Black youth, especially Black girls, use mental health services less than their White peers

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Black adolescents with mental distress are less likely to use mental health services than their White peers, and Black girls are the least likely to access care, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241733.

“Adolescence is a crucial developmental stage and a critical period for onset of mental health problems,” writes Mercedes Sobers, a PhD candidate in epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and research coordinator at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors. “In Canada, Black adolescents disproportionately access services through crisis situations, such as justice system interactions or when intensive care is required, suggesting they are less likely to access mental health care until intense intervention is needed.”

There is a lack of data on mental health services usage in Canada for Black youth and other racialized populations.

The study, which included data on 12 368 middle- and high-school students (grades 7–12) who identified as Black or White from the 2015, 2017, and 2019 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, encompassed schools from as many as 52 school boards in Ontario. It included students from English and French schools in both the public and Catholic systems from the Greater Toronto Region, Northern, Western and Eastern Ontario.

The researchers found distinct trends for Black males and females. Black females consistently used mental health services less than their White peers, with the gap widening as their distress increased. Although Black males with low distress were more likely to use services than their White counterparts, once their distress increased to moderate levels, their odds of service use dropped significantly. In general, Black youth (both male and female) who were more distressed were less likely to report using services than their White peers.

“Black adolescent mental health must be discussed with consideration of the interaction between being Black, sex, and mental distress,” write the authors.

Many barriers may reduce access to care, such as a lack of culturally competent care, inaccessible services, racism, and cultural stigma that can contribute to misunderstandings, misdiagnoses, and misconceptions that foster mistrust in the system. The shortage of mental health professionals who understand the unique perspectives and challenges of Black adolescents can hinder diagnosis and treatment.

“Black boys are more likely to be perceived as older, less innocent, and more threatening than White peers. When Black males exhibit signs of psychological distress, they are more likely to be met with disciplinary or punitive responses, sometimes with fatal consequences, rather than mental health support. This may also explain why, once they overcome access barriers, their care frequency matches that of White peers,” write the authors.

They call for specific policy and practice changes to help equalize mental health service use.

“Intersectional strategies that tackle racism and the specific mental health challenges faced by Black students are needed. Enhancing mental health service utilization for Black adolescents demands culturally responsive and sex-specific adaptations to care.”

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Journal

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.241733 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Mental health service use among Black adolescents in Ontario by sex and distress level: a cross-sectional study

Article Publication Date

8-Sep-2025

Study validates AI lung cancer risk model Sybil in predominantly Black population at urban safety-net hospital

International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer

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(Barcelona, Spain September 6, 2025, 5:45 p.m. CEST / UTC +2 ) — A new study presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) validates the use of Sybil, a deep learning artificial intelligence model, for predicting future lung cancer risk in a predominantly Black population.

The study, conducted by the University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics, (UI Health), the academic health enterprise of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), highlights Sybil’s strong performance in a real-world clinical setting with racially and socioeconomically diverse patients. The Sybil Implementation Consortium comprises UIC, Mass General Brigham, Baptist Memorial Health Care, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  and WellStar Health System.

While prior United States Sybil validations were conducted in cohorts that were more than 90% White, this new analysis focused on a population where 62% of participants identified as Non-Hispanic Black, 13% Hispanic, and 4% Asian. The model demonstrated high predictive accuracy for lung cancer risk up to six years after a single low-dose CT (LDCT) scan.

“This study confirms that Sybil performs well in a racially and socioeconomically diverse setting, supporting its broader utility for lung cancer screening,” said Mary Pasquinelli, lead author, nurse practitionerand the Director of the Lung Screening Program at UI Health and a member of the University of Illinois Cancer Center . “It shows promise as a tool for improving early detection and addressing disparities in lung cancer outcomes.”

Pasquinelli and her colleagues evaluated 2,092 baseline LDCTs from UI Health’s lung screening program between 2014 and 2024.  Of these, 68 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer, with follow-up times ranging from 0 to 10.2 years, she reported

The study found that Sybil’s Area Under the Curve (AUC) performance for years one through six were as follows:

  - 0.94 (1-year)

  - 0.90 (2-year)

  - 0.86 (3-year)

  - 0.85 (4-year)

  - 0.80 (5-year)

  - 0.79 (6-year)

If a lung cancer screening model has an AUC of 0.94, that means there’s a 94% chance the model will correctly rank a randomly chosen patient who develops cancer in the future as higher risk than a randomly chosen patient who does not develop cancer in the near future.

She reported that the results remained strong when restricted to Black participants and after excluding cancers diagnosed within three months of screening.

According to Pasquinelli, the study affirms Sybil’s clinical generalizability and suggests that the model may be unbiased with respect to factors like race and ethnicity, demonstrating strong performance in underrepresented communities. The Sybil Implementation Consortium will now proceed with prospective clinical trials to integrate Sybil into real-world clinical workflows, she said.

About the IASLC:

The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) is the only global organization dedicated solely to the study of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. Founded in 1974, the association's membership includes more than 10,000 lung cancer specialists across all disciplines in over 100 countries, forming a global network working together to conquer lung and thoracic cancers worldwide. The association also publishes the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the primary educational and informational publication for topics relevant to the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of all thoracic malignancies. Visit www.iaslc.org for more information.

