Judge orders 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his dad released from ICE detention

A5-year-old boy and his fathermust be released by Tuesday from the Texas center where they've been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday in a ruling that harshly criticized the Trump administration's approach to enforcement.

Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack, being surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers sparked even more outcry about the administration'simmigration crackdownin Minnesota.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who sits in San Antonio and was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that "the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."

Biery had previously ruled that the boy and his fathercould not be removed from the U.S., at least for now.

Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who is originally from Ecuador, were detained in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officersused the preschooler as "bait"by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer. The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an "abject lie." It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.

The government says Arias entered the U.S. illegally from Ecuador in December 2024. The family's lawyer says he has a pending asylum claim that allows him to remain in the country.

Their detention led to aprotest at the Texas family detention centerand a visit bytwo Texas Democratic members of Congress.

In his order Saturday, Biery said: "apparent also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence," suggesting the Trump administration's actions echo those that then-author and future President Thomas Jefferson enumerated as grievances against England's King George.

Among them: "He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People" and "He has excited domestic Insurrection among us."

Biery included in his ruling a photo of Liam and references to two lines in the Bible: "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these," and "Jesus wept."

He's not the only federal judge who has been tough on ICE recently.A Minnesota-based judgewith a conservative pedigree described the agency as a serial violator of court orders related to the crackdown.

Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy, has said there's a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day. It's that figure which the judge seemed to refer to as a "quota."

Spokespersons from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The Law Firm of Jennifer Scarborough, which is representing the boy and his family, said in a statement that it was working "to ensure a safe and timely reunion."

"We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal," they said.

During Wednesday's visit by Texas Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, the boy slept in the arms of his father, who said Liam was frequently tired and not eating well at the detention facility that houses about 1,100 people, according to Castro.

Detained families report poor conditions likeworms in food,fighting for clean waterand poor medical care at the detention center since itsreopening last year. In December, a report filed by ICE acknowledged they held about 400 children longer than the recommended limit of 20 days.

Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this article.

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February 01, 2026

Judge orders 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his dad released from ICE detention

A5-year-old boy and his fathermust be released by Tuesday from the Texas center where they've been held after being d...

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The ranks of US rabbis grow more diverse, with rising numbers of women and LGBTQ people

Rabbi Laura Geller recalls how of the 30 people in her class at Hebrew Union College, she was the only woman.

Women Rabbis

Ordained in 1976, she would go on to become one of the first women rabbis in the Jewish Reform Movement. Fifty years later, she's proud to have helped break that glass ceiling and pave the way for change.

Rabbis and rabbinical students in the United States are more diverse than ever today, with increasing numbers of women and LGBTQ+ people. Women from earlier generations who became rabbis marvel at the greater opportunities available for those pursuing clergy roles.

"Women have transformed Judaism," said Geller, rabbi emerita of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, California. "All the different kinds of movements have really noticed that Judaism needs to change because women's voices were ignored in the past."

Orthodox branches of Judaism generally don'tallow women to be rabbis, with some exceptions. But Reform and Conservative, the largest movements in the U.S., permit it, as does the growing nondenominational branch.

Nationwide, the Jewish community has become more diverse, so it makes sense that the rabbinate would be as well, said Janet Krasner Aronson, interim director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.

"A lot of people are entering the rabbinate and coming from very different backgrounds, and they really want to come in and shake things up a little bit," she said.

Rebecca Weintraub, associate rabbi of New York City's B'nai Jeshurun congregation, has witnessed this generational shift in liberal Jewish spaces. She is one of several women serving the congregation as rabbis.

"For a lot of the younger generation, when they think of a rabbi, many of them, in their mind, the picture is a woman," Weintraub said. "When I was growing up, when I would think of a rabbi, I'd think, man."

The changing face of the US rabbinate

An organization that supports and trains Jewish spiritual leaders — Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation — hasnew researchdocumenting the diversification of the U.S. rabbinate and its student pipeline. It recently surveyed stakeholders including rabbis, students, schools and other key Jewish institutions.

Atra's research affirms that men still make up the majority of the more than 4,000-strong non-Ultra Orthodox U.S. rabbinate, but women are now a sizable minority. There are also more LGBTQ+ people, Jews of color and members of interfaith households. That increased diversity also is present in non-Orthodox rabbinical schools, where women are in the majority.

"We see an opening that did not exist for populations that once were not able to become rabbis," said Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, Atra's executive director. "We still don't have parity of rabbis in the field, but we do see that we have many more women in the seminary."

