both M.G.T. and M.G.T. Vanguard work, one of her sharpest memories is standing for hours at the United Center in Chicago during Saviours’ Day. Sister Betsy Jean gathered the young women beforehand and told them plainly what the assignment required. “She told each and every one of us that if we’re going to stand this post, we’re putting our lives on the line for the Minister,” Sis. Abiola told The Final Call. “If we did not want to do that, no hard feelings, no judgment, just fall out,” she recalled. No one fell out.

Her influence extended beyond the women she trained directly. The men of the Nation of Islam also regarded Sister Betsy Jean with honor and respect.

Student Minister Abdul Arif Muhammad, a member of the N.O.I. Shura Executive Council, serves as N.O.I. General Counsel and is a member of the N.O.I. Research Group. He offered his reflections, first, with Ayat (verse) 154 from Surah (chapter) 2 of the Holy Qur’an, the Islamic book of scripture which states: “And speak not of those who are slain in Allah’s way as dead. Nay, (they are) alive, but you perceive not,” he said.

“A grateful Nation is thankful to Allah for the beauty and spirit that is our Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan. To me, she embodied the spirit and love of her father and mother (Mother Khadijah Farrakhan) to serve a grateful Nation.  And as our National M.G.T. and G.C.C. Captain in the very early foundational days of the rebuilding of the Nation, she looked after the women and trained them as Allah directed they be trained. She was loved by the sisters then and she is loved now,” said Student Min. Arif.

He also recalled his impressions from that historic Madison Square Garden event.

“A personal reflection for me, of my sister, was on October 7, 1985, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. I see her proudly standing on post, at the point of the diamond of security around her father, along with others of her sisters, to protect the life of her father, during his ‘Power At Last Forever’ message.  That same love and spirit that she had to protect the life of The Messiah, her father, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, was that same love of protection and that same extension of protection that she gave in care and training of the sisters and her Nation,” Student Min. Arif continued.  

“She made an indelible impact in the work of the resurrection of the dead under the direction of her father, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. We can only say Allah-U-Akbar (God is the Greatest) and may Allah grant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, all of the Farrakhan family His peace and comfort, and that we are grateful to Allah as a Nation for the service of our Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan.”

Brother Sultan Muhammad is a close aide to Minister Farrakhan and a member of the N.O.I. Research Group. He first met Sister Betsy Jean on October 7, 1985. “I meet this stern woman, where ‘Captain’ oozes out of her very being! I could see her father in her. I could see her mother in her, and then I could see what God made in the womb of her mother. So, I have always bragged and boasted about her. I have always respected her. And I wanted to be brother enough, man enough, believer enough, to earn her respect,” said Bro. Sultan.

Student Minister Jamil Muhammad, who traveled with her during Minister Farrakhan’s extensive touring in the late 1980s and early 1990s, remembers her as “a steadying force.”

“She heard her father’s instructions, and she moved out with him,” he said. “She was a confidant and a counselor in Islam … accessible, warm, and supportive of anyone who sincerely wanted to help her father in the mission.” He wants her remembered, he said, not simply for her standing in the Nation, “which, of course, was understandably high,” but “for her genuine goodness as a person. She was a big sister to all of us.”

A servant and example

Sister Dr. Saaudiah Muhammad of Mosque Maryam in Chicago shared that her memories of Sister Betsy Jean included her emphasizing “the importance of carrying ourselves like a queen, especially when it came to our posture.”

“She created in me an absolute love of being statuesque and shared that height was nothing to be ashamed of but to stand tall. As a new Muslim, I would ask her all sorts of questions, and she would indulge them as I believe she knew I was just striving to be the best Muslim and she was the best example of a M.G.T. I knew as the National M.G.T. Captain,” said Sis. Dr. Saaudiah.

Sister Johnna Muhammad is the Student Eastern Regional M.G.T. Captain, based in New York at Mosque No. 7. Sis. Johnna served as a Vanguard Captain in New York when Sister Betsy Jean was the National M.G.T. Captain.

“She was a formidable woman—one who was not only a trainer of women, but a woman whose strength, discipline, knowledge, and conviction earned the respect and high regard of men as well. Men revered her and held her in the highest esteem because she carried herself with authority, stood firmly upon the Teachings, and demanded excellence from those entrusted to her no-nonsense training,” said Sister Johnna.

“Sister Betsy Jean was a product of a life dedicated to the service of the Cause of Islam. She gave herself to the work, to the training, to the development of others, and to the dissemination of truth. Her life stands as a testimony to what it means to be a soldier in the army of Allah (God). She will go down in the annals of time as one whose life and service left an enduring mark upon our  Nation and upon all of those who were blessed to learn from her,” said Sis. Johnna.

Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan trained generations of women, including many she may never have known she shaped. Her work in helping in the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, asked her to be a soldier, teacher, mother, and mirror for the beauty she insisted every one of us carried. Sister Dr. Sabora Muhammad said it best: “Generations of young women learned from her how to serve with honor, how to live with that armor of God … her legacy lives.”

Sister Betsy Jean was tall, statuesque and stunning that night in Madison Square Garden in 1985. Forty years later, to every sister who ever stood a post beside her, she still is.

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However, for many families, the day meant making the hard decision to send their children to school or keep their children at home because there was no food for lunch, no shoes, no water, and no way to cope with a school system stretched to its limits.

Mothers shared their anxiety with Marti Noticia, a Cuban newspaper.  One mother told the outlet that the country is not ready for the school year to begin, explaining that none of her three daughters are going to school.

If nothing is available, how can they go to school, she asked? Bread cannot be bought for a snack since a single roll costs thousands and thousands of units. With no electricity all night, the situation is even worse.

For these families, the consequences of the unjust U.S. blockade go beyond politics because they affect everyday life. Cuban authorities state that the lack of fuel and electricity, the result of Washington’s harmful “energy blockade,” has made it difficult to distribute food. In some areas, schools can serve lunch for only the first two weeks, leaving parents to worry about how their children will get meals afterward.

A second mother shared her concerns, her voice showing how tired she was as she spoke about the constant struggle: “If the food they are giving us is merely a piece of bread containing bad ham, then what are they going to provide? … Nowadays there is no lunch, no electricity, no water, no transport, and they can’t give the children anything to eat since the prices are too high.”

For families who decided to send their children the first day, September 1, or “sobremesfuerzo,” this extra effort was the price of sending their children to school.  For others, it was simply too great a burden.

