Statement from the Joint Coalition of Churches & National Action Network:

On August 28, 2025 in solemn commemoration of the historic 1963 March on Washington, a united coalition of churches and the Black Press led by Dr. Boise Kimber, Bishop J. Drew Sheard, and Dr. Samuel C. Tolbert, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr, President and CEO of NNPA: The Black Press of America will join Civil Rights icon Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, to lead a protest march on Wall Street in New York City, the epicenter of economic power and privilege. The march will feature prominent religious and Civil Rights leaders and activists, who will speak and much more.

As our communities face a mounting economic crisis disproportionately devastating African Americans and the marginalized, we declare that now is the time for the faith community to rise and speak with moral clarity. Just as Dr. King before us, today’s religious leaders must carry the mandate and mantle to fight for social and economic justice for all people.

The march not only honors the legacy of those who came before us but also confronts the urgent injustices of today. Economic disparity is not just a political issue; it is a moral one. We will not be silent. We will not yield to systems or policies that rob our people of opportunity, dignity, and basic human rights.

This is more than a moment; this is a movement. Together, we will stand. Together, we will march. Together, we will speak. Together, we will rise.

Joint Coalition of Churches & National Action Network (NAN).

Nashville, TN — July 25, 2025: In a historic announcement, a coalition of leading Black faith organizations and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) unveiled a strategic partnership and plan to confront systemic disparities impacting African American communities nationwide.

Dr. Boise Kimber, President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Pre- siding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC); Dr. Samuel Tolbert, President of the National Baptist Convention of America; and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., veteran civil rights leader and President of the NNPA, are leading this collaboration between the Black church and Black Media.

“There is strength in unity. There is power in our collective voice. There is hope in our actions,” said Dr. Boise Kimber.

For generations, African American communities have endured deep-rooted inequities in healthcare, education, criminal justice, economic opportunity, and access to capital. These challenges are not new. The coalition intends to put an end to fragmented responses and speak with one clear, concise and consolidated voice.

The Black Church and Black Media, two institutions that have long anchored and uplifted Black America, are now coming together with renewed focus and purpose.

This partnership is grounded in shared values, spiritual conviction, cultural empowerment, and an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and progress.

The coalition will focus on five core initiatives:

• Shaping a unified national narrative that challenges harmful stereotypes and amplifies stories of Black resilience, excellence, and innovation
• Mobilizing faith-based and media networks to address community disparities through solutions-focused advocacy and outreach
• Holding corporate America accountable by demanding responsible reinvestment in Black communities through sustainable partnerships, economic equity, and community-led development
• Empowering the next generation by reclaiming our narratives and creating new pathways for education, leadership, and entrepreneurship
• Holding elected officials accountable by spotlighting those whose policies do not align with the interests of the Black community. To earn our votes, they must heed our voices.

“This is more than a symbolic gesture; it is a strategic and spiritual alignment.” When the Black Church and Black Media speak as one, we can ignite a movement. When we organize as one, we can shift the narrative. When we act as one, we cannot be ignored or denied,” the coalition stated.

The coalition invites all stakeholders, faith leaders, media professionals, community organizers, educators, business leaders, and concerned citizens to join this movement for unity, justice, and progress.

Coalition Leaders,

Dr. Boise Kimber, President
National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.

J. Drew Sheard, Presiding Bishop
Church of God in Christ

Dr. Samuel C. Tolbert, President
National Baptist Convention of America

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. President and CEO
National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
Civil Rights Leader and Publisher

By April Ryan
Black Press USA Washington, DC Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent

A packed White House briefing room of reporters heard the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, lay out her claim against former President Barack Obama and his top officials. Gabbard offered that the nation’s first Black president worked to subvert a Trump 2016 presidential win with claims that Russia negatively impacted that presidential election, almost 10 years ago.

Even though Donald Trump defeated his opponent Hillary Clinton, Gabbard told reporters that Obama and his National Intelligence officials “knowingly lied” in their 2017 intelligence assessment of Russian election collusion.