Among them isSarah Livschitz, who moved from New Zealand to Los Angeles to enroll in Hebrew Union College, where her student cohort is entirely female.

"It's normal to me that a woman would be a rabbi," said Livschitz, who will be ordained in May. "It's a different world that I live in than people sort of 30 years ago, even 10 years ago."

Signs of progress and ongoing challenges

Eleanor Steinman, senior rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Austin, Texas, views the increased diversity as a sign of thriving.

"The challenge to the rabbinate is that institutions, including synagogues, are not necessarily totally prepared for that diversity," said Steinman, who is gay and known for her social justice and LGBTQ+ rights advocacy in the Jewish community.

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Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum, director of congregational learning and programming at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts, recalled how nervous she was during her final year in rabbinical school. Berenbaum, who is Black and has done extensive anti-racism work in the Jewish community, was ordained in 2013.

"My Jewish experiences were pretty much all white," she said. "It was time to go into the job market, and that's when the voices really started to rise in my head: 'Who's going to hire a Black rabbi?' Not 'Who's going to hire a woman rabbi?'"

While serving in Wisconsin and New Jersey congregations, she encountered the rabbinate's patriarchal holdovers, including a lack of accommodations when she became a mother and her husband taking on the "rebbetzin" duties traditionally fulfilled by male rabbis' wives.

"Some of the earlier rabbis were really thrust into the deep patriarchy, where they were accepted but not really accepted, or accepted but forced to mold themselves to a masculine view of what is a rabbi," said Berenbaum, who is now one of three women rabbis in her congregation. "Whereas now women are able to just bring their full selves."

It's clear to some rabbinical students that following a career path paved by the female and LGBTQ+ rabbis that came before them has made their own pursuit easier. That's the case for Sarah Rockford, an LGBTQ+ student at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

"My leadership is welcome, celebrated, and in some ways not treated as exceptional because of my gender or sexual orientation," she said. "We tend to forget how quickly things have changed."

Rockford credits strong female mentors for embodying how people from a variety of backgrounds can take on the role, such as Rabbi Rachel Isaacs of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville, Maine. In 2011, Isaacs became the first openly gay rabbi ordained by the Conservative seminary.

"The Jewish community is far more diverse in every sense of the word than the Jewish community I was raised in," Isaacs said.

A demanding but meaningful calling

Many in the rabbinate are drawn to the deeply meaningful and fulfilling work. But it is also demanding.

"I love to teach, I love to pastor, I love to lead services. Even funerals — they're both sad but they're deeply meaningful. We're up front and center with the most important moments of people's lives," said Felicia Sol, the first woman to serve as senior rabbi in the almost 200-year history of New York's B'nai Jeshurun synagogue.

"Rabbis are being pulled in so many directions and pressured in so many ways that it's very frustrating and hard."

Some rabbis cite the challenge ofholding together congregationsduring times of heightened political divisions and growing tensions over theIsrael-Hamas war. Unsustainable expectations, emotional exhaustion and financial stress are commonplace, according to Atra's research.

"The biggest struggle is burnout," Isaacs said. "No matter how hard you try, the line or the boundary between the personal and the professional is extraordinarily fuzzy, which makes it very hard to unplug."

Steinman agrees. She felt called to become a rabbi as a teenager, wanting to teach and counsel a Jewish community. But she said it can be overwhelming: "When I tell people that I have one day off a week, they're shocked."

Rockford, who is preparing to become a rabbi in May, understands the challenges but remains optimistic.

"My hope for the rabbinate is that we continue to sort of ride this wave of diversifying the faces of people we look to as teachers, as rabbis and as spiritual leaders," she said. "The diversity of those voices makes our communities stronger and better prepared to thrive in the next 100 years."

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP'scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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February 01, 2026

The ranks of US rabbis grow more diverse, with rising numbers of women and LGBTQ people

Rabbi Laura Geller recalls how of the 30 people in her class at Hebrew Union College, she was the only woman. ...

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Further Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled for next week, says Zelenskyy

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The next round ofpeace talksbetween Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday.

Lithuania Ukraine Poland

Envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. had been expected to meet Sunday in Abu Dhabi to continue negotiations aimed at endingMoscow's all-out invasionof its neighbor.

"We have just had a report from our negotiating team. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set: Feb. 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine is ready for substantive talks, and we are interested in an outcome that will bring us closer to a real and dignified end to the war," Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Russian officials.