‘Everyone is invited’: The struggle to fill the classroom

A major difficulty is the teacher shortage. Cuban authorities explained this is due to the U.S. “maximum pressure” policy, which causes numerous professionals to either leave the country or seek better employment opportunities.

According to Education Minister Naima Trujillo Barreto, only 73% of teaching posts are filled.  This leaves approximately 24,000 positions available. Havana suffers the most, with about 3,000 teachers being transferred from the eastern provinces to assist there.

“This is going to be a school year for which our greatest achievement will be the fact that we are able to get through it,” said Minister Trujillo, conveying the great significance of the situation.

In response, the government has developed inventive solutions and is asking university students, retired professionals, and other willing citizens to take over classrooms, showing society’s commitment to education. As Minister Trujillo encouraged, according to the LA Times, “All are invited; anyone who can contribute is welcome.”

The lack of teachers also affects children’s well-being. Families report that many of their children went to school after sleeping little because of the heat, without eating breakfast, and therefore found it difficult to concentrate.   These are a few of the difficult decisions many families must make.

The fabric of the crisis: Uniform shortages

School uniforms are also affected by the blockade. Because of power cuts and difficulties importing materials, textile factories have ceased operations; as a result, only 12% of the demand for primary school uniforms is being met.

Due to inflation, the cost of uniforms has risen to between $2 and $5, a sum which The Straits Times points out is high given that the average monthly income for Cubans is only $10.

This places additional pressure on families already coping with inflation and shortages, since parents often must hire private tailors or modify their children’s old uniforms. This extra effort shows how committed they are to their children’s future.

“The schools are now relying on households and on the parents,” lamented Yannay Miranda to the AFP (Agence France-Presse), a mother of a six-year-old.

Although acknowledging the sacrifice, President Miguel Díaz-Canel stressed the importance of the effort and said that defending social programs such as education, even against the U.S. “plan of asphyxiation,” is a revolution which must be defended.

The struggle to get children to school started last school year when the blockade took effect. Yemaris Roriquees Lopez explained to The New York Times in a podcast that she would leave her house in a village in western Cuba every morning at 7 a.m. with her two sons, ages twelve and four, and stand on the side of the road hoping someone would drive by offering a ride to her children’s school. 

A country’s future against all odds

Despite the difficulties, Cuba’s attitude is one of firm determination. Roberto Morales Ojeda, a senior party official, posted on social media that the beginning of the school year means “overcoming the rigors of the blackout, rising above the burden caused by shortages, and looking for alternatives when others would have decided to give up.”

To cope, schools are adjusting schedules to use daylight, focusing on core subjects when power is available and allowing students to wear comfortable clothing instead of uniforms. A few mothers are concerned about what the future holds and told Marti Noticias  that “Children are not going to have a future the way we are.”

However, people such as Kasumy Chiu told The Strait Times, “We woke up to no electricity … but so long as they have the opportunity to learn, we are willing to make sacrifices.”

Many Cubans refer to the blockade as genocidal and argue that its aim is to starve the country and deprive it of its independence. Yet Cuba and its people will not surrender. The school year spanning 2026 and 2027 demonstrates that although America may restrict supplies, it cannot stifle the human spirit, a parent’s love, or a nation’s determination to secure its children’s future. As a commentary in the Cuban-based Granma stated, “No one will be able to steal our hope.”

Yet when the first day is over, there are empty desks left behind, gently serving as a reminder of the families whose strength was not sufficient and for whom hope had to continue through the night.

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“That was our plan,” Mitchell Hunter told The Final Call. “I work in D.C., my wife works in D.C., and we love this city, but it is unaffordable for our family. We can find more and better for our family of five in the suburbs.”

The Hunters are not alone. Families are leaving America’s largest cities at a startling rate as the child population plummets, raising urgent questions about housing, family stability, and who gets to share in urban America’s future.

An analysis by The Wall Street Journal of Census Bureau data found that between 2015 and 2024, child populations declined in many U.S. cities with more than 500,000 residents. San Jose saw a 20% drop, Los Angeles a 16% drop, Albuquerque a 15% drop, Portland and San Diego a 14% drop, and Chicago a 13% drop.

The trend extends beyond city limits. From April 2020 to July 2023, roughly 80% of U.S. metropolitan areas lost children under 15, according to the Census Bureau. The New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago metro areas alone lost about 614,000 children, nearly 30% of the national decline.

Falling birth rates explain part of the shift. But families moving away, or being economically pushed out, explain another, more troubling part. The numbers reveal a society where working people can serve a city but increasingly cannot afford to raise children there.

“We love D.C.,” Rosalynn Douglass told The Final Call. She is a nurse; her husband, James, is a construction worker. “This is where we want to live only because we don’t have children. When it’s time to start having babies, I doubt we will be able to afford the city we love. Houses are very expensive, and you don’t get that much for your money.”

Cities for capital, but not for children

Political and business leaders often promote urban “revitalization” through luxury apartments, entertainment districts, and high-end development. But progress cannot be measured by property values alone. A city that attracts wealth while losing children may simply be replacing one population with another.

Housing is central to the crisis. Families need space, good schools, safe recreation, and affordable transportation. In many cities, these necessities have become luxuries.

In 2023, nearly half of U.S. renter households were cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing, according to the Census Bureau. About 30.6% of Black renters were severely burdened, spending more than half their income on rent.

Meanwhile, Brookings Institution researchers found that 50% of Latino middle-class families could not cover basic necessities, compared with 27% of White middle-class families. Black middle-class families also had a lower median income overall.

Under these conditions, leaving is often not a rejection of city life; it is an act of survival.

A heavier burden for Black and Latino families

Black and Latino families confront rising prices with less accumulated wealth, lower incomes, and lower homeownership rates. Redlining, discriminatory lending, urban renewal, and the destruction of Black neighborhoods blocked generations from passing down property. Latino families have similarly faced discrimination, segregation, and displacement.

When neighborhoods become desirable to investors, longtime residents are often treated as obstacles rather than participants. Property taxes and rents rise. Family-sized apartments and local businesses disappear. People who sustained a community through years of neglect are told they can no longer afford to remain.

For Black families, leaving may mean losing cultural institutions, extended-family networks, and historic neighborhoods. A move can offer more space, but it also brings longer commutes, social isolation, and entry into suburbs where discrimination persists.

“I grew up going to the Petworth Library. My family went to Rock Creek Baptist Church. Those memories are dear to me, and I wanted that for my children,” Mr. Hunter said.

“But the average cost of a house in Petworth is close to $850,000. That is beyond our budget. We found a house we can afford; it’s great, but it’s not D.C., which means additional expenses because our social life is still in D.C.”