About the WCLC:

The WCLC is the world’s largest meeting dedicated to lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, attracting nearly 7,000 researchers, physicians, and specialists from more than 100 countries. The goal is to increase awareness, collaboration and understanding of lung cancer, and to help participants implement the latest developments across the globe. The conference will cover a wide range of disciplines and unveil several research studies and clinical trial results. For more information, visit https://wclc.iaslc.org/.

 

Canada must protect youth from sports betting advertising

Canadian Medical Association Journal

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Canada must enact strong, effective legislation to protect youth from gambling advertising. Minors are suffering harms from problem gambling despite age restrictions, argue authors in an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.251227 .

Since 2021, ads for sports betting have saturated sports broadcasts, constantly viewed by children. Gambling is normalized as a natural part of spectatorship at a young age. Even before single-game sports betting was legalized, a 2019 survey of Canadian students in grades 7–12 found about 4% of students expressed the urge to gamble despite their own negative consequences, and 2% had symptoms of gambling addiction.

Smartphones only make the problem worse.

“The legalization of online gambling (iGaming) in Ontario in 2022 turned any smartphone into a betting platform, compounding existing epidemics of technology and social media use addiction,” writes Dr. Shannon Charlebois, medical editor, CMAJ, with Dr. Shawn Kelly, a pediatrician and addictions medicine specialist, CHEO and the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario.

Problem gambling in minors is linked to an increased risk of suicide, substance use disorder, theft, weapons use, and assault. Most alarming is the increased risk of suicide, with a UK study showing a ninefold risk in males and almost fivefold in females with problem gambling. A study of Norwegians from 2008 to 2021 found that suicide was the number one cause of death in people with problem gambling.

“Allowing glaring and ubiquitous promotion of sports betting is a willful mortgage of Canada’s future to the interests of private profit and tax revenue. Canadian jurisdictions should act to eliminate all commercials that promote sports betting during broadcasts where minors are likely to see them.”

The authors call for the federal government to begin by expediting Bill S-211 which will allow development of a national framework to regulate sports betting advertising and national standards to protect people who can be negatively affected.

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Journal

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.251227 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Protecting Canada’s youth from the risks of exposure to gambling advertising

Article Publication Date

8-Sep-2025

White House's review of Smithsonian content could reach into classrooms nationwide

MAKIYA SEMINERA
Sun, September 7, 2025


In this Sept. 3, 2025 photo, Samuel J. Redman, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts, sits in front of content he uses from the Smithsonian on campus in Amherst, Mass. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)More

High school history teacher Katharina Matro often pulls materials from the Smithsonian Institution website as she assembles her lessons. She trusts its materials, which don't require the same level of vetting as other online resources. She uses documents and other primary sources it curates for discussions of topics like genocide and slavery.

As the White House presses for changes at the Smithsonian, she's worried she may not be able to rely on it in the same way.

“We don’t want a partisan history," said Matro, a teacher in Bethesda, Maryland. "We want the history that’s produced by real historians.”

Far beyond museums in Washington, President Donald Trump's review at the Smithsonian could influence how history is taught in classrooms around the country. The institution is a leading provider of curriculum and other educational materials, which are subject to the sweeping new assessment of all its public-facing content.

Trump is moving to bring the Smithsonian into alignment with his vision of American history. In a letter last month to the Smithsonian Institution, the White House said its review is meant to “assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.” It’s part of Trump’s agenda to “celebrate American exceptionalism” by removing “divisive or partisan narratives,” it said.

Those opposed to the changes fear they will promote a more sanitized version of American history.

In celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary next year, the Education Department recently launched the White House's Founders Museum in partnership with PragerU, a conservative nonprofit that produces videos on politics and history. Visitors to the museum in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, as well as the White House website, can read biographies on the signers of the Declaration of Independence and watch videos that depict them speaking.

“Real patriotic education means that just as our founders loved and honored America, so we should honor them,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a PragerU video introducing the project.

The project mentions some signers favoring abolition and includes Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who became the first published Black female poet in the U.S. But critics say it brushes over some of the nation’s darker past.

“Those are the kinds of things that teachers are really leery of because they don't see partisanship in the sources that we're using as being good educational practice,” said Tina Ellsworth, president of the National Council for the Social Studies.

History teachers use supplemental resources over textbooks

Like many other history teachers, Matro said she turns to materials from the Smithsonian because she doesn't have the time to create lessons from scratch or the budget to buy the latest books. She favors the museum's digitized collections to guide her classes.

“I don’t have to figure out ‘is this real? Is this not real?’ I can trust the descriptions of the artifact,” she said.

More than 80% of history teachers report using free resources from federal museums, archives and institutions including the Smithsonian, according to an American Historical Association survey last year.

The federal institutions' materials have been widely trusted partly because they are thoroughly examined by professionals, said Brendan Gillis, the historical association's director of teaching and learning. Some teachers have out-of-date history textbooks, and online resources from institutions like the Smithsonian can fill the gaps, he said.