On Saturday afternoon, top Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said he had held a "constructive meeting with the U.S. peacemaking delegation" in Florida.

Officials have so far revealed few details of the talks in Abu Dhabi, which are part of a yearlongeffort by the Trump administrationto steer the sides toward a peace deal and end almost four years of all-out war.

While Ukrainian and Russian officials have agreed in principle with Washington's calls for a compromise, Moscow and Kyiv differ deeply overwhat an agreement should look like.

A central issue is whether Russia should keep or withdraw from areas of Ukraine its forces have occupied, especially Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland calledthe Donbas, and whether it should get land there that it hasn't yet captured.

Drones strike Ukrainian maternity hospital

Elsewhere, Russian attack drones struck a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine on Sunday morning, the Ukrainian emergency service reported.

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In a Telegram post, it said the strike wounded three women in the hospital in the city of Zaporizhzhia, and also sparked a fire in the gynecology reception area that was later extinguished. Regional administration head Ivan Fedorov later said the number of injured had risen to six.

Days earlier,U.S. President Donald Trumpsaid Putin had agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of the Ukrainian capital and other cities, as the region suffers underfreezing temperaturesthat have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians.

The Kremlin confirmed Friday it agreed to hold off striking Kyiv until Sunday, but refused to reveal any details, making it difficult for an independent assessment of whether the conciliatory step had indeed taken place.

In the past week, Russia has struck energy assets in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa and in Kharkiv in the northeast. It also hit the Kyiv region on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring four.

Overnight into Sunday, Russia launched 90 attack drones, with 14 striking nine locations, Ukraine's air force said in a Telegram post. A woman and a man were killed in an overnight drone strike in Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine, according to local administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

Russian shelling also hit central Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, soon after 7 a.m., seriously wounding a 59-year-old woman, according to a Facebook post by the municipal military administration.

Russia's Defense Ministry on Sunday morning said its forces had used operational-tactical aviation, attack drones, missile forces and artillery to strike transport infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces.

In a separate post Sunday, it said that Russian air defences shot down 21 Ukrainian drones flying over southwestern and western Russia. It did not mention any casualties or damage.

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine athttps://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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February 01, 2026

Further Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled for next week, says Zelenskyy

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The next round ofpeace talksbetween Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday a...

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Matt Damon Says 45-Year Friendship with Ben Affleck Has 'Gone Through Different Phases' as 'Circumstances' Changed (Exclusive)

Cindy Ord/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's friendship has evolved over the last four decades

• The pair grew up together in Cambridge, Mass., and met in 1980 while in elementary school

• Damon spoke to PEOPLE about their bond at the premiere of their new movie, The Rip

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have one of the most iconic friendships in Hollywood asfriends from childhoodwho broke into the business together and continue to work together.

At the premiere of their new movie,The Rip,in New York City earlier this month, Damon addressed the different ways that their friendship has evolved over the last four decades.

"Well the circumstances of our lives have changed a lot and obviously we've gone through different phases of life, having kids, so those things are vastly different but I feel like who we are as people was kind of established together a long time ago in our adolescence and teens and those things have been pretty consistent," theJason Bourneactor, 55, shares with PEOPLE at the Jan. 13 premiere.

HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty

Damon and Affleck first met in 1980, when they were 10 and 8 years old, respectively, while living in Cambridge, Mass. They later attended high school together, bonding over acting and baseball.

As teenagers, they started auditioning together before writing 1997'sGood Will Hunting, thrusting them into the spotlight and earning them both an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Naturally, they also starred as best friends in the film.

In 2005, Damonmarried Luciana Barrosoand the pairshares four daughters.Affleck, meanwhile,shares three childrenwithex-wife Jennifer Garner.He and theGone Girlactress were together for 10 years before they split in 2015. Their divorce was finalized three years later. Affleck, 53, thenwed Jennifer Lopezin 2022, but the pair called it quits two years later.

Affleck and Damon have worked together and collaborated multiple times over the last 45 years, including in movies likeDogma,Air, andThe Last Duel.In 2022, the pair also teamed up to create a production company, Artists Equity.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In an interview withVanity Fairin 2023, Affleck reflected on a period in the late 2000s and early 2010s when the pair took a step back from working together as frequently.

"At some point, we got convinced of this idea, like, 'Well, you don't wanna work together all the time, you'll become sort of associated with each other.' And that's negative," he said. "But ultimately, it was sort of like, 'F--k that. I don't know, let's work together.' Cause that's the beautiful, that's the fun."

