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Volume 134 No. 8

THE BLACK MEDIA AUTHORITY • AFRO.COM

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2025 - SEPTEMBER 26, 2025

Photos courtesy of Meta (Facebook) / Morgan State University

Friends, family and thousands of students across the nation and beyond are mourning the death of Dr. Earl S. Richardson (right), former president of Morgan State University (MSU). During his tenure, Dr. Richardson increased the institution’s offerings from a lone doctorate in urban education to more than 15 different doctoral programs. Shown here (top, left), Dr. Richardson with current MSU President Dr. David K. Wilson; Dr. Richardson with the students he loved to serve (left, center); and the president emeritus with the late Dr. Nathan M. Carter Jr., who served as chairperson of MSU’s Department of Fine Arts and director of the famed Morgan State University Choir.

Dr. Earl S. Richardson, HBCU champion and transformative former president of Morgan State University, dies at 81 By Catherine Pugh Special to the AFRO Dr. Earl Stanford Richardson, who served as the ninth president of Morgan State

University from 1984 to 2010, has died at the age of 81. Dr. Richardson succeeded Dr. Andrew Billingsley and was followed by Dr. David K. Wilson, the current president of the university.

In announcing Dr. Richardson’s death to the Morgan community in a statement on Sept. 13, Dr. Wilson called him, “a transformative leader in our institution’s history, who guided Morgan with wisdom, strength and vision. He

ushered in what came to be known as Morgan’s Renaissance–a period of tremendous growth, renewal and national recognition.” Continued on A9

It’s hard to admit it, but I was wrong about democracy By Dr. Frances Murphy Draper

afro.com

I was wrong. Not about the dangers of speaking up — I knew early that raising your voice could make you

a target. I was wrong to believe that democracy would live up to its promise of protecting every voice, when racism was and is alive and well in the United States of America. As a child of the civil rights era, I saw what happened to people who resisted. Leaders were jailed. Children were hosed and beaten. Students were dragged from lunch counters — images carried on television and printed in the AFRO that seared themselves into my young mind. Those pictures shaped an early understanding of justice, and they still matter today because the same forces of fear and silencing are at work in 2025. I remember sitting quietly as my grandfather, Carl J. Murphy, longtime publisher of the AFRO-American Newspapers, spoke about the risks he faced because of his editorials. For 45 years, he used the AFRO’s pages to challenge segregation and demand equality — and Continued on A8

Photo courtesy of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 54th Annual Legislative Conference returns to Washington, D.C. on Sept. 24, bringing together policymakers, thought leaders and activists to tackle pressing issues facing Black communities

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation prepares for 54th Annual Legislative “At a time when rhetoric Conference in D.C. By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer msayles@afro.com The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research and education institute, is gearing up for the start of its 54th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) on Sept. 24. The five-day gathering will convene elected officials, policy experts, thought leaders, business professionals and activists at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in D.C. This year, the ALC is running under the theme of, “Made for This Moment:

Power Policy and Progress,” underscoring the resilience and momentum of the Black community amid trying times. “We are confronting hard truths: our democracy is under attack, the gaps in health and wealth are widening and the future for the next generation is on the line,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery, president and CEO of the CBCF, in a statement to the AFRO. “At a time when rhetoric and policies from all levels are trying to turn back the clock on our progress, this conference is about standing firm, fighting back and mobilizing to Continued on A2

and policies from all levels are trying to turn back the clock on our progress, this conference is about standing firm, fighting back and mobilizing to secure the future we deserve and was promised to all Americans.”