Latino and immigrant families also face political hostility and immigration enforcement that can disrupt households or discourage access to services. Relocation does not necessarily resolve financial pressure. Families escaping high rents may take on new costs, car payments, gasoline, and tolls. They gain space but lose time together.

What happens when children disappear?

Children sustain schools, libraries, recreation centers, pediatric services, child-care providers, and neighborhood businesses. When their numbers fall, school districts may close or consolidate schools, reducing services and making cities less attractive to the families who remain. Black and Latino neighborhoods, already burdened by disinvestment, often absorb the loss of schools that also function as community anchors.

Research from the Economic Innovation Group found that the under-5 population in large urban counties fell more than 8% between April 2020 and July 2023, nearly twice the national decline. New York City alone lost more than 100,000 children under five.

Births declined faster in large urban counties than in rural ones, while movement toward exurban communities continued even after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A measure of society’s priorities

The population decline of children reveals an economy capable of producing enormous private wealth but unwilling to guarantee the basic conditions needed to sustain families. Officials routinely call families society’s foundation, yet housing policy, wages, child-care costs, school funding, and development decisions often work against them.

Cities must treat affordable, family-sized housing as essential infrastructure, preserving units and protecting tenants. Investment in childcare, schools, clinics, transportation, parks, and living wages must accompany housing policy.

Black and Latino families must have a seat at the table in shaping these policies. A healthy city should be judged by whether teachers, transit workers, nurses, sanitation employees, postal workers, and restaurant workers can establish homes, raise children, and grow old with dignity.

The decline of children is more than a population warning. It is a verdict on priorities. When families must flee to survive, the question is not simply, “Where have the children gone?” It is: What kind of society made it so difficult for them to stay?

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Fidel was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, Cuba. He became known worldwide for standing up to colonialism, racism, and U.S. control. He died on November 25, 2016, at 90, but his ideas still influence discussions in Cuba, Africa, and other developing countries.

The Cuban government named 2026 the “Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.” From August 10 to 13, Havana hosted an international event titled “Fidel: Legacy and Future,” where experts and leaders discussed his legacy and future.

This commemoration happens during a tough time.  Cubans are dealing with long power outages, shortages of fuel, food, water, and medicine, less tourism, rising prices, and crumbling infrastructure. The U.S. has increased pressure on Cuba, while Cuban leaders acknowledge that domestic mistakes and bureaucracy have contributed to the crisis.

“It is very difficult to express the benefits that the triumph of the Cuban Revolution brought to the poorest,” Helen Cairo told The Final Call.  “In my large family, we were all able to study for free, and access to public health services was free. Life was bearable. My asthmatic son was treated for free.  At this moment, everything has gone overboard.”

Her story shows Cuba’s main struggle: people value the Revolution’s social gains but are frustrated by today’s problems. Many who once benefited from these programs now say they can’t  afford  basic  necessities.

From Moncada to revolution

As a young lawyer against the U.S.-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista, Fidel led the failed attack on Santiago de Cuba’s Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953.  Many who took part were killed, tortured, or jailed.

During his trial, Fidel’s “History Will Absolve Me” speech criticized poverty, landlessness, and the denial of basic services. After being granted amnesty, he went to Mexico, then returned in December 1956 aboard the yacht Granma with 81 others, including his brother Raúl Castro and Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

After heavy losses, a small group reached the Sierra Maestra and launched a guerrilla campaign. Batista fled on January 1, 1959, and the Revolution succeeded.

The  new  government gave land to the people, launched a major literacy campaign, expanded education, established universal public health care, and took control of foreign-owned industries. For poor and working-class Cubans, this broke down barriers of race and class. UNESCO calls the 1961 literacy campaign a major educational milestone.

Wealthy Cubans, former Batista supporters and other opponents left. Political power was consolidated under a one-party socialist system, and critics accused Fidel’s government of restricting dissent, independent media and expression.

Ninety miles from the U.S.

The U.S. responded with economic pressure, isolation, secret operations, and assassination attempts. Cuban forces stopped a U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. The embargo, started in the early 1960s, has lasted through many U.S. presidents, limiting Cuba’s access to markets, banking, fuel, technology, and medicine.

Cuban officials call it a blockade because it also punishes foreign businesses and banks that work with Cuba.  Many United Nations member states have repeatedly called for it to end.

Yet sanctions alone do not explain the emergency. COVID-19, collapsed tourism, diminished allied support, an aging electrical system, weak production and a troubled currency reform deepened it. Current Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel says defending socialism requires correcting failures, increasing production and confronting bureaucracy, echoing Fidel’s view of revolution as a continuing process.

A friend of African liberation

Fidel’s influence goes beyond Cuba. While he was in charge, Cuba supported African independence movements and sent troops to Angola after apartheid South Africa invaded. Cuban, Angolan, and allied forces fought South Africa’s military at Cuito Cuanavale, which helped the fight for Namibian independence and the end of apartheid.

Cuba sent doctors, teachers, and technicians to Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. When Nelson Mandela visited Cuba in 1991, he thanked Fidel and the Cuban people for helping the African National Congress at a time when Western governments saw the movement as an enemy.

“We have come here today recognizing our great debt to the Cuban people,” said Nelson Mandela during a 1991 visit to Cuba. “What other country has such a history of selfless behavior as Cuba has shown for the people of Africa?

How many countries benefit from Cuban health care professionals and educators? How many of these volunteers are now in Africa? What country has ever needed help from Cuba and has not received it? How many countries threatened by imperialism or fighting for their freedom have been able to count on the support of Cuba?”

For Black Americans, Fidel’s boldness meant a lot. In September 1960, he met Malcolm X at Harlem’s Hotel Thereafter Manhattan hotels refused to host Cuba’s delegation. Their meeting connected the Cuban Revolution, the Black freedom movement, and global resistance to colonialism.

Fidel also met with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who visited Cuba and often spoke up for its independence and right to choose its own path.

“Please remember what I said to you in our last meeting, that there is no such thing as death for Fidel Castro, for you are an idea whose time has arrived; and that idea is deep in the souls of most of the Cuban people and now in the hearts of many throughout the world. This idea will continue to grow, and you will continue to grow with it from beyond the grave,” wrote Minister Farrakhan in a 2006 letter.

A legacy facing the future

Cuba made it through the Bay of Pigs, nuclear threats, sabotage, sanctions, and the tough “Special Period” after the Soviet Union fell. Now, families face blackouts and shortages, many young people are leaving, and hospitals and schools, once symbols of the Revolution, are struggling.