In the same interview, Damon said, "We can now look at the last 20 years and go like, 'Well, the benefit of hindsight, what would we have done differently?' And I think we both came to the conclusion that we would've worked together a lot more."

The two teamed up once again as actors and producers for their new Netflix movie,The Rip.The crime thriller, which came out on Jan. 16, also features Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Steven Yeun and Sasha Calle.

Read the original article onPeople

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February 01, 2026

Matt Damon Says 45-Year Friendship with Ben Affleck Has 'Gone Through Different Phases' as 'Circumstances' Changed (Exclusive)

Cindy Ord/Getty NEED TO KNOW Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's friendship has evolved over the last four decades The pair grew up together...

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Matt Lauer Is ‘Not Happy’ About Accuser Brooke Nevils’ Book, but Has ‘Come to Terms with Bad Press’ (Exclusive Sources)

Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty; T.JACKSON / BACKGRID

NEED TO KNOW

• Brooke Nevils filed a complaint against Matt Lauer at NBC in 2017 that led to his firing, alleging that he raped her in a hotel room during the 2014 Winter Olympics

• Nevils writes about the alleged rape, which Lauer has denied multiple times, in her new memoir, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe

• Now, exclusive sources tell PEOPLE that Lauer is "not happy" about Nevils' book, but has "come to terms with bad press"

Matt Laueris "not happy" aboutBrooke Nevilsresurfacing her 2017 sexual assault allegations — but has "come to terms with bad press," exclusive sources tell PEOPLE.

In an excerpt of her upcoming memoir —UnspeakableThings: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe— published byThe Cuton Jan. 28, Nevilsrecalled the details of her sexual encounterswith the formerTodayshow anchor, who wasfired in 2017after shereported his alleged sexual harassment and assaultduring the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"I have spent the long years since using my otherwise abandoned skills as a journalist to report and write the book about sexual harassment and assault that I wish had existed for me," she began in the excerpt.

Now, a source close to Lauer tells PEOPLE that, while he is "not happy about the publication of her book," the former TV host is "grateful for his close circle of friends who have rallied around him during this scandal."

Penguin Random House

Lauer himself is "angry" about Nevil rehashing the allegations, which he has denied multiple times.

The insider also tells PEOPLE that Lauer has grown weary of the whole thing and has been trying to move on with his life alongside his longtime girlfriend,Shamin Abas.

Lawyers for Lauer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Saturday, Jan. 31.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"He has a good life in the Hamptons with his kids and friends," the source says. "He also loves his place in New Zealand and is spending a lot of time there. He has a life away from all of this scandal. He is happy. He still has a solid relationship with Shamin and is fulfilled in his personal life."

Lauer is father to three children — sons Jack, 24, and Thijs, 19, and daughter Romy, 22 — whom he shares with ex-wifeAnnette Roque. The former couple separated following Lauer's termination from NBC andfinalized their divorcein 2019.

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Another source echoed that sentiment, telling PEOPLE that Lauer's trips to his New Zealand property have enriched his life both before and after the scandal.

"He is so happy when he is in New Zealand. I can see him spending even more time there," the source shares. "It gets him away from the negative press in the U.S. But beyond that, he likes the people there and the healthy lifestyle."

As for Nevils' allegations, the insider says Lauer has "always maintained that the sex was consensual."

"This whole thing pretty well devastated him at first, but he has come a long way and has a life outside of the negativity," the source explains. "He loves his kids and has a romantic relationship that has been going on for years."

Noam Galai/WireImage

Nevils said in a recent interview withNPRthatLauer's claim that their relationship was "consensual" was inaccurate.

"Consent and agreement are not synonymous," she said. "When one person has power over the other, it's not really consent. It's submission."

"When you're a subordinate and the most powerful person in your industry asks you to come to his hotel room, which in our industry, hotel rooms aren't [looked at the same] way they are in a social sense, [it's different]," she continued. "We work in hotel rooms all the time. I'd been to his hotel room already for a rehearsal, I'd been there earlier that night. They're not freighted places the way they are in other industries."

A third source close to Lauer tells PEOPLE that, after the formerTodayshow star grew accustomed to the popularity and attention he received from his viewers, he let the fame go to his head and has since been "humbled."

"Matt knows he was a superstar at NBC, a talent who related to so many who watched him daily, especially female viewers," the source says. "He took advantage of his celebrity and has been humbled by what happened to him. In some ways, he has come to terms with the bad press. He is in a good place. Especially compared to a few years ago."

