Those who have been to the darkest depths of hell can best appreciate the limitless heights of heaven. (BALTIMORE – August 15, 2026) – I stood outside the Mercantile Trust Building on Baltimore Street and looked up at the 13th floor. That was where I worked. I was a broker trainee at the Chapman Company, headed by Nate Chapman, who was then the premier Black stockbroker in Baltimore. The position had been created for me, as often happens in business, and it gave me an inside look at a world most young Black men from West Baltimore never saw. I learned…

(BALTIMORE – August 13, 2026) – Whenever I think about baseball’s relationship with Black and Latino communities, Roberto Clemente comes to mind. Clemente was more than a magnificent right fielder. He was more than 3,000 hits, 12 Gold Gloves, four batting championships, two World Series championships, and a cannon for an arm. He was a proud Afro-Puerto Rican who came to the United States and encountered many of the same racial barriers faced by Black Americans. He was insulted because of his skin color. His intelligence was underestimated because he spoke English with an accent. Sportswriters sometimes quoted him in…

Baseball did not simply lose Black children. The game became too expensive for working-class families—and the Baltimore Orioles became disconnected from the city they call home. (BALTIMORE – August 8, 2026) – A dear friend of mine and Morehouse brother is Robert “Robbie” Scott, the son of the late Pat Scott. Pat was the last surviving member of Baltimore’s famed Goon Squad, but he preferred to be remembered as an artist and a professor at Morgan State University. At one point, Robbie was a Little League baseball coach. And boy, did I hear some stories about his experiences coaching. But Robbie…

Gregory Branch and the Talley Ho Foundation brought boys, girls, Legends and generations of Baltimore basketball history together at the Dome—while the Brunson League Finals delivered high-level action at UA House at Fayette (BALTIMORE – August 2, 2026) – For anyone who tells you it is just a game, tell them, “Surely, you jest.” It is more than a game. For many inner-city youth, basketball can be defining. One’s ability to handle the rock can help determine a young person’s trajectory. In some communities, hockey is the go-to sport. In other communities, soccer defines the culture. We just witnessed that…

(BALTIMORE – August 1, 2026) – For the uninitiated, Howard University made national headlines this week after unenrolling 502 incoming freshmen who had not satisfied the university’s financial requirements by its deadline. Since then, more than 200 students have been reinstated following individual reviews. That still leaves hundreds of young people and their families facing uncertainty just weeks before the beginning of the fall semester. Howard maintains that it repeatedly communicated its deadlines and financial requirements. Some affected families say the communication was confusing, their financial aid or outside scholarships had not been properly reflected, or they could not get…

(BALTIMORE – July 31, 2026) – I took a photograph today with Maryland House Speaker Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk and discovered that we share a birthday: June 27. I was born in 1965; she arrived one year later, in 1966, in the Dominican Republic. That personal coincidence gave me another reason to examine the journey and leadership of the woman who became Maryland’s first Afro-Latina and first immigrant House speaker. Seven months after receiving the gavel, Peña-Melnyk has already reshaped the chamber she leads. She reorganized its leadership, elevated dozens of women, restructured its committees and presided over a consequential—and sometimes…

(BALTIMORE – July 30, 2026) – I did not know I was economically challenged until I got to Morehouse College. I simply had a dream. My counselor at Dunbar High School, Lillian Gundy, looked at me one day and said, “You look like a Morehouse man.” Then I saw the brochure. It was a wrap after that. There was nothing else to talk about. I was going to Morehouse. Just being accepted was rewarding to me. Actually setting foot on that campus became one of the greatest experiences of my life. I completed three semesters at Morehouse. My mother begged,…

(BALTIMORE – July 30, 2026) – I ask this question with love—and it hurts me to ask it. I am an alumnus of three historically Black colleges and universities: Morehouse College, Morgan State University, and Coppin State University. These institutions helped shape the man I became. They strengthened my mind, deepened my understanding of Black history and surrounded me with people who expected me to succeed. I would not be the journalist, businessman, author, or scholar I am today without the HBCU experience. That is precisely why I must ask: Have HBCUs become too expensive for the Black families they…

(RANDALLSTOWN – July 29, 2026) – Concerned community members turned out in torrential rain last night to hear directly from their elected officials about decisions being made on their behalf. Most of those officials didn’t show. The 10th District Unity Team — State Senator Ben Brooks, Delegate N. Scott Phillips (chair of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, the largest Black caucus in the country), Delegate Robin Harvey, and Delegate Jennifer White Holland — was invited. None of them came. Who did show up: Democratic County Executive nominee Julian Jones, councilwoman nominee Makeda Scott, and several state central committee members from Districts…

“My head is bloody, but unbowed.”— William Ernest Henley, “Invictus” (WOODLAWN – July 29, 2026) – Timmy Greene doesn’t want the spotlight. He never has. Ask around Baltimore basketball circles, and you’ll hear the same thing over and over: he’s the guy who does the foundational work, the gritty work, the work nobody else wants to do — and he shows up, year after year, without fail. “Timmy Greene is the salt of the earth,” said Al Robinson, a City College basketball alum who has attended the last two 1 Baltimore Cookouts. “Timmy and Donnie Joy, as human beings, have…