The challenge now is to use the Revolution’s values, putting people’s needs first, protecting independence, and listening to the public, to face problems Fidel never saw.

Fidel’s first 100 years don’t show a perfect society.  Instead, they show a small country standing up for the rights of poor people to have education, health care, dignity, and independence, even against the world’s strongest government.

Now, Cuba’s future depends on maintaining its social gains, addressing its problems, and withstanding economic pressure without giving up its independence. Fidel Castro‘s legacy goes on. Its meaning is still closely tied to the everyday lives of Cubans.

The post 100 Years of Fidel Castro: Cuba celebrates a revolutionary legacy amid its greatest test appeared first on Final Call News.

His family and friends were surprised, which is common for a generation taught that a four-year degree is the only way to succeed. But Malik is not alone. More high school and college graduates are choosing vocational training instead of traditional universities. Malik told The Final Call, “I want a job AI (artificial intelligence) can’t replace.”

Malik’s decision is more than just a practical response to the changing job market. For Black and Latino students, it revisits a debate that has lasted over 100 years in the Black community established between two of our great leaders: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.

The historical context

After Reconstruction, when many freedoms continued to be erased by the government on all levels, Booker T. Washington became a leading voice for Black progress through industrial education. He established the Tuskegee Institute and promoted the idea that Blacks in America should learn trades, become self-sufficient, and work in agriculture.

He believed that even in America, a person could rise and earn respect through skill and hard work.

“I want a career and job security. I don’t want to worry about AI replacing me,” Malik said.

A career and job security are goals Mr. Washington would probably understand. He supported learning trades like plumbing, mechanics, and engineering as the best way to become independent. His message spoke to people seeking stability when few options existed for Black people just up from slavery.

But W.E.B. Du Bois disagreed and viewed things differently at the time. In his book, “The Souls of Black Folk,” he said Mr. Washington’s approach accepted the unfair social order and could keep people oppressed. Mr. Du Bois supported liberal arts education for a “Talented Tenth,” a group of Black leaders who could fight for civil and political rights. He believed that economic progress alone was not enough without the ability to challenge injustice.

The modern reckoning

Today, more people from the group Dr. Du Bois may have hoped would be leaders as a “Talented Tenth” are choosing the path Mr. Washington suggested in terms of careers in trades. The numbers show this trend.

A recent report from Validated Insights, a higher education research firm, says that education in trades and certain healthcare professions, are now the fastest-growing parts of American education, outpacing expectations.

“We’re seeing some pretty fast, amazing, and strong numbers in the trade education and health education sectors,” said Brady Colby, head of market research at Validated Insights, in a press release.

The report, “Validated Insights Report: Training Market for Skilled Trades is Growing Faster Than Expected and Leads the Education and Training Market,” released June 30, found that trade education programs made $19.1 billion in 2025. This is about 12% of the total U.S. education market, which is around $164 billion.

For Black and Latino students, choosing trade school is not giving up on dreams. Instead, it is a smart move in a world where AI threatens office jobs, but the need for electricians, plumbers, and construction workers is rising fast.

A new synthesis?

For Malik Henderson and many others, the rise of trade schools is not turning away from Dr. Du Bois’s vision. Instead, it is bringing back Mr. Washington’s ideas in a new way for the age of AI.

Today, plumbers and electricians can earn six-figure salaries without the heavy student debt that often affects Black families. For many, this is not just a smart financial choice; it is also empowering.

“When you have a skill or a trade, whether it’s masonry, carpentry, or plumbing, no one can ever take that away from you,” Brother Abdul Majied Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam and a Newark-based construction entrepreneur, told The Final Call.

“You can eat forever. You’re able to take care of your family. I think the three essentials of life are food, shelter, and clothing. Add an extra one: skill. The trades are one of those skills,” he said.

“From an economic standpoint, it’s also security,” he continued. “When you go off to college and get a degree in some areas, you can benefit, like lawyers and accountants. But when you have a skill, it’s life-changing. I always say, ‘You can eat, you can eat.’ You’re able to provide and maintain for yourself, for family, for a Nation.”

Even with this growth, there are still not enough spots for everyone who wants to join. In both skilled trades and allied health, more people want to enroll than there are spaces available. For example, in the health field, about 7.7 million people said they wanted to enroll over the next two years, but only about 571,000 actually did.

“Even though the jobs and programs are there, there is still a massive, persistent gap between what people say they want and what they actually do,” Mr. Colby said. “If you’re looking at these markets, that means they’re growing, investment is coming in, returns are going out, and it’s still deeply underserved.”

As Malik gets ready to swap his graduation cap for a toolbelt, he is doing more than starting a job; he is building his future. For young people facing a world shaped by automation, hands-on work like building and fixing things is becoming a strong and thoughtful choice. This path offers more economic security.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has spoken positively of both Dr. Du Bois and Mr. Washington and sees the value in what each man taught and advocated for on behalf of Black people. He also explained that due to the enemy of those wanting to stop Black progress, many people misunderstood both men and other Black leaders.

“We misunderstood Marcus Garvey until long after he was gone; we misunderstood Noble Drew Ali, we misunderstood W.E.B. Du Bois, we misunderstood Booker T. Washington; we misunderstood Frederick Douglass, David Walker and Denmark Vesey—we misunderstood our giants!

  And it is not until after these giants have gone that the establishment feels you can get a proper understanding, because you are too far removed from that person to properly act on the principles that that man or woman taught us. 

So, what they do when they lift up that kind of leader:  They give us a ‘personality,’ but never a ‘program,’” Minister Farrakhan said in a January 10, 1982, message titled, “Let My People Go.”

“So’ you can always have birthday celebrations for the great leader or the great teacher, but never concentrate on programmatic steps that would lead us to the goal that that leader had in mind for us,” Minister Farrakhan said.

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The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” places Black progressive movements, activists and organizations squarely in its crosshairs, falsely portraying them as unwitting or willing instruments of a foreign adversary’s campaign to “erase the United States from the Earth.”

The report asserts that since 1959, the Cuban government has waged “a sustained campaign of subversion against the United States” that “has infiltrated the highest reaches of the U.S. government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists, (and) backed an unprecedented wave of left-wing terrorism on American soil.”

It describes Cuba as the “beating heart of a new and distinct kind of Marxism, forged around an overriding resentment and fundamental hatred of the United States.”

