About US: Their elders looked north for freedom, Black Americans now are looking in the opposite direction.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s family marches in D.C. for Senate action on voting rights bill; Synagogue hostage standoff reveals interfaith progress — as well as entrenched hate; Charles McGee, Tuskegee Airman who fought in three wars, dies at 102; More enslaved Africans came to the Americas through this port than anywhere else. Why have so few heard of it?; Antiabortion leader Marjorie Dannenfelser: 'You can never build human rights on the broken rights of other people'; American secularism is growing — and growing more complicated; Take it from a high schooler who's actually learned about CRT: Adults need to chill out; Race in America: Giving Voice with Quiara Alegría Hudes; The remapping of America — from an Indigenous point of view; The Fight for Asian American Studies; Veterans can now identify as transgender, nonbinary on their VA medical records; States are hoarding $5.2 billion in welfare funds even as the need for aid grows ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Sign up for this newsletter Read online Candid conversations about identity in 21st-century America.       By Vanessa Williams  Email A few years ago, I went to South Carolina to talk with Black voters about the presidential election. One of the people I talked to was Mildred Mitchell, a retired hospital worker who had lived nearly 50 years in New York before returning to Wadmalaw Island, a tiny, mostly Black town off the South Carolina coast. Mitchell, like millions of Black Americans during the first half of the 20th century, had moved north to escape the South's rampant racism and limited employment options. But when she was done working and raising a family, she came back home to the moss-draped live oaks and salty air of the islands. Mitchell died a few months after we talked in 2020 at the age of 78. I also interviewed a younger friend of hers, Tamika Gadsden, then 39, whose parents had also been part of southern exodus. Gadsden was devastated when, during her sophomore year in high school, her family moved back to Wadmalaw from New Jersey. As soon as she graduated, she headed back north for college and career. But several years ago, she decided she wanted to come home, for the beauty and less hectic pace of the island, as well as to be a part of what she sees as an opportunity for Black Americans to help reshape the political, economic and social trajectory of the South, which despite its growing diversity is still a conservative Republican stronghold. Gadsden is part of what is being called a "reverse migration" or, as our colleagues Emmanuel Felton, John D. Harden and Kevin Schaul refer to it, the "new Great Migration." They take a deep look at the phenomenon and whether the new crop of migrants have found their place in the country.  Thank you for reading. Dallas-Fort Worth is seeing its Black population surpass 1 million people for the first time. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post) Still looking for a 'Black mecca,' the new Great Migration The percentage of Black Americans who live in the South has been increasing since 1990, with the region's large urban areas seeing the biggest gains, according to census data. Meanwhile, the Black population shrank in a number of Northern and Western cities. By Emmanuel Felton, John D. Harden and Kevin Schaul ●  Read more »   Martin Luther King Jr.'s family marches in D.C. for Senate action on voting rights bill By Katherine Shaver ●  Read more »   Synagogue hostage standoff reveals interfaith progress — as well as entrenched hate By Michelle Boorstein ●  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Charles McGee, Tuskegee Airman who fought in three wars, dies at 102 By Harrison Smith ●  Read more »   More enslaved Africans came to the Americas through this port than anywhere else. Why have so few heard of it? By Terrence McCoy ●  Read more »   Antiabortion leader Marjorie Dannenfelser: 'You can never build human rights on the broken rights of other people' By KK Ottesen ●  Read more »   American secularism is growing — and growing more complicated By Michelle Boorstein ●  Read more »   Take it from a high schooler who's actually learned about CRT: Adults need to chill out Opinion ●  By Christiane Calixte ●  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Race in America: Giving Voice with Quiara Alegría Hudes Quiara Alegría Hudes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who also wrote the book for the musical "In the Heights" and screenplay for its film adaptation. On Thursday, Jan. 20 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time, Washington Post national correspondent Arelis R. Hernández speaks with Hudes about her memoir "My Broken Language," on growing up between cultures and how her roots have shaped her creative voice. By Washington Post Live ●  Read more »     What we're reading The remapping of America — from an Indigenous point of view By Gregory Smithers | The New Republic ●  Read more »   The Fight for Asian American Studies By Anna P. Kambhampaty | The New York Times ●  Read more »   Veterans can now identify as transgender, nonbinary on their VA medical records By Brody Levesque | Washington Blade ●  Read more »   States are hoarding $5.2 billion in welfare funds even as the need for aid grows By Hannah Dreyfus | ProPublica ●  Read more »     Word on the street   We think you'll like this newsletter Check out Must Reads for a curated selection of our best journalism in your inbox every Saturday, plus a peek behind the scenes into how one story came together. Sign up »

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