Freda Huson, Chief Howilhkat of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in Canada, is an Indigenous rights activist for the Wet'suwet'en people. Even as private companies and the Canadian government collude to force the construction of an oil pipeline through their sovereign territory and under their waterways, Freda was kind enough to engage in a brief conversation about the struggle she is currently leading with her people to protect their ancestral homelands and their way of life, and how it connects to the inequity we face in our own neck of the woods ..read more

Four years ago, I wrote a weird essay about Seattle’s choice to hire Denise Juneau as superintendent of schools. “I like this decision,” I wrote, “but it’s more of a long-term play than an immediate game-changer. And since our long-term plays have literally never worked, well, is this going to be different?” Unfortunately, no ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. “The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.” — Malcolm X By Marcus Harden A simple, profound parable tells us that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Of course, the teachers among us quickly realize after we’ve “appeared” in a st ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. “I’d rather lose everything and have my freedom than be caged with millions.” — Rashiid Coleman By Marcus Harden I believe greatly in hard work – in a work ethic that turns the good to great, the great to greater and greater into the greatest. But as hard work paves the way to accomplishment, that foundation of effort and sacrifice can become hidden, masked by the grac ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” — Shirley Chisholm By Marcus Harden While Black History Today is not “thematic” (beyond the obvious), one thing that tends to run true about history-makers and agents of change is their ability to not only survive, but to thrive; to not only grow ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. “In a game full of liars it turns out that I’m the truth. Some say that rap’s alive. It turns out that I’m the proof.” — J. Cole By Marcus Harden One of the greatest honors in life is to truly watch another person grow. Oftentimes in life we celebrate time passing, people chronologically aging, yet growing – growth itself – is such a beautiful thing, because for all of ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. “Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song ” — Roberta Flack, “Killing Me Softly" By Marcus Harden Music is one of the few sensations that activates nearly 100% of the brain. It is oftentimes the soundtrack to our ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. DeRay Mckesson (right) poses with Matt Halvorson (left) and Lindsay Hill and their kids in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2015. Zeke really loved chewing on that phone… “If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected ..read more

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future. “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” — Thurgood Marshall By Marcus Harden Thurgood Marshall’s words embody what Black History Today has always been about: a tribute to the people making history in our midst. As they receive their well-earned flowers, we all benefit from celebraing their love, their light, and their c ..read more

We skip like a stone on the water from one superintendent to the next. We speak our desire for equity, but not only have we failed to achieve these lofty ideological goals, we don’t even have the ethnic studies curriculum we were promised years and years ago. We have been discussing our inequitable schools in Seattle and across Washington State for some seventy years, and after all the discussion and racism and hand-wringing and research studies and tests and everything else, our schools are still completely inequitable. Disastrously so. Violently so. Looking around us, we see the same inequit ..read more