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By Savannah Yancy, RDF Summer Intern 2026 The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was the first piece of legislation that designatedspecific protections for indigenous children. Before the act was passed, many youngNative Americans were stripped away from their tribes and parents and placed inboarding schools, group homes, or with white families. This forced removal […]

By Savannah Yancy, Respect Diversity Foundation Intern 2026 May 31, 2026, marks the 105th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre that took place in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.Disillusioned with the prejudices and laws of the Jim Crow-era South, wealthy Black entrepreneur O.W. Gurley purchased a 40-acre parcel of land in north

Dr. Nyla Ali Khan, OCCC Faculty and Human Rights Speaker for The Respect Diversity Foundation, has again received a “50 Making a Difference” award from the Journal Record. From the article: ‘“Through her experiences and insights, Dr. Khan introduces her students to ideas and concepts they may never come in contact with outside of the

By Noel J. Jacobs, PhD (Title adapted from The Hill We Climb, by Amanda Gorman, excerpt taken from spoken word) We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in

About two weeks ago I flew halfway around the world with my best friend, who is also my brother, and  13 wonderful people I now count as friends. We spent one amazing week in an historic, beloved, conflicted, painful place. It is a very young country, a little over 70 years old, and it is