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The Bloodline Tribune
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Black Culture Magazine Empowerment for the Diaspora ISSN 3070‑9164 (Print) - ISSN 3070‑9156 (Online)


The Writers Who Stay: Lessons From a Black Owned Publishing House
Working closely with Black writers has changed how I understand talent, growth, and the craft itself. The writers who stay committed, apply guidance, and keep writing often reveal that what they needed was already there. It simply needed time, practice, and room to grow.

Chuck King
8 hours ago2 min read


SC State Is Rewriting Its Future
A headline framed South Carolina State’s program cuts as decline. The fuller story is different. Low-enrollment programs are being phased out while the university expands into cybersecurity, computer engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. SC State is not shrinking from its future. It is reallocating resources, strengthening academics and building toward where student demand and opportunity are growing.

Chuck King
5 days ago2 min read


Charleston Doesn't Need the Industry. The Industry Needs Charleston
North Charleston and West Ashley met in the middle Friday night, and Charleston hip hop walked away with something it doesn't get handed very often: a night it built entirely for itself, with the whole city watching. One line from the crowd is already being repeated around the city, and it deserves to be: Charleston doesn't need the industry. The industry needs Charleston. That's the whole night in one sentence.

Chuck King
5 days ago3 min read


That's a Bad Word
Most curse words don't come from some evil place. They started plain. They were made 'bad' by whoever got to decide what counted as proper. Most elders in the Black village I grew up in cursed. The grandma, the auntie, the same women who cursed like sailors were often the ones making sure the neighborhood kids' bellies stayed full. In Black culture, cursing has never automatically meant disrespect. It's culture. Yes, culture.

Chuck King
Sep 222 min read


African American Cemeteries
African American cemeteries preserve ancestry, Black history, family stories and community memory. Dominique Holiday explores why protecting them matters.

Dominique Holiday
Sep 183 min read


The Root- Short Story Fiction
It was a dark night. Too dark for any old lady to be out, especially at a cemetery, but Kweem was different. Her grandson had been buried only hours earlier. She reached into her bag, pulled out two mason jars etched with Psalm 58, and began filling them with dirt from his grave.
“Baby, I will get to the bottom of this.”
She would find out what happened to King and why her great grandson now carried a permanent scar across his face.

JL Henry
Sep 921 min read


Freedom Has Prisoners
George Jackson and Mumia Abu-Jamal did some of the most disciplined work of Black liberation from inside a cell, while most of us walk around free and do nothing with it.
That inversion should trouble us.
If those who gave the most to our liberation gave it while incarcerated, political education cannot be optional for those of us still free.

Chuck King
Sep 87 min read


Revolution vs. Popularity
We live in a digital age. Numbers matter. But when your business is people, it has to be more than numbers. Every person is human. They can’t be seen as a commodity.
The revolution and pursuit of justice do need numbers. However, it needs integrity, humility, passion, morals, and ethics.
So dear Brother… dear Sister… why are you here?

Jay Rene
Sep 25 min read


The Tree That Brought Me Back Home
Never would I have imagined that when I came across the name John P. Perry, I was looking at a name already living in my own bloodline. The name of my great grandmother, the same woman I remembered wearing those beautiful dresses to church, was tied to that very line. The tree wasn't the only thing whose roots were planted in Lincolnville. So were mine, through my great great great grandfather.
As my family shared stories and we connected the pieces, it all began to make sen

Chuck King
Aug 257 min read


Immortal
Henrietta Lacks never knew that cells taken from her body would change modern medicine forever. Taken without her knowledge or consent in 1951, her cells became HeLa, the first immortal human cell line, contributing to breakthroughs from the polio vaccine to cancer research and even space exploration. Jay Renee honors the Black woman behind one of medicine’s most important legacies and asks us to remember her name.

Jay Rene
Aug 203 min read


The Dark Lady Was Ours
Black artists, writers, and geniuses have been erased, stolen from, and written out of history before. Emilia Bassano may be one of the most overlooked examples.
What if one of the greatest literary voices of the English Renaissance belonged not to the man history celebrates, but to a Black woman whose identity was buried beneath someone else's name?
This isn't just about Shakespeare. It's about who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how history has too often rewarded th

Chuck King
Aug 79 min read


Splitting the Pole: Is it In Fact That Deep
The practice of not splitting the pole has become a subconscious awareness of those around me, and concern for our collective wellbeing. My decision making is never without consideration for all those it may affect. If I'm presented with an obstacle in a path I know my folks will also be taking, I'm quick to alert them. From minor inconveniences to major dangers, to even opportunities, I'm constantly in communication with my people to the best of my ability

Jediah Thomas
Aug 68 min read


The Ultimate Black Album: 7 Raw Truths That Nobody Wants to Admit
An exploration of why critical “greatest” lists miss what Black people actually live with and how Make It Last Forever becomes the ultimate Black album through organic Black ownership. Keith Sweat didn’t know what he was building. The question is whether the rest of the conversation about Black music is ready to acknowledge what he built. It started the way the best arguments start — not with a thesis, but with a genuine question. What is the greatest Black album of all time?

Afro-Futurist
Jul 212 min read


Botanical Witness Series
Trey “Director 80” Smith’s Botanical Series transforms the garden into sacred ground, where color, light, and structure mirror the inner work of healing. Red gates, water, and greenery become symbols of protection, ancestry, unity, and quiet spiritual growth

Lauren McCaskill
Jun 302 min read


The Beginning of a Legacy for Young Author McKenzie Nelson
At just 8 years old, McKenzie Nelson is already a published author. In this interview, Lauren McCaskill speaks with McKenzie and her parents about literacy, creativity, family support, and the power of helping young voices be heard.

Lauren McCaskill
Jun 226 min read


The Original Black Panthers Black Nationalism vs. Internationalism
A sharp reflection on the Black Panther legacy, questioning whether true liberation lies in global solidarity or in a unified, self-determined Black collective rooted in community first.

Chuck King
Jun 911 min read


Grandma’s Biscuits
Black publishing is more than production. It is relationship, memory, and care. Every manuscript carries a life behind it, and our role is to honor that. In our hands, the work is not just printed, it is preserved and carried forward with intention.

Chuck King
May 23 min read


When the Roosters Crow
The rooster once called us to purpose. Now we scroll past our own funerals. Black elders built structure then chose silence. Our youth inherited the absence.

Chuck King
Apr 239 min read


The Black Church & The Nation of Islam Parallel Paths, Shared People
The Black Church and the Nation of Islam are often seen as separate, but they were shaped by the same people and communities. From shared roots in faith and leadership, both traditions grew out of a collective struggle for dignity, identity, and self-determination.

Dominique Holiday
Apr 62 min read


“We’re Not New to This” Chef Amethyst Ganaway on Gullah Heritage and Culinary Memory
The early morning air hung cool and quiet over the sunny grounds of Penn Center, a place where time feels layered rather than distant. It was here, on this same campus, that Martin Luther King Jr. once sought refuge from the pressures of the movement—retreating to the Sea Islands to think, write, and organize at the height of the Civil Rights era.

Lauren McCaskill
Apr 211 min read
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