State Department officials previewed the document at a meeting with representatives of more than 60 countries, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Who is of Cuban descent, said the small island nation’s intelligence and ideological networks have “helped build the far-left in our country and in our hemisphere,” adding that the government in Havana “remains inextricably linked to far-left groups and movements across and beyond the West.”

Not surprisingly, what is omitted from the State Department’s narrative is the decades-long war the U.S. government has waged against Cuba, which has included: unjust, crippling sanctions, numerous attempted assassinations of the late revolutionary and president, Comandante Fidel Castro, active attempts to destabilize the country through subversive activities and much more.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, a friend of Comandante Castro, often pointed out the good that the Cuban government has done.

“When Fidel Castro rose to leadership as president in Cuba, he transferred land from the rich to the poor. He inherited an illiterate country, but today Cuba has 100 percent literacy. He inherited homeless people, but today every person in Cuba has a home.

In Cuba, citizens have free education, free health care—but America does not like Fidel Castro because he was good for the people,” Minister Farrakhan said, in a message he delivered November 7, 2005, titled: “Jesus: The Guide for the Public Servant.”

In a 2016 letter Minister Farrakhan wrote upon the passing of Comandante Castro, he stated in part: “Long live the memory of Fidel Castro.  Long live the Cuban people who have endured this savage blockade for over 50 years and have produced magnificent things in medicine, in science, in culture for the world to receive. Long live the Cuban revolution.

And may we be on the side of those who admit that we were once blind but it’s our time to see as the confusion of Western heads of state and government is so clear that they are going blind. 

The confusion that exists in the Heads of State and government of the Western world will continue.  They will continue to break apart as the poor, the weak, the Black, the Brown and the Red will continue to rise by the grace of Allah (God).”

Dr. Wilmer Leon, political scientist, author and commentator, offered a searing critique of the State Department report’s underlying logic, comparing it to historical patterns of dehumanization used to justify violence against non-White communities and countries.

“One of the tactics that America loves to use, as it deals with its adversaries, is the creation and promotion of the boogeyman,” Dr. Leon said. “What this report is doing, and is baselessly doing, is trying to rationalize criminal behavior by the United States by claiming that Cuba is engaged in terrorism, domestically in the United States, and internationally.”

He continued: “Donald Trump loves to do the same thing with Iran by claiming that the government in Iran is insane, that they’re evil, that they’re stupid people. It’s a dehumanization tactic that is primarily used against countries of color.

It plays right into the dominant American ethos, in terms of White supremacy. It’s also very similar to the tactic that the United States used to dehumanize Native Americans and to rationalize the Trail of Tears.

This is a tactic that the United States has used against Venezuela. It’s a tactic that the United States has used against Libya, and as Gil Scott-Heron would say, ‘an endless list that won’t be missed when at last America is purged.’”

A report weaponized against Black solidarity

Central to the report’s thesis is the false claim that Cuba has strategically cultivated and exploited Black activism in the U.S. as a vehicle for revolutionary change. The document devotes an entire chapter, “Racial Revolution,” to Havana’s historical relationship with Black activists, portraying figures like Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael).

Angela Davis and Assata Shakur as products of Cuban influence rather than of America’s own centuries of racial oppression. It also references the time in 1961 when Comandante Castro came to Harlem in New York for the UN General Assembly and met with Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X and was received by a cheering crowd.

The report alleges that Cuba has long sought to organize American “minority” groups as “internal revolutionary agents,” quoting a former senior Cuban intelligence officer who testified that one of the government’s directives was to exacerbate “the racial problem in the United States.”

It claims Cuban president Fidel Castro “boasted that his agents in the United States were so industrious and well-placed that they had the capacity to create race riots at a moment of his choosing.”

The document asserts that Cuban state-backed broadcasts and writings played a “foundational role in the formation of Black Power ideology,” citing Robert F. Williams’ “Radio Free Dixie” broadcasts from Havana, which it says urged Black Americans to “take up armed struggle against their country.”

Nowhere, the report claims, has Cuba’s “Shakur strategy” been more pronounced than in the modern Black Lives Matter movement, alleging that the movement’s public language and ideology are infused with the influence of Assata Shakur.

The Black liberation activist wrongly convicted in the 1973 death of a New Jersey state trooper in a trial she and her supporters long denounced as unjust. She escaped prison, received political asylum in Cuba and lived there until her death in 2025.

The report also characterizes the Black Alliance for Peace, a frequent collaborator with the National Network on Cuba, as having created a “database” mapping U.S. military and law enforcement locations, which the document describes as a tool to help activists “strategize how and where to organize and agitate” against U.S. targets.

So-called front groups and ‘fellow travelers’

The report identifies U.S.-based organizations it describes as part of Cuba’s so-called influence network. Among them is the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a coalition of more than 60 American groups committed to lobbying for an end to the U.S. embargo.

The report highlights a “National Rapid Response Plan” distributed by NNOC that it says outlines a strategy for “coordinated nationwide actions” at federal institutions, military bases and ICE detention centers within 24 hours of any U.S. military action against Cuba.

The report describes the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) as the central hub of Cuba’s international influence operation, noting it is led by Fernando González Llort, who served 15 years in U.S. prison as one of the “Cuban Five.” The State Department sanctioned ICAP and its travel agency, Amistur, in June, accusing them of supporting Cuban intelligence activities.

The People’s Forum, Code Pink, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the National Lawyers Guild are also named. The report details their delegations to Cuba, meetings with Cuban officials and advocacy against unjust U.S. policy, noting that the DSA has sought formal communication with Cuban ministries and that Code Pink has come under federal scrutiny over its funding sources.

The report concludes that Cuba has fused espionage, propaganda and political advocacy into “a single revolutionary project,” and warns that Havana’s fundamental objective remains what it was when Comandante Fidel Castro marched into the capital in 1959: a hemispheric Marxist revolution that erases the United States.

Community responds: Defamation and dehumanization

Activists and supporters of Cuba solidarity have forcefully rejected the State Department’s characterization, calling the report a calculated attempt to criminalize dissent and delegitimize Black internationalism.

Obi Egbuna Jr., external relations officer of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association and a former U.S. correspondent for Zimbabwe’s The Herald, told The Final Call the report is part of a long pattern of imperial aggression.

“It’s up to those of us who understand how the world benefits from Cuba and their dedication to their principles to defend them,” he said. “We’ve seen this happen before. We’ve seen this unfold too many times. Trump and Rubio are trying to finish what Kennedy started,” he said, referring to former U.S. President John Kennedy.

In 1961 under President Kennedy, a failed CIA-backed military operation known as the Bay of Pigs was launched. Nearly 1,500 Cuban exiles attempted to overthrow Comandante Castro’s government, but were swiftly defeated. 