During Gabbard’s speech to the press, familiar names were dropped on the mic like Hillary Clinton, who Gabbard alleged was on “tranquilizers daily.”

During the briefing, several warnings were issued from the podium over this latest Trump administration controversy.  Gabbard, wearing all white before the press, concluded her statement by saying, “The implications of this are far-reaching and have to do with the integrity of our Democratic republic.”

President Obama refuted the allegations this week through a press representative, calling it “ridiculous.”  However, Gabbard says, “It has to do with an outgoing president, taking action to manufacture intelligence to undermine” Donald Trump.

White House press Secretary Karoline Leavitt weighed in several times during Gabbard’s question and answer period with the White House press.  The 27-year-old Leavitt said, “While publicly pretending to engage in a peaceful transfer of power, in private, former President Obama went to great and nefarious lengths to…sabotage his successor President Trump.”

Leavitt went as far as to chastise the press, particularly those who won awards for reporting on the Obama Russian intelligence report. Speaking for the administration,, Leavitt said those winning journalists must be “stripped” of their awards.

And when asked if Friday’s Obama report from the DNI was to help heal her relationship with President Trump, Leavitt said, “The only people who are suggesting that the Director of National Intelligence would release evidence to try to boost her standing with the President are the people in this room who constantly try to sow distrust and chaos amongst the President’s cabinet, and it is not working.”

Leavitt said, “He [President Trump] has the utmost confidence in Director Gabbard. He always has.”  That statement stems from the recent rift with Gabbard and President Trump when Gabbard disagreed with the intelligence that Trump received in the lead-up to the US military strikes against Iran.

By April Ryan
Black Press USA Washington, DC Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent

To the dismay of the children of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, President Donald Trump has ordered the release of more than 240,000 pages of FBI documents related to the assassination of Dr. King in 1968.

“The emphasis here is to give Americans the truth,” said Trump Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields.

In late January of this year, President Trump signed Executive Order 14176, declassifying the records on the assassinations of President John Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

The King FBI files have been sealed since 1977. Subsequently, the two surviving children of Dr. King, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, oppose President Trump’s January executive order. The King children cite the personal nature of their father’s 1968 assassination as the reason to keep the files sealed.

Reverend Al Sharpton the head of the National Action Network and close friend of the King family, said in a statement, “We need to be crystal clear on the fact that Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice, it’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base.”

When Black Press USA asked Fields to comment on the timing of the release of the Epstein files, Fields directed this news organization to the Department of Justice.

The King family requested to review the files before their release. Since the examination of the FBI files the family declared the federal government’s investigation of their father,” an invasion of privacy,” as they assert, “The intent of the government’s COINTELPRO campaign was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle, and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement.”

In her piece for Vanity Fair, Bernice King writes, “Our mother, Coretta Scott King, prepared us for these repeated attempts saying, ‘They keep trying to assassinate your father over and over again.’”

The King family requests that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.” Dr. King’s children also say, “During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).”

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent

Turman’s career began at the age of 12 as Travis Younger in the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play, A Raisin in the Sun. The production featured many legendary actors, including the iconic Sidney Poitier, who would remain Turman’s long-time mentor in the entertainment industry.

It’s fitting that Turman’s star will be placed near Poitier’s.

While Turman may be best known for his role in the hit TV series A Different World, the award-winning and prolific actor, director, producer, writer, and composer boasts a diverse and extensive body of work that spans all media and genres for more than half a century.

Turman’s early work includes films like Cooley High (1975), A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (1978), Attica!, and Minstrel Man.

Modern audiences can tune in to watch Turman as Toledo in the 2020 film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, or more recently as Richard in the top-rated Netflix release, Straw.

Black Press USA spoke with Turman recently about his star on the Walk of Fame and the cyclical (and cynical) nature of Hollywood, including politics and race.

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Target continues to look for love in all the wrong places. As the retailer grapples with falling sales, declining foot traffic, and an escalating boycott, it has poured resources into celebrity deals and high-profile partnerships without directly addressing the harm Black communities say it caused.