Read the original article onPeople

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February 01, 2026

Matt Lauer Is ‘Not Happy’ About Accuser Brooke Nevils’ Book, but Has ‘Come to Terms with Bad Press’ (Exclusive Sources)

Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty; T.JACKSON / BACKGRID NEED TO KNOW Brooke Nevils filed a...

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Catherine O'Hara Hated Saying A Memorable Home Alone Line To Macaulay Culkin

1990's "Home Alone" is a go-to Christmas classic that, every year, elicits a warm glow in us all. But shooting the movie came with its share of challenges. For Catherine O'Hara, one of her biggest personal struggles came while having to reprimand Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister in an early scene where the youngster is forced to sleep upstairs. According to the actress, she couldn't understand why her character was so mean in that moment, and claimed that chastising a young Culkin "killed" her.

After one of the most impressive comedic careers in film history,the legend that was Catherine O'Hara passed awayin January 2026. She left behind an enviable legacy that begins with Canadian sketch show "SCTV" and stretches all the way to modern sitcom "Schitt's Creek" and Apple TV's "The Studio." But she also played what might just have been the quintessential '90s movie mom when she portrayed Kate McCallister in the first two "Home Alone" films, both of which remain two ofthe best Christmas movies of all time.

While both "Home Alone," and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" remain beloved by generations for their warm, comforting aura, filming them wasn't all fun and games — and not just because of Culkin'swell-known issueswith his notoriously overbearing father. O'Hara herself struggled while shooting the first movie, specifically when she had to respond to Kevin's line about hoping his family disappears by saying, "Then say it again, maybe it'll happen."

Read more:The Greatest Character Actors Of All Time, Ranked

Catherine O'Hara hated being mean to Macaulay Culkin

On December 1, 2023,Macaulay Culkin — who incidentally has a great "Home Alone 3" pitch— was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Catherine O'Hara was present to deliver a speech in which she recalled working with the actor on "Home Alone" (via theIrish Star), referring to him as the "dearest thing." But she also revealed how she'd struggled with the scene in which Kate McCallister forces her son to sleep in the attic for misbehaving.

In the scene, Kevin tells his mother, "I don't want to see you again for the rest of my life, and I don't want to see anybody else, either," to which Kate replies, "I hope you don't mean that. You'd feel pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning and you didn't have a family." In her speech, O'Hara revealed that this whole exchange was a struggle for her:

"The scene where I had to drag him upstairs to sleep in the attic 'cause he'd misbehaved, he's mouthing off about the family and I say, 'Well, you'd be pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning and you had no family,' and he says, 'No, I wouldn't.' And I was supposed to say, 'Then say it again – maybe it'll happen.' I can't tell you how much that killed me."

The actress went on to recall how she "could not wrap [her] head around saying something so horrific to this beautiful child." At the time, however, O'Hara was yet to have children of her own, adding, "Of course, I was not yet a mother at the time and I had no idea the kind of things would come out of my own mouth with my own two sons."

If you're looking for the easiest way to keep up with all the major movie and TV news, why notsign up to our free newsletter? You can alsoadd us as a preferred search sourceon Google.

Read theoriginal article on SlashFilm.

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February 01, 2026

Catherine O'Hara Hated Saying A Memorable Home Alone Line To Macaulay Culkin

1990's "Home Alone" is a go-to Christmas classic that, every year, elicits a warm glow in us all. But shooting the movie came...

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Black history centennial channels angst over anti-DEI climate into education, free resources

For academics, historians and activists, the past year has been tumultuous in advocating the teaching of Black history in the United States.

Black History Month Begins

Despite last year proclaiming February as National Black History Month, President Donald Trump started his second term by claiming some African American history lessons are meant to indoctrinate people into hating the country. The administration has dismantled Black history at national parks, most recently removingan exhibit on slavery in Philadelphialast month. Black history advocates see these acts and their chilling effect as scary and unprecedented.

"States and cities are nervous about retribution from the White House," said DeRay Mckesson, a longtime activist and executive director of Campaign Zero, an organization focused on police reform. "So even the good people are just quieter now."

In the 100th year since the nation's earliest observances of Black History Month — which began whenscholar Carter G. Woodson pioneered the first Negro History Week— celebrations will go on. The current political climate has energized civil rights organizations, artists and academics to engage young people on a full telling of America's story. There are hundreds of lectures, teach-ins and even new books — from nonfiction to a graphic novel — to mark the milestone.

