Black women continue to break barriers! Regina King’s new film is making history as the first film directed by a Black woman to be selected at the Venice Film Festival, The Guardian reports.  The One Night in Miami film is an adaptation of Kemp Powers’ drama about a meeting between Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke after Ali’s victory over Sonny Liston in February 1964. The film is based on a true story and is King’s first time behind the camera as a director.  While the annual film festival has spotlighted a host of Black male filmmakers including Spike Lee,...

We're lovin' it! A former McDonald's employee just opened up the first Black-owned vegan restaurant in Harrisburg, PA, VegNews Stefan Hawkins is the co-owner of House of Vegans, a new vegan eatery and the first Black-owned one in Harrisburg, PA. Hawkins partnered up with friend Laquana Barber to create the restaurant to offer more healthy eating options for residents. Barber decided to go vegan first, citing her asthma as the reason behind the lifestyle change. Hawkins was next, choosing to make a move to a plant-based diet after working at McDonald's, where he discovered the not so beautiful side of the "meat-centric...

All rise! New Jersey just named the first Black woman to sit on the their Supreme Court in the state's 224-year history, NJ.com reports. Fabiana Pierre-Louis was sworn in to the New Jersey Supreme Court last week, making history as the first Black woman to occupy a seat in the state’s 224-year history. Pierre-Louis is the daughter of Haitian immigrants who moved to Brooklyn before eventually settling in Irvington, New Jersey. Her father was a taxi driver and her mother worked at a hospital in Manhattan. A first generation American, English is Pierre-Louis’ second language. She worked hard throughout school, eventually receiving financial...

If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready! Meet Dana Delane-Williams, the founder of American High School, one of the first Black woman-owned K-12 virtual schools in the world, Black Enterprise reports. In 2002, after working as an instructor at the University of Kentucky for several years, Delane-Williams created American High School (AHS) to provide innovative pathways to education. She started first with an offering of 24 credits to high school students grades 9-12, the minimum amount needed to graduate. Since then, she has expanded her school to include more than 350 online courses. AHS offers an online elementary...

This was genius! Two Black bankers merged their companies to create the largest Black-Owned bank in the nation with more than $1 billion combined assets. According to The Texas Black Business Directory, Brian E. Argrett, CEO of City First Bank in Washington, D.C. and Wayne-Kent A. Bradshaw, CEO of the publicly traded Broadway Financial Corp (BYFC), in Los Angeles, have merged to create a new company. Under the new merger, Argrett will act as CEO with Bradshaw serving as chairman, combining to increase their lending capacity for commercial investments with a focus on affordable housing, small businesses, and nonprofit development in...