“That’s been one of the most influential and profoundly important ways that the federal government has invested in social studies education over the last couple of decades,” Gillis said.

While education always has been part of the Smithsonian's mission, developing materials specifically for classrooms became more prevalent after World War II, said William Walker, a State University of New York, Oneonta, professor who has researched the Smithsonian’s history. The museum organizes professional development workshops for teachers and offers materials ranging from worksheets to videos.

Russell Jeung, an Asian-American studies professor at San Francisco State University and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, took part in a Smithsonian video series in 2020 meant to educate high schoolers and adults on racism and discrimination against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic and other points in American history.

Jeung said he expects the project will be shelved by the White House review.

“I think the story will be told,” Jeung said. “But the tragedy again and the loss is that we won’t get the national recognition that we deserve.”

In recent years, many states have passed laws adopting guidelines on how schools can address topics including racism, sexism and other topics. And professional groups say teachers will continue to adapt and find resources to put historical events in due context, regardless of what happens at the Smithsonian.

“Education is always political, so we know that as social studies teachers, it’s our job to navigate that terrain, which we do and we do well,” Ellsworth said.

Educators worry students will be turned off on history

Michael Heiman, a longtime social studies teacher in Juneau, Alaska, said he typically had his students do a scavenger hunt of artifacts in a virtual Smithsonian tour.

He said the exhibits always have been culturally inclusive and if that changes, he worries it would affect students of color he's taught, including Native American children. It could discourage them from pursuing careers in museum sciences or engaging with history at all, he said.

“We are further quieting voices that are important to our country,” Heiman said. “We are also restricting certain kids in those underrepresented populations to really understand more about their past.”

About a decade ago, graduate students of history professor Sam Redman at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, had the opportunity to collaborate with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for a blog series commemorating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The exercise connected objects in the Smithsonian collection to the civil rights law. The experience for his students was “really incredible,” he said.

Each year, he’s heard students say they want to get a job in the federal government or work at the Smithsonian after graduation. But not this year. Redman said he hasn’t heard a single student express interest.

“This is a pressing concern, no doubt about it,” he said.

——

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.


What to know about the National Museum of American History amid Trump review

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
Sat, September 6, 2025 


The National Museum of American History plays a key role in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Smithsonian Institution over its perceived “wokeness.”

The White House mentioned the museum several times in its list of Smithsonian objections it published in August. Its items and exhibits will be reviewed as part of Trump's effort to get the Smithsonian to "celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions."

USA TODAY visited the museum, along with four others, to assess the administration’s concerns and get visitors’ perspectives.

In depth: Trump says the Smithsonian is too woke. We visited five of its museums to find out

Here’s what to know about the National Museum of American History:
The museum's origins

The museum opened to the public in 1964 as the National Museum of History and Technology, adopting its current name in 1980. It was the sixth Smithsonian building on the National Mall, according to the museum.

The building, which spans nearly 800,000 square feet, is a national historic landmark. It's one of the most visited Smithsonian museums, with 2.1 million visits in 2024.
What we found

The White House’s list of objections includes numerous complaints about the museum, including a sculpture based on the Statue of Liberty that depicts her holding tomatoes instead of a torch and tablet, and a Title IX exhibit that references ongoing civil rights battles as “transgender, nonbinary and cisgender female athletes demand equality.”

Immokalee Statue of Liberty by Kat Rodriguez is seen on display at the National Museum of American History.

Some of the items on the White House list, however, aren’t part of the museum’s current collections. Its “Upending 1620” exhibit, which the White House said portrays pilgrims as colonizers, was closed in September 2022.


The National Museum of the American Latino hasn’t yet been built, and a Latino history exhibit with several items Trump objected to closed in July.

The White House also said a section about demonstrations in the museum’s "American Democracy” exhibit “includes only leftist causes.”

While the majority of signs at the display may be considered progressive by some conservatives, the display also featured signs saying “Stop Abortion Now” and "Secure Our Borders Now.”

A looped History Channel segment on a TV situated among the signs also showed Second Amendment and tea party marches, as well as those supporting issues such as gun control and marriage equality.


As the museum’s offerings show, politics reach all corners of American life.

The “Entertainment Nation” exhibit, for example, features a “Los Suns” jersey that the Phoenix Suns wore to protest a controversial Arizona immigration law in 2010. The “Food: Transforming the American Table” exhibit notes that supermarkets “became symbols of the superior living standards made possible by the American capitalist system” during the Cold War.
What visitors said

Sammy Houdaigui, 22, said it's hard to leave the museum and “not feel pretty patriotic.”

He finds the museum to have a “pretty generous portrayal” of the country.

“It's kooky to me when I hear people say like, ‘oh, this museum is woke,’” he said. “It’s most certainly not.”

Trump’s effort to influence how the Smithsonian portrays American history is a far cry from how other countries handle their histories, said 78-year-old Lorraine Miles.

She was born in Germany, where she said Holocaust history is “crammed down their throats” to prevent the horrors of history from repeating.

She was joined by 72-year-old Robin Bowles and said both are “concerned” by the prospect of Trump reshaping the museum in light of his belief that “everything discussed is how horrible our country is.”