"This is why we are working with more than 150 teachers around the country on a Black History Month curriculum to just ensure that young people continue to learn about Black history in a way that is intentional and thoughtful," Mckesson said about a campaign his organization has launched with the Afro Charities organization and leading Black scholars to expand access to educational materials.

New graphic novel highlights history of Juneteenth

About three years ago, Angélique Roché, a journalist and adjunct professor at Xavier University of Louisiana, accepted a "once-in-a-lifetime" invitation to be the writer for a graphic novel retelling of the story ofOpal Lee, "grandmother of Juneteenth."

Lee, who will also turn 100 this year, is largely credited for getting federal recognition of theJune 19 holidaycommemorating the day when enslaved people in Texas learned they were emancipated. Under Trump, however, Juneteenth isno longer a free-admission dayat national parks.

Juneteenth helped usher in the first generation of Black Americans who, like Woodson, was born free. "First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth," the graphic novel, comes out Tuesday. It is the culmination of Roché's assiduous archival research, phone chats and visits to Texas to see Lee and her granddaughter, Dione Sims.

"There is nothing 'indoctrinating' about facts that are based on primary sources that are highly researched," said Roché, who hopes the book makes it into libraries and classrooms. "At the end of the day, what the story should actually tell people is that we're far more alike than we are different."

While Lee is the main character, Roché used the novel as a chance to put attention on lesser known historical figures like William "Gooseneck Bill" McDonald, Texas' first Black millionaire, and Opal Lee's mother, Mattie Broadous Flake.

She hopes this format will inspire young people to follow Lee and her mantra — "make yourself a committee of one."

"It doesn't mean don't work with other people," Roché said. "Don't wait for other people to make the changes you wanna see."

Campaign aims to train new generation of Black historians

When Trump's anti-DEI executive orders were issued last year, Jarvis Givens, a professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard, was thousands of miles away teaching in London, where Black History Month is celebrated in October. He had already been contemplating writing a book for the centennial.

Watching Trump's "attack" cemented the idea, Givens said.

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"I wanted to kind of devote my time while on leave to writing a book that would honor the legacy that gave us Black History Month," Givens said.

The result is "I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month," a book with four in-depth essays that comes out Tuesday. The title is a line from the 1920s poem "The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson, whose most famous poem, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," is known as the "Black National Anthem."

Givens examines important themes in Black history and clarifies misconceptions around them.

The book and the research Givens dug up will tie into a "living history campaign" with Campaign Zero and Afro Charities, Mckesson said. The goal is to teach what Woodson believed — younger generations can become historians who can discern fact from fiction.

"When I grew up, the preservation of history was a historian's job," Mckesson said, adding his group's campaign will teach young students how to record history.

How the 'father of Black history' might feel today

Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson was among the first generation of Black Americans not assigned to bondage at birth. He grew up believing that education was a way to self-empowerment, said Robert Trent Vinson, director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The second Black man to earn a doctorate at Harvard University — W. E. B. Du Bois was the first — Woodson was disillusioned by how Black history was dismissed. He saw that the memories and culture of less educated Black people were no less valuable, Vinson said.

When Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926, he was in an era where popular stereotypes like blackface and minstrelsy were filling in for actual knowledge of the Black experience, according to Vinson. This sparked the creation of Black history clubs and Woodson began inserting historical lessons "on the sly" in publications like the "Journal of Negro History" and the "Negro History Bulletin."

"Outside the formal school structure, they're having a separate school like in churches or in study groups," Vinson said. "Or they're sharing it with parents and saying, 'you teach your young people this history.' So, Woodson is creating a whole educational space outside the formal university."

In 1976, for the week's 50th anniversary, President Gerald Ford issued a message recognizing it as an entire month. There was pushback then over the gains the Civil Rights Movement had made, Givens said.

As for today's backlash over Black and African American studies, Vinson believes Woodson would not be surprised. But, he would see it as a sign "you're on the right track."

"There's a level of what he called 'fugitivity,' of sharing this knowledge and being strategic about it," Vinson said. "There are other times like in this moment, Black History Month, where you can be more out and assertive, but be strategic about how you spread the information."

Resistance to teaching Black history is something that seems to occur every generation, Mckesson said.

"We will go back to normalcy. We've seen these backlashes before," Mckesson said. "And when I think about the informal networks of Black people who have always resisted, I think that is happening today."

Tang reported from Phoenix.

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