Today is the first day of Black History Month. It is also the day Tyre Nichols will be laid to rest. On Friday, people across the country watched and shared footage of police officers brutally attacking Nichols and leaving him without aid. The country witnessed as Nichols called out for his mom and asked the officers: “What did I do?”

Unbothered continues its look at the tangled history of Black culture and identity with ROOTS (Un)Banned, a series of stories on book banning for Black History Month. In 2023, we’re exploring efforts to censor Black stories across the country, the roots of what’s happening, those who are being affected, and those who are on the ground fighting to stop it.

There are certain world events that occur, and you just know that you'll always remember where you were when you first heard the news. Sept. 8, 2022, the day Queen Elizabeth II died, will certainly be one of those moments in time for many of us.

Update:

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, ordering that “all persons held as slaves” should “be free.”

Tracy McCarter says she was acting in self-defense when she stood up to her estranged husband. Now she’s being charged with murder.

The new docuseries from Soledad O'Brien and Geeta Gandbhir highlights the work of Derrica and Natalie Wilson, who are advocating for Black missing persons and supporting communities that are far too often ignored.

black people are resilient, but our wounds have not disappeared. Instead, they’ve been ignored, left to fester, so we can continue trying to survive in this world.

One year ago today, police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis, kneeling on Floyd's neck as he called out, “I can't breathe.” A video of the incident made its way around the globe, prompting months-long protests and a national conversation about race and policing in America.

Tomorrow marks one year since Breonna Taylor was taken from us. How do you measure a year? It’s one year that her mother, Tamika Palmer, has had to hold grief at bay in order to pursue a semblance of accountability.

If President Biden wants to support the LGBTQ+ community, he can start by freeing us from high interest rates and predatory lenders.

In June, police shot and killed Monterrosa outside a Walgreens. Nine months later, his sisters are still looking for justice.

The inauguration of VP-elect Harris is a beautiful thing for Black women, but we can’t ignore which of us are amplified in America and what that says about this nation’s investment in whiteness.

It's no surprise that a group of white people would storm the Capitol building in response to recent Democratic victories.

Activist and organizer Brea Baker recounts her journey to abolition after Trayvon Martin's death.

After days of uncertainty, we can decisively declare Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be our next president and vice president of the United States. Let’s be clear: We have succeeded in ousting a president who’s fascist, sexist, racist, xenophobic—I could go on.

Three Nigerian women spanning the diaspora reflect on the movement and share calls to action.

With no officers charged for Breonna Taylor’s death, the legal system makes its own case for abolition. We have danced this dance of disappointment before. We have been deferred justice countless times before. An America that affirms our lives doesn’t matter is what sparked this global movement to begin with. “Black Lives Matter” is what we chanted, and still America found new ways to remind us that it literally begs to differ.

As white male youth become frontline mercenaries for the far right, the way out is through inclusive curriculum, intentional anti-racist parenting, and fighting misinformation and white supremacist organizing online.

The first enslaved African people were brought to stolen Indigenous land in August 1619 . From that day onward, Black Americans and their allies have fought a relentless battle against white supremacy that included property damage, harrowing freedom escapes, armed rebellions, and more.