“The first seven presidents of this country tried to annex Cuba. The imperialists are sore losers. They do not want a flourishing socialist revolution in this hemisphere and will do anything to pursue regime change,” said Mr. Egbuna.

Luci Murphy, a longtime D.C.-based activist, warned that the report is designed to intimidate and isolate friends of Cuba. “They are making a list of all of the friends of Cuba and potential friends of Cuba, so that we will be scared, so that we will think that they’re coming after us,” Ms. Murphy said. “We need to hang together. We need to really be in touch with each other and connected,” she said.

Aid with one hand, pressure with the other

Just one day after the report’s release, the State Department announced that the first U.S. humanitarian flight had departed Miami for Cuba on July 21, carrying food and hygiene kits for up to 700 families.

The delivery, made through Catholic Relief Services, is the first installment of a $100 million assistance commitment Secretary Rubio announced in May and follows $9 million in earlier U.S. support distributed through the Catholic Church on the island.

The State Department said direct delivery by local parish representatives “will ensure critical U.S. assistance reaches everyday Cubans in need, without any opportunity for regime diversion or theft.”

But the aid arrives even as Washington tightens its stranglehold on the island, blocking most oil shipments and piling on financial sanctions that Cuban officials blame for the very blackouts and shortages the aid purports to relieve.

Havana was initially wary of the offer, which the administration says is designed to help Cuba’s people but not its government, and rejected accompanying U.S. calls for political reforms before agreeing to accept the assistance amid talks with Trump administration officials.

For solidarity activists, the juxtaposition, a $100 million pledge delivered alongside a report branding Cuba’s friends as agents of subversion, captures the contradiction at the heart of U.S. policy.

The Fight Continues

As the Trump administration escalates its pressure campaign against Cuba, including executive orders expanding sanctions, tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island, and public discussion of potential military intervention, the State Department report serves as a blueprint for further action against domestic organizations and individuals who advocate solidarity with the island nation.

The administration has already sanctioned ICAP and Amistur, and federal authorities have detained and deported a Cuban national associated with the organization.

A federal grand jury in Manhattan is examining potential foreign-agent and tax violations involving the financial network of Neville Roy Singham, the husband of Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans and a major benefactor of the group.

For Cuba solidarity activists, the message of the report is clear: the U.S. government views their advocacy not as legitimate political expression but as part of a foreign intelligence operation. Yet, the sentiments from people in this article and expressed by others is plain; they are not backing down.

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The meeting, dubbed “1st All African Town Hall Meeting on Cuba in North America,” was held July 20 and was organized by the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association and facilitated by Black Workers for Justice, the Communiversity and a coalition of veteran organizers, bringing together elected officials, medical professionals, educators, journalists and grassroots activists. Participants were all united by what they described as a shared history of struggle against racism and imperialism.

Tanieris Diéguez La O, deputy chief of mission at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, delivered an emotional keynote address detailing the devastating human cost of the blockade, which has been tightened since January.

“We are talking about more than 100,000 people waiting for surgeries,” Ms. Diéguez said. “We are talking about the working and the function of the dialysis machine, or the incubator for the newborn babies, or the refrigerator for the vaccines.”

She reported that Cuba’s infant mortality rate has more than doubled, to 9.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, up from about four in normal times, and that nearly 3,000 patients depend on dialysis treatment now compromised by energy shortages caused by U.S.-driven fuel disruptions.

“Behind these numbers are not only statistics,” she said. “They are names, they are family, they are parents who have lost their children, and no political disagreement should ever justify the preventable suffering of a child.”

Despite the hardships, Ms. Diéguez emphasized that Cuba has not closed a single hospital or privatized its healthcare system. “Our doctors continue showing up every day,” she said. “They are like heroes.”

Dr. Rosemari Mealy, author of “Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of a Meeting,” underscored that the relationship between Black America and Cuba “has never depended on the political circumstances or the mood of the moment.”

“This has been very historical, and what connects us goes much deeper,” she said. “We share a long history rooted in the enduring legacy of Africa, in the wounds left by colonialism, and our common struggle for dignity and self-determination as people of the Global South.”

The town hall opened with a moment of silence led by Shafeah M’balia, executive director of the Communiversity, for “all those who have struggled, who have died, who have given resistance to colonialism around the world.”

Ashaki Binta, national strategic organizer for Black Workers for Justice, set the context for the gathering, noting that participants represented “decades and decades of work in solidarity with Cuba.”

“We’re certainly all united here in our opposition to the treatment of Cuba, the blockade, and the whole history of aggression against Cuba,” Ms. Binta said.

The program featured brief testimonies from participants chronicling their organizations’ histories of Cuba solidarity work.

Obi Egbuna Jr., external relations officer of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association, detailed efforts ranging from appeals in support of Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade during the COVID-19 pandemic to the establishment of the Shirley Graham Du Bois-William Worthy Media Friendship Collective. He also highlighted cultural work, including children’s plays and art shows dedicated to Assata Shakur and Cuba’s medical brigades.

Dr. Mealy, joining from New York, announced she was heading to Cuba with a solidarity delegation for the July 26 commemorations of the Cuban Revolution. She and Omowale Clay of the December 12th Movement have launched a “Blacks for Cuba Coalition” to take the issue to the streets of Harlem and beyond.

Ms. M’balia described the Communiversity’s pillars of work and announced the launch of a humanitarian aid campaign targeting women’s and children’s hospitals in Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo.

Former Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders, who served 35 years in the legislature, recalled first traveling to Cuba in 1986 and later leading efforts to open agricultural trade exceptions. “Alabama is certainly one of the most conservative and reactionary states in the United States,” he noted, “but we felt the more we could open it up, the more we could build those relationships.”

Dr. Lucille Perez, a former president of the National Medical Association (NMA), recalled leading a 50-person delegation to Havana, where the group was hosted by President Fidel Castro at the Palace of the Revolution. She directed participants to a recent webinar and news statement on Cuba by the NMA’s current president, Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr.

The gathering produced concrete proposals for moving forward. Zaki Baruti, president general of the Universal African Peoples Organization, proposed a National Day of Solidarity with the Cuban people, including rallies at federal buildings and coordinated shipments of material aid.

“We most recently shipped some 8,000-plus books to Gambia to help build a library,” Mr. Baruti said. “Let’s do a national day where we are supplying some type of needed supplies for the Cuban people.”