“That’s the funny thing,” Bowles said. “I don’t see it as being negative. I see it as being honest.”

But David Layman, who said he’s around 70 years old and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the museum “could go more positive.”

That said, he didn’t take issue with how Trump’s impeachments were presented in “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden” despite his feeling that they were politically motivated and “absolute nonsense.”

“I think there are a lot of legitimate complaints that he has,” Layman said. “I don’t know that that’s one of them.”

Kurt Kennedy, 74, said the museum provides a “different perspective” than the ones he was exposed to as a child. His childhood history lessons were “very biased toward the White perspective" and “glossed over” certain topics.

At the same time, he thinks it’s “fair to reevaluate ... how things are presented.”

“Problem is, the pendulum swings too far in each direction,” he said.

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY.

USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National Museum of American History amid Trump feud: What to know



What to know about the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery with Trump review underway

BrieAnna J. Frank and Chris Quintana, USA TODAY
Sat, September 6, 2025 

The National Portrait Gallery is among the first Smithsonian museums President Donald Trump’s administration is reviewing as part of an effort to eliminate “wokeness” in the country’s cultural institutions.

The White House mentioned the museum several times in its list of Smithsonian objections it published in August. Its items and exhibits will be reviewed so that they "celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions."

USA TODAY visited the museum, along with four others, to assess the administration’s concerns and get visitors’ perspectives.

Here’s what to know about the National Portrait Gallery:

The museum's origins

Congress passed legislation to establish the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1962.

The law calls for it to “function as a free public museum for the exhibition and study of portraiture and statuary depicting men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States and of the artists who created such portraiture and statuary.”

It houses a complete collection of presidential portraits – the only one in the country outside the White House, according to the museum. It started commissioning such portraits in the 1990s, starting with former President George H.W. Bush.

The building, which it also shares with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is a national historic landmark that dates back to 1836, when it was built for the U.S. Patent Office.

What we found visiting

The White House's list condemned a performance art series that took place in 2015 and 2016, an oil painting showing refugees crossing the U.S. border into Texas that hasn’t been displayed since 2023, an animation of Dr. Anthony Fauci not currently on display and a since-scrapped exhibit that was set to open in September and include a “painting depicting a transgender Statue of Liberty.”

The White House objected to the National Museum of American History’s portrayal of Benjamin Franklin, which it said "focuses almost solely on slavery,” though the National Portrait Gallery’s Franklin painting has no such references. It describes his “lifetime of achievement” and says he “remains highly visible today.”

The portrait museum has a dizzying array of galleries depicting everything from Old Hollywood to 17th-century Indigenous Americans. Its stated mission is to “tell the story of America by portraying the people who shape the nation’s history, development and culture.”

Indeed, among the museum's collection are portraits of the most iconic figures in American history – the unfinished portrait of George Washington that served as the foundation for the image now seen on the $1 bill and the “cracked plate” portrait of Abraham Lincoln that the museum describes as “one of the most important and evocative photographs in American history.”

“The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit that opened in November 2024 and is set to end in September, says visitors will “find different ways that artists use sculpture to tell fuller stories about how race and racism shape the ways we understand ourselves, our communities and the United States.”

One of its sculptures, Nari Ward’s “Swing,” shows a car tire with embedded shoes hanging from a noose. Its description says the piece references the “brutal history of lynching in the United States” and that the shoes represent “the countless lives lost to racial violence, in the past and in our present day.”

“Swing” by Nari Ward at the National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibit also says “American sculpture became a medium for expressing racist hierarchies” and that its pieces highlight sculpture’s “deep connections to notions of white supremacy and idealized white female virtue.”

In the “America’s Presidents” exhibit, the museum notes that neither Trump’s nor former President Joe Biden’s commissioned portraits have been unveiled.

Currently, a 2017 photograph by Matt McClain shows Trump, hands folded and wearing a red tie, looking directly at the visitor. At certain angles, the photo’s dark backdrop allows viewers to see the reflection of former President Barack Obama’s portrait that depicts him surrounded by greenery and flowers representing Chicago and Hawaii.

Biden is represented by a 2023 photograph taken at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco that shows him looking away from the camera as he stands behind a microphone.

A portrait of President Trump by Matt McClain is seen at the National Portrait Gallery as a portrait of former President Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley is reflected in the glass.
What visitors said

Museum visitors said they did not feel like the museum was politically biased.

Ian Jayne, 29, said he appreciated the museum and didn’t think any of the exhibits were “woke.”

Jayne, a former Georgetown student now visiting from Oklahoma, said he hoped the Smithsonian would fight to maintain control over its exhibits.

“So much of American culture is about open expression,” he said.

Maya Ribault, 50, works near the National Portrait Gallery. She is a frequent guest and considers herself a bit of a superfan.

She said the museums do a great job of representing the nuance and diversity of America.

“If I could see the curators,” she said, “I’d give them a big hug.”

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY.

USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National Portrait Gallery: What to know amid Trump review


What to know about the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Christopher Cann, USA TODAY
Sat, September 6, 2025

WASHINGTON – The National Museum of African American History and Culture – which President Donald Trump once said made him “deeply proud” – has become a flashpoint in the White House's targeting of the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum was among a group of Smithsonian facilities named in Trump's executive order "restoring truth and sanity to American history." It was also one of several museums that is having its exhibits and programming examined as part of a White House review ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary next year.

Since its come under pressure from the Trump administration, the African American history museum's director has stepped down and its grounds have been the site of several large rallies, with hundreds of demonstrators demanding that the adminitration leave the museum alone.

In August, Trump said on social media that the Smithsonian focuses too much on “how bad slavery was” and not enough on “success.” As an example, the White House cited a controversial graphic released online by the African American history museum in 2020.

The graphic, which was part of the museum’s “Talking About Race” portal, described what it called “aspects and assumptions about white culture.” Following intense backlash from conservatives, the graphic was removed, and the museum issued an apology.

The White House’s recent characterizations of the museum stand in stark contrast to Trump's comments after he toured the facility in 2017 and hailed it as “a beautiful tribute to so many American heroes."

“This tour was a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms,” he said at the time.

USA TODAY visited the museum, along with four others, to assess the administration’s concerns and get visitors’ perspectives.

Here's what to know:

When did the museum open?

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on Sept. 24, 2016, to much fanfare.


The opening ceremony was full of pomp and circumstance, with reflective speeches and a slate of presidents, actors and celebrities in attendance.

President Barack Obama closed out the event and, speaking to a large crowd gathered outside the three-tiered building, said the museum reaffirms that "African American history ... is central to the American story."

U.S. President Donald Trump looks at an exhibit on slavery during the American revolution while visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, U.S., Feb. 21, 2017.

A museum a long time in the making

Congress and President George W. Bush authoritzed the contruction of the museum in 2003, following decades of requests and lobbying from advocates who wanted to see a museum in the nation's capital dedicated to the experience and history of African Americans.

Unusually, the museum had to build its collection from scratch. To do so, a Smithsonian team traveled across the country and held events in which thousands of ordinary people brought in antiques and heirlooms to donate. Many of the items that are highlighted in the museum's galleries – including Harriet Tubman's shawl and Nat Turner's Bible – were acquired this way.

Built on five acres of land a short walk from the Washington Monument, the facility is among the newest Smithsonian museums. It's a sprawling 10-story building holding about 105,000 square feet of exhibition space. In 2024, it hosted 1.6 million visitors.

A guard tower from Angola Prison stand in the background at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The prison, which was referred to as the “the bloodiest prison in the South,” originated on a plantation and cells were located on old slave quarters.

What's inside the National Museum of African American History?

The museum’s permanent galleries trace through six centuries of history in the Americas, from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the early 1500s to the election of President Barack Obama and beyond.

On the bottom floor, where the historical galleries begin, the mood is somber as visitors navigate dimly lit corridors, viewing renderings of Africans packed into slave ships and descriptions of the horrid conditions they faced in colonial North America.

The museum notes how African slaves worked alongside indentured servants from Europe before laws in the mid-1700s cemented a system of slavery based on African descent. These new laws, a video in the museum says, “created whiteness” and separated indentured Europeans from enslaved Africans.

A statue of Thomas Jefferson stands in front of a wall emblazoned with the slaves he owned. The museum notes that Jefferson owned 609 slaves, including his own children.

At the beginning of a section on the Declaration of Independence stands a statue of Thomas Jefferson flanked by stacks of bricks, each emblazoned with the names of the slaves he owned.

“The tension between slavery and freedom – who belongs and who is excluded – resonates through the nation’s history and spurs the American people to wrestle constantly with building a ‘perfect union,’” text on a nearby wall reads. “This paradox was embedded in national institutions that are still vital today.”

As visitors ascend through decades of history, they can enter a segregation-era railway car, sit at a lunch counter protest and read about Civil Rights figures such as Rosa Parks, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. One room contains the casket of 14-year-old Emmett Till, the boy who was kidnapped and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a White woman.

Facing the rising sun, the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Jan. 13, 2017.

At the end of the historic galleries, where light begins pouring into the building, visitors move above ground and pass by a quote from poet and Civil Rights activist Langston Hughes

“I, too, am American,” it reads.

The top floors of the museum are dedicated to African American culture and the pivotal role Black Americans have played in everything from music and literature to technological advancements and the military.

Beaming with sunlight, these galleries feature shimmering pieces of memorabilia: Muhammad Ali’s headgear, Jackie Robinson’s jersey, one of Dinah Washington’s dresses and Chuck Berry's cherry red Cadillac Eldorado – a stark difference in tone from the exhibits below ground.

A red Cadillac Eldorado owned by Chuck Berry is seen on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Visitors describe museum as 'truthful' and 'all-encompassing'

Over a dozen people who visited the museum told USA TODAY it presents a clear-eyed telling of history that doesn’t sugar-coat the atrocities of slavery and segregation, but also provides plenty of examples of success, hope and prosperity.

“I think it’s very honest and truthful,” said Chris Bradshaw, 40, who visited the museum for the first time with his mother.

He took issue with Trump saying the Smithsonian focused too much on slavery. “It is literally the foundation of this country, and it’s the foundation of this museum,” Bradshaw said. “The prosperity is there – it’s just at the top.”