Target has also conspicuously failed to engage Black-owned media outlets, bypassing the very platforms that have long served as trusted voices within the communities most affected by its decisions.

Boycotts and other actions began against the chain after Target quietly pulled back from its $2.1 billion diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge—announced after the murder of George Floyd—to expand Black-owned brands, diversify leadership, and improve the shopping experience for Black customers. Instead, organizers and clergy say the company has attempted to buy goodwill through marketing campaigns and donations, while avoiding meaningful accountability.

In Minneapolis, civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong joined Monique Cullars-Doty and Jaylani Hussein to launch the boycott on February 1 with a press conference at Target’s global headquarters. In an open last month to the National Baptist Convention (NBC), the activists accused Target of abandoning Black communities under political pressure from the Trump administration, while simultaneously funding prosecutorial strategies that disproportionately targeted Black youth. The NBC agreed to a three-year and $300,000 deal with Target in June.

“This is about corporate complicity in mass incarceration and the systemic targeting of Black youth,” the letter stated. “Target’s complicity in mass incarceration is not just bad PR—it is a civil and human rights crisis. Black children were caged. Black families were torn apart. Black communities were devastated.”

This week, Levy Armstrong shared with Black Press USA that Target’s approach feels painfully familiar.

“Target has not only lost the trust of the Black community. They’ve also alienated a wide swath of progressive consumers—many of them women—who feel betrayed, disgusted, and done,” she stated. “We are still not shopping at Target. Until there is full transparency, accountability, and reparative action, this boycott remains ongoing and indefinite.”

Instead of addressing those demands, Target has turned to new celebrity collaborations. The company’s latest move was teaming up with streamer Kai Cenat and the AMP content collective to launch an exclusive personal care brand called TONE. The rollout, which included a livestream sleepover inside a Target store, drew swift backlash.

Journalist Jemele Hill compared the strategy to the NFL’s partnership with Jay-Z during the Colin Kaepernick controversy, describing it as an attempt to distract consumers rather than confront the underlying issues.

“Target is spineless. They don’t want to anger Donald Trump, so they won’t publicly apologize or rectify what they’ve done,” Hill wrote. “Instead, they’re going to keep throwing checks at certain members of the Black community, hoping we will lose our will to fight.”

Pastor Jamal Bryant, who leads the ongoing “Target Fast,” also criticized the company for focusing on influencer deals and festival sponsorships instead of direct engagement with the communities it promised to support.

“If @target would spend as much energy and resources meeting the demands of the target fast @targetfast40 as they are on influencers, paying preachers, and going to @essencefest, we would be further along,” Bryant posted. “Doing what’s right for our people is always made to feel like an inconvenience. Stand on business and don’t go back in until they handle us right!”

Even this year’s Essence Festival reflected the growing discontent. While Target hosted a major activation in the convention center, videos on social media showed much smaller crowds than in past years. Activists, including Bryant, Tamika D. Mallory, and Nina Turner, urged attendees to enjoy the festival but steer clear of Target installations.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing over 200 Black-owned newspapers and media companies, has attempted to engage with Target, but so far, nothing has materialized. Founded before the end of slavery in America, the Black Press will celebrate its bicentennial in 2027.

In Houston, Rev. Marcus D. Cosby of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church stated that history shows that economic pressure is often the most effective way to bring about change.

“Our history indicates that when we take our Black dollars away from the people who are oppressing us, we find progress and productivity,” Cosby told his congregation. “If you don’t want to take care of our people, we know how to take care of ourselves. Let the church say Amen.”

In Chicago, Rev. Jesse Jackson joined clergy outside a Target store to issue a warning that the movement will not fade away.

“We will remain steadfast. Target, we will not break,” Jackson said. “We will get used to not spending our dollars with you. We will fast as long as the day is and as dark as a night is, and we ask that you appeal to your better sense and talk to us because we’re not boycotting or protesting or fasting against people. We’re protesting and standing up for rights against your policies.”