Colette Pean of the December 12th Movement seconded the call, emphasizing the need to bring Cuba solidarity directly into Black communities. “We must keep it in our community,” she said. “We go to be represented as Black people everywhere to support Cuba, but it is crucial to bring the education to our wider community.”

Tony Menelik Van Der Meer of the Communiversity outlined plans for a delegation to Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, including a “suitcase delegation” of young people carrying needed supplies. He also proposed a broader campaign to get city councils to pass solidarity ordinances and to engage churches, sororities, fraternities and unions.

“We want to align the Black community so that we could raise the consciousness,” Mr. Van Der Meer said. “This is a unique opportunity for us to develop a united front and engage in the serious work.”

Dr. James Pope of Winston-Salem State University described taking approximately 40 students and six faculty members to Cuba over the years, developing relationships with Cuban scholars and institutions. “Most people will say that when the students would go with me on those trips, they would be Cuban by the time they leave,” he said.

Gabriela Castillo, liaison for African Diasporic Affairs at the Cuban Embassy, closed the formal proceedings with thanks to the participants.

“Real friendship shows up when times are tough, like this one for the Cuban people,” she said. “Listening to all of you gives us hope, a lot of hope, and in this moment, hope is something very important to move forward.”

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Mr. Glover said he was diagnosed several years ago. Speaking publicly for the first time about his diagnosis on July 1 with Lester Holt on the Today show, Mr. Glover said Alzheimer’s will change his life, but it will not define it. The 79-year-old actor shared that his diagnosis came shortly after receiving an honorary Academy Award in 2022. His decision to speak openly arrives as millions of Americans are asking what they can do today to protect their brain health before memory problems begin.

A new report from the Alzheimer’s Association, “2026 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures Special Report: American Perspectives on Brain Health,” found that Americans are increasingly interested in protecting their brains long before memory problems appear.

Among the report’s findings: nearly all Americans believe brain health is important, yet many do not know the specific steps to reduce their risk of cognitive decline. Additionally, most adults are willing to make lifestyle changes if they understand the connection between everyday habits and long-term brain health. Many, however, still do not know which everyday habits may lower the risk of cognitive decline.

Researchers continue to point to familiar practices: regular exercise, controlling blood pressure and diabetes, eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, staying socially connected and continuing to learn throughout life. None offers a guarantee, but together they appear to strengthen long-term brain health.

Much of that advice sounds familiar.

Long before Alzheimer’s became part of the public conversation, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad emphasized discipline in eating, moderation, what foods to eat and stay from and caring for the body before disease appears. His Teachings in book one and two of “How to Eat to Live” were not written as a guide to preventing dementia, yet they reflect the same preventive philosophy many physicians encourage today.

Mr. Glover’s announcement matters for another reason.

Black Americans are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease, yet few well-known Black public figures have spoken openly about living with it. Among those whose diagnoses became public are boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, gospel music pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Many families never tell their stories.

Stigma remains. So do misconceptions about aging. Delayed diagnoses are common. Behind nearly every person living with Alzheimer’s is someone else whose life has also changed: a spouse, daughter, son or sibling who becomes a caregiver, often without training, sleep or much support.

Sister Dr. Khalillah Ali, who is based in Dallas, knows that reality well.

After her mother’s death, she realized her stepfather, Dwayne Walker, could no longer live safely on his own. She brought him from another state to live with her in Texas after discovering he had burned his hand and was struggling to care for himself. Soon she found herself awake through the night as he wandered through the house and worried constantly about leaving him alone while she worked. Her story is familiar.

Across the country, millions of relatives quietly reorganize their lives around someone else’s diagnosis. Careers change. Savings disappear. Sleep becomes interrupted. The emotional toll is harder to measure than the financial one, yet both are real.

Older Black Americans are about twice as likely as older White Americans to develop Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Researchers largely attribute that disparity to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and unequal access to healthcare over a lifetime rather than to biology itself.

That makes prevention especially important.

Physicians encourage families to talk with healthcare providers early when memory changes appear instead of dismissing them as ordinary aging. Healthy habits adopted years before symptoms develop may reduce risk and help preserve brain function.

Danny Glover’s announcement reminds us that Alzheimer’s does not distinguish between celebrities and ordinary people. Every diagnosis touches a family. Every caregiver has a story.

Bringing those stories into the open may become one of the strongest tools for replacing fear with understanding.

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For most countries, the answer is still no.

Cuba requested the special debate held July 7, instead of waiting for the General Assembly’s annual vote later this year. Cuban officials argued that tighter U.S. sanctions have pushed the island deeper into economic crisis and created a humanitarian emergency.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla painted a grim picture before delegates. Fuel is scarce. Medicines are harder to obtain. Families endure long power outages, food shortages and rising prices. He said the embargo has become “a silent form of suffocation” for ordinary Cubans.

“In the last few months, the humanitarian damage to our population has intensified,” he said.  Families are suffering through blackouts, a lack of water, shortage of medication, food scarcity and the soaring price of essential goods. 

People with cancer lack access to life-saving medication.  And Cuba’s infant mortality rate of 4 per 1,000 live births in 2025 increased to 9.9, deaths that would not have occurred had there been equipment and therapies.”

The United States offered a different view and presented its unsubstantiated yet familiar talking points that Cuba’s economic troubles stem from decisions made by its own government. Critics argue nothing could be further from the truth. 

The unjust embargo began in the early years of the Cold War after the Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959. Cuba nationalized U.S.-owned property and aligned itself with the Soviet Union. The United States responded with economic restrictions in 1960.

Two years later, President John F. Kennedy expanded them into a near-total embargo. More than 60 years later, much of that policy remains in place because Congress reinforced it through the Helms-Burton Act, making it difficult for any president to dismantle the sanctions without congressional action.

Many countries see the issue differently than Washington.

Since 1992, the General Assembly has voted almost every year to call for an end to the embargo. Those resolutions are not binding, yet they reveal how isolated the United States has become on the issue.

Governments across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean argue that broad economic sanctions punish civilians far more than governments. Access to medicine, food, fuel and international banking is often the first casualty.

Ambassador Pierre Ericq Pierre of Haiti, speaking for the Caribbean community, known as CARICOM, urged both countries to normalize relations for the good of the region.

“CARICOM is a long-standing friend of Cuba and the United States and continues to call for the normalization of these two countries in the interest of the entire region,” he declared.

Ambassador Burhan Gafoor of Singapore, speaking for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, voiced concern about the “deep impact of the present situation on the Cuban people,” including on their access to food, medicine and other essential supplies. 