Eugene Lucas, 61, spent a few hours in the museum while on a family trip to attend an honoring ceremony for his cousin – a member of the rap trio Jungle Brothers – hosted by the National Hip-Hop Museum.

“It was all-encompassing,” he said of the galleries, including a section on the Harlem Hellfighters, a regiment of Black Army infantrymen in which his great-grandfather served.

“Changing any of this now would just be going back in time.”

NOTHING IS SACRED

One of the world's most sacred places is being turned into a luxury mega-resort

Yolande Knell - BBC News, Jerusalem
Sat, September 6, 2025 


The 6th Century St Catherine's is the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery 

[Universal Images Group via Getty Images]

For years, visitors would venture up Mount Sinai with a Bedouin guide to watch the sunrise over the pristine, rocky landscape or go on other Bedouin-led hikes.

Now one of Egypt's most sacred places - revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims - is at the heart of an unholy row over plans to turn it into a new tourism mega-project.

Known locally as Jabal Musa, Mount Sinai is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments. Many also believe that this is the place where, according to the Bible and the Quran, God spoke to the prophet from the burning bush.

The 6th century St Catherine's Monastery, run by the Greek Orthodox Church, is also there - and seemingly its monks will stay on now that Egyptian authorities, under Greek pressure, have denied wanting to close it.

However, there is still deep concern about how the long-isolated, desert location - a Unesco World Heritage site comprising the monastery, town and mountain - is being transformed. Luxury hotels, villas and shopping bazaars are under construction there.

The long-isolated desert location is being transformed [BBC]

It is also home to a traditional Bedouin community, the Jebeleya tribe. Already the tribe, known as the Guardians of St Catherine, have had their homes and tourist eco-camps demolished with little or no compensation. They have even been forced to take bodies out of their graves in the local cemetery to make way for a new car park.

The project may have been presented as desperately needed sustainable development which will boost tourism, but it has also been imposed on the Bedouin against their will, says Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has worked closely with Sinai tribes.

"This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community," he told the BBC.

"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage," he added. "It's a world they have always chosen to remain detached from, to whose construction they did not consent, and one that will change their place in their homeland forever."

Locals, who number about 4,000, are unwilling to speak directly about the changes.

Construction in the Plain of el-Raha in 2024 [Ben Hoffler]

So far, Greece is the foreign power which has been most vocal about the Egyptian plans, because of its connection to the monastery.

Tensions between Athens and Cairo flared up after an Egyptian court ruled in May that St Catherine's - the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery - lies on state land.

After a decades-long dispute, judges said that the monastery was only "entitled to use" the land it sits on and the archaeological religious sites which dot its surroundings.

Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, head of the Church of Greece, was quick to denounce the ruling.

"The monastery's property is being seized and expropriated. This spiritual beacon of Orthodoxy and Hellenism is now facing an existential threat," he said in a statement.

In a rare interview, St Catherine's longtime Archbishop Damianos told a Greek newspaper the decision was a "grave blow for us... and a disgrace". His handling of the affair led to bitter divisions between the monks and his recent decision to step down.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem pointed out that the holy site - over which it has ecclesiastical jurisdiction - had been granted a letter of protection by the Prophet Muhammad himself.

It said that the Byzantine monastery - which unusually also houses a small mosque built in the Fatimid era - was "an enshrinement of peace between Christians and Muslims and a refuge of hope for a world mired by conflict".

While the controversial court ruling remains in place, a flurry of diplomacy ultimately culminated in a joint declaration between Greece and Egypt ensuring the protection of St Catherine's Greek Orthodox identity and cultural heritage.

Mount Sinai, known locally as Jabal Musa, is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments [Ben Hoffler]

'Special gift' or insensitive interference?

Egypt began its state-sponsored Great Transfiguration Project for tourists in 2021. The plan includes opening hotels, eco-lodges and a large visitor centre, as well as expanding the small nearby airport and a cable car to Mount Moses.

The government is promoting the development as "Egypt's gift to the entire world and all religions".

"The project will provide all tourism and recreational services for visitors, promote the development of the town [of St Catherine] and its surrounding areas while preserving the environmental, visual, and heritage character of the pristine nature, and provide accommodation for those working on St Catherine's projects," Housing Minister Sherif el-Sherbiny said last year.

While work does appear to have stalled, at least temporarily, due to funding issues, the Plain of el-Raha - in view of St Catherine's Monastery - has already been transformed. Construction is continuing on new roads.

This is where the followers of Moses, the Israelites, are said to have waited for him during his time on Mount Sinai. And critics say the special natural characteristics of the area are being destroyed.

Detailing the outstanding universal value of the site, UNESCO notes how "the rugged mountainous landscape around... forms a perfect backdrop for the Monastery".

It says: "Its siting demonstrates a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate bond between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other."

The area is known for its natural beauty and rugged mountainous landscape [Ben Hoffler]

Back in 2023, Unesco highlighted its concerns and called on Egypt to stop developments, check their impact and produce a conservation plan.

This has not happened.

In July, World Heritage Watch sent an open letter calling on Unesco's World Heritage Committee to place the St Catherine's area on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

Campaigners have also approached King Charles as patron of the St Catherine Foundation, which raises funds to help conserve and study the monastery's heritage with its collection of valuable ancient Christian manuscripts. The King has described the site as "a great spiritual treasure that should be maintained for future generations".

The mega-project is not the first in Egypt to draw criticism for a lack of sensitivity to the country's unique history.

But the government sees its series of grandiose schemes as key to reinvigorating the flagging economy.

Egypt's once-thriving tourism sector had begun to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic when it was hit by the brutal war in Gaza and a new wave of regional instability. The government has declared an aim of reaching 30 million visitors by 2028.

Under successive Egyptian governments, commercial development of the Sinai has been carried out without consulting the indigenous Bedouin communities.

The peninsula was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War and only returned to Egypt after the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979. The Bedouin have since complained of being treated like second-class citizens.

The construction of Egypt's popular Red Sea destinations, including Sharm el-Sheikh, began in South Sinai in the 1980s. Many see similarities with what is happening at St Catherine's now.

"The Bedouin were the people of the region, and they were the guides, the workers, the people to rent from," says Egyptian journalist Mohannad Sabry.

"Then industrial tourism came in and they were pushed out - not just pushed out of the business but physically pushed back from the sea into the background."

A hotel under construction in the Plain of el-Raha in 2024 [Ben Hoffler]

As with the Red Sea locations, it is expected that Egyptians from elsewhere in the country will be brought in to work at the new St Catherine's development. However, the government says it is also "upgrading" Bedouin residential areas.

St Catherine's Monastery has endured many upheavals through the past millennium and a half but, when the oldest of the monks at the site originally moved there, it was still a remote retreat.

That began to change as the expansion of the Red Sea resorts brought thousands of pilgrims on day trips at peak times.

In recent years, large crowds would often be seen filing past what is said to be the remnants of the burning bush or visiting a museum displaying pages from the Codex Sinaiticus - the world's oldest surviving, nearly complete, handwritten copy of the New Testament.

Now, even though the monastery and the deep religious significance of the site will remain, its surroundings and centuries-long ways of life look set to be irreversibly changed.

‘Luxury mega resort’ planned at one of the world’s most sacred sites

Harry Cockburn
Sun, September 7, 2025
THE INDEPENDENT


The area is believed to be where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush

 (Getty Images)

One of the world’s most sacred religious sites – Mount Sinai – where amid thunder and fire, God is said to have handed over the 10 Commandments to Moses on tablets of stone, is now on course to become home to a luxury mega resort.

The entire area, also believed to be where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, is sacred to three world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, but now, the isolated location is at the centre of a row over rapid development of the site for tourism.

Luxury hotels, restaurants, shopping bazaars, high-end villas, a cable car, and expanded airport facilities nearby are planned or already under construction in this mountainous area of the Sinai Peninsula, a site which is already home to the 6th Century St Catherine's Monastery, the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery.

Mount Sinai in Egypt is one of the world’s most sacred religious sites (Alamy/PA)

According to a BBC report, the Jebeleya, a traditional Bedouin community living in the area, have had their homes and existing tourist eco-camps demolished and have even been forced to exhume bodies from their graves in a local cemetery to make way for a new car park.

Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has previously worked with tribes living on the Sinai Peninsula, told the broadcaster: "This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community.

"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage.

"It's a world they have always chosen to remain detached from, to whose construction they did not consent, and one that will change their place in their homeland forever."

Saint Catherine's Monastery with Willow Peak, traditionally considered Mount Horeb, in the background (Joonas Plaan/Wiki Commons)

Around 4,000 people live locally, but are unwilling, or feel unable, to speak about the scale of the development and what it means for the region, the report suggested.

The development – known in Egypt as the Great Transfiguration Project – has been described by Egypt Today – a state-run newspaper – as “an opportunity to harness the magic of this region and elevate it into a must-visit future global destination, honouring its spiritual, religious, archaeological, and historical significance as a haven for heavenly beliefs”.

But the rapid advance of works has sparked international concerns for the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site.

In July, the organisation World Heritage Watch sent an open Letter to Unesco calling for the Saint Catherine area to be added to the list of world heritage sites considered to be “in danger”.

At the time, World Heritage Watch Chair Stephan Doempke said: “Egypt has continued to provide misleading, inconsistent or incomplete information to Unesco, and it is time now that UNESCO is very clear that they are running out of patience.”

In the letter he drafted with help from site experts and using up-to-date information from local informants on the ground, he added: “The remoteness and serenity of the area, a key value of the World Heritage, must be preserved under all circumstances in order to maintain the sacred character of the landscape and enable the spiritual retreat of the monks.”

In contrast, reports in Egypt Today describe the development as a “multi-billion-pound masterpiece”, which align with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's “vision to nurture and develop this extraordinary region”.

In March, prime minister Mostafa Madbouly expressed Egypt's intention to present this project as a “gift to the entire world and all religions”.