“It is fundamentally the well-being of ordinary Cubans that lies at the heart of our shared concern,” he affirmed.

Echoing that point, Mali’s representative, Issa Konfourou, speaking on behalf of the African Group, declared: “No difference between two States can justify the collective punishment of an entire people—still less any measure that places the lives and well-being of its population in jeopardy.”

Africa remembers

Cuba’s history with Africa helps explain why many African nations continue to stand with Cuba in UN debates. During the liberation struggles of the 1960s through the 1980s, Cuba sent soldiers, doctors, engineers and teachers to several African countries.

Its military role in Angola remains especially significant. Historians have long argued that the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale weakened apartheid South Africa’s military position, helped clear the way for Namibian independence and accelerated the collapse of apartheid itself.

When Nelson Mandela visited Havana after his release from prison, he publicly thanked Cuba for standing with African liberation movements when many Western governments would not. Cuba has continued that commitment through medical missions and educational exchanges across the continent.

The world stands with Cuba

Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, described the United States blockade of Cuba as “a striking example of illegitimate unilateral measures of intimidation and punishment against Governments deemed undesirable.”

international community had consistently answered that policy with a firm “no,” he said, recalling the Assembly resolutions adopted since 1992 and supported by overwhelming majorities of Member States.

He expressed regret that efforts to convene the meeting had faced strong opposition and alleged that pressure had been exerted on foreign partners to discourage support for Havana’s initiative.  The blockade was one of the methods used to establish control over the territory and revive the Monroe Doctrine.

China’s representative placed the issue in the context of sovereign equality and opposition to interference in internal affairs. “Any military adventurism will only push the region towards a precipice of uncertainty,” he warned.  “No single country can act as the international police, nor can any country make itself out to be the international judge,” he added.

The General Assembly cannot force the United States to lift the embargo. It can make its position known.

Year after year, an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations have done exactly that. The debate has grown beyond relations between Washington and Havana. It now raises larger questions about sovereignty, economic sanctions and whether ordinary people should bear the cost of political disputes between governments.

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The group was on the ground in Cuba as part of an Emergency Mutual Solidarity and Engagement Fact-Finding Delegation.

Organized by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) and convened by Dr. Ron Daniels, the broad-based delegation, including journalists, business leaders, and activists, traveled to the island to bear witness to what Cuban officials call “intolerable acts” perpetuated by six decades of U.S. policy.

“The masses of Cuban people have suffered far too long from 67 years of selective, punitive blockades and sanctions imposed by the government of the United States,” Dr. Daniels told The Final Call.

“To add insult to injury, the current administration in Washington is inflicting collective punishment on the Cuban people by imposing a blockade on fuel urgently needed to provide electricity for the nation and sanctions on any nation seeking to assist Cuba to meet its essential needs. Collective punishment of a people is a violation of international law.”

The human cost of the blockade is not abstract. It is measured in closed schools, in dark nights, in empty medicine cabinets, and in impossible choices.

Yanela Gonzalez Gonzalez, a professor at Isri International University, spoke passionately about daily life under the siege. “There is genocide in Cuba, in a silent way among the people,” she said. “It’s very, very bad for the people, and especially for the Black women and our kids.”

She recalled a devastating loss: “Yesterday, my neighbor passed away because she didn’t have transportation to go to the hospital. When she previously tried to go to the hospital, she was told there wasn’t enough medicine to attend to her.”

Her plea was direct: “We need you to share our voices with the people in the United States. We need your solidarity. We need solar panels; we need medicine; we need people to respect the way that we decide to live.”

The delegation met with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, deputy minister at MINREX (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), who detailed the revolutionary gains now under threat.

He reminded the group that Cuba once guaranteed a liter of milk to every child and every pregnant woman, “regardless of who they are, who their parents are, if they’re professionals, if they’re farmers, if they’re delinquents, if they’re in jail, if they’re counterrevolutionary.”

That, he said, is social justice, along with free healthcare and free education for all. For decades, Cuba’s child mortality, maternal mortality, and life expectancy outpaced every country in the hemisphere except Canada.

But today, those gains are crumbling under U.S. economic warfare. Deputy Minister Fernández de Cossío asked plainly: “Is that a crime? Is that a criminal punishment imposed on a population that includes infants?”

The official described a nation that often endures 16 to 42 hours without electricity in the 21st century, with food spoiling, children doing homework at 2:00 a.m. when power returns, and those with respiratory illnesses unable to run medical equipment. Meanwhile, he charged, the U.S. spends $30–50 million annually on propaganda blaming Cuba’s own government for suffering caused by the blockade.

Walking through Cuban neighborhoods, delegation members heard directly from residents.

Alejandro, a man with asthma, explained that because medical supplies are restricted, he can only obtain his inhaler on the black market. “Tell the Americans that we are suffering in Cuba because we can’t get basic care,” he said. “I need my inhaler but can’t find it. If I do, should I pay for it or get food for my family? These are choices people shouldn’t have to make.”

Dr. E. Faye Williams, peace activist, senior advisor to the World Council of Mayors, and former president of the National Congress of Black Women, said the Cubans she met were willing to share their struggles openly. But she stressed solidarity is not one-way.

“I certainly hope that the women we talked with here don’t feel that we have it so good in America,” Dr. Williams told The Final Call. “We, women, have our challenges in America, too. I hope they feel that they’re not alone, and that what we promised to do as we heard what their challenges are, [we will] do what we can to resolve, and also know that we have challenges.”

Dr. Haki Ammi, IBW board member, author, and educator, said the trip clarified the need for stronger organizing. “I’m dissecting the power dynamics, in terms of what Black people actually represent, and how we have to up our ante,” he said.

“The U.S. has oppressed this nation for decades. We have to expose the contradictions in the system, and expose that if the U.S. comes for Cuba, who else are they coming for?”

The delegation met with a range of Cuban officials, including at MINREX, the National Assembly, and municipal levels. They also visited the Afro-Cuban civil society and anti-racist organizations. Their conclusion: The solidarity movement must deepen and broaden.

Dr. Daniels announced that the group will return to the U.S. committed to systematic engagement through channels established by Pastors for Peace, which regularly sends aid to Cuba. They will also urge the Congressional Black Caucus, legacy civil and human rights organizations, and progressive faith groups to demand normalization of relations with Cuba.

“The Black world owes a debt to the people of Cuba,” Dr. Daniels said. “Hopefully, the African Union will have the audacity to follow CARICOM’s lead and defy the rogue regime in the U.S. by assembling an aid package and challenging the blockade.”

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