Texas attorney general wants students to pray in school – unless they’re Muslim

Christopher Mathias
Sun, September 7, 2025 
THE GUARDIAN


Ken Paxton speaks at CPAC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in February 2024. In 2017 he expressed ‘concerns’ about Muslim students praying at a Frisco school.Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for US Senate, has long believed in school prayer. Now, he’s prescribing precisely what type of prayer he wants the state’s 6 million public school students to recite.

“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday, encouraging students to say “the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ”.

The press release included the full text of the Lord’s Prayer as it is written in the King James version of the Bible, the latest example of Paxton and other Texas officials seeming to endorse Christianity over other faiths.

“Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth, dismantle the solid foundation that America’s success and strength were built upon, and erode the moral fabric of our society,” Paxton said. “Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand.”

Paxton’s statement was released as Senate Bill 11 went into effect across Texas; it’s a piece of Republican legislation allowing schools to set aside time for “prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts” during the school day. Critics have condemned the bill as an attempt to imbue a secular public education in the state with the practice of Christianity, in violation of the US constitution’s separation of church and state.

“They’re blowing right through separation of church and state,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Related: Texas approves new Bible-based curriculum for elementary schools

“They have no respect for other faiths. And in fact, that includes a lot of Christians who don’t agree with this far-right version of Christianity. They’re trying to indoctrinate children into this agenda and it’s outrageous, and it’s breaking one of the most important constitutional principles we have in this country with the first amendment and the separation of church and state.”

Beirich added that Paxton, along with figures in Washington DC, such as the House speaker, Mike Johnson, were “people who believe that this country is a Christian nation, that Christianity should have primacy”.

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment about whether he was trying to push Christianity on Texas’s public school students.

It is instructive, however, to revisit how Paxton once reacted to a report of Muslim students praying in a Dallas-area school. In 2017, the attorney general’s office published an open letter to the superintendent of schools in Frisco, Texas, expressing “concerns” over Muslim students at Liberty high school using a spare classroom to pray during school hours.

“It appears that the prayer room is ‘dedicated to the religious needs of some students’,” the letter stated, quoting an article in the school’s newspaper, “namely, those who practice Islam.”

In a subsequent press release, Paxton’s office stated: “Recent news reports have indicated that the high school’s prayer room is … apparently excluding students of other faiths.”

Again, “recent news reports” seemed to refer to a single article in the high school newspaper.

But that article, written by an 11th-grader, made no mention of the room being off-limits to students of other faiths. Rather, the article quotes the principal observing how “the trademark of what makes Liberty High so great” is the “diversity” of the faiths and cultures on campus.

“As long as it’s student-led, where the students are organizing and running it, we pretty much as a school stay out of that and allow them their freedom to practice their religion,” the principal said.

Had Paxton’s office checked with the school district before publishing its open letter, school officials would have noted the spare classroom was available for all students – not just Muslims – to practice their faith.

Paxton, it seemed, had tried to create a culture-war controversy out of thin air.

“It is unfortunate that our state’s top law enforcement officer would engage in a cheap Islamophobic publicity stunt that could very well result in increased bullying of Muslim students and the creation of a hostile learning environment,” the Texas chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said in a statement at the time.

That Paxton once fearmongered about Muslims praying in class but is now encouraging students to say the Lord’s Prayer is consistent with his particular brand of Christian nationalism or dominionism, which seeks to erode any wall between church and state, establishing a government run according to a far-right interpretation of Christian scripture.

During his time in public office, Paxton has received considerable financial support from a coterie of ultraconservative west Texas billionaires who, as ProPublica reported, have made the state into “the country’s foremost laboratory for Christian nationalist policy”.

On Thursday, Paxton announced he would appeal a “flawed ruling by a federal judge” that stopped another Christian nationalist piece of legislation from going into effect, this one requiring Texas schools to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Paxton’s wife publicly accused him of disobeying the seventh commandment – ‘Thou shall not commit adultery’

“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of American law, and that fact simply cannot be erased by radical, anti-American groups trying to ignore our moral heritage,” Paxton seethed in another statement.

“There is no legal reason to stop Texas from honoring a core ethical foundation of our law, especially not a bogus claim about the ‘separation of church and state,’ which is a phrase found nowhere in the Constitution.”

Paxton’s wife publicly accused him of disobeying the seventh commandment – “Thou shall not commit adultery” – earlier this summer while stating in a divorce petition that he had had an extramarital affair.

His Christian nationalist statements this week, Texas political observers have noted, might be an attempt to repair his reputation, and to shore up ultraconservative support in his battle to unseat John Cornyn in the US Senate.

If his agenda, and the GOP’s broader Christian nationalist agenda, is allowed to move forward, Beirich said, it will be “absolutely punishing for people of other faiths”.

In a statement to the Guardian, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was wary of Paxton’s insistence that students say the Lord’s Prayer in public schools: “Although protecting religious freedom in schools would be a noble pursuit, Attorney General Paxton’s rhetoric and his history of anti-Muslim bigotry raises the obvious suspicion that his embrace of religious liberty will not extend beyond his own claimed faith.

“If Attorney General Paxton wants schools to set aside time for praying and reading scripture, that must include time for Texas Muslims to read the Quran, Jewish students to read the Torah, and on and on,” the group added.