Dr. David J. Johns

Native Son Awards 2025. “I’m proud to be a Native Son. In 1965, Brother Bayard Rustin raised important questions that remain relevant today in our quest for equity — not equality, equity, words matter — the question he poses is this. How are we in this space, those who have been gifted with queerness and Africaness, how are we using our power to advocate for the most disempowered members of our community?” — @drdavidjohns Powered by @gileadsciences Video: @iamtydavis #NativeSonAwards #BlackQueerExcellence #Community #Pride #ForTheCulture #OurVoice #OurStory #OurPower #NativeSon

The doors of the church are OPEN??? My brother @drdavidjohns has walked down the center aisle to have a heart to heart about the LBGTQ community and the black church! Run to YouTube and watch the newest episode of Jamal Bryant podcast: Let’s Be Clear! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts 👇🏾

Turn the TV off. The apps too. #AllRoadsLeadToTheSouth #LetsAllGetFree ✊🏾

Tomorrow, Americans are marching from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge—just like they did in 1965 on Bloody Sunday.⁠ ⁠ “This march isn’t just a protest,” says @drdavidjohns . “It is a statement about who we are.” The All Roads Lead to the South march will mark a national day of action for voting rights to protest the recent Supreme Court decision and current wave of restrictive measures throughout the South.⁠ ⁠ On this week’s episode of UNDISTRACTED, @mspackyetti and Dr. Johns linked up to talk about what’s happening. Head to the link in bio for the full episode—and to learn more about tomorrow.⁠

Class is in session. Pull up. We try to end every episode the same way — and @jamilahlemieux did NOT come to hesitate. Beyoncé or Solange? Toni Morrison or Angela Davis? Hot girl summer or healing girl autumn? Fast answers. Zero second-guessing. And the last one — who wins movie night — said everything. Watch and see if you'd pick the same. Links in bio. #TeachTheBabies #BlackSingleMother #JamilahLemieux #LetsALLGetFree

There’s something powerful about being in a room where Black brilliance is centered, celebrated, and protected. This clip from our 2023 Black Education Forum featuring @drdavidjohns captures the kind of conversations that continue to shape the future of education for Black learners. So the question is: Do you want to be in the room this year where conversations about Black genius are happening? Because the Black Education Forum is more than a convening. It’s a space for truth telling, strategy, community, and possibility. ✨ Join us on the Vineyard. Link in bio. #BlackEducationForum #BlackGenius #BlackExcellence #EducationEquity #EdLeaders MarthasVineyard InnovationForEquity

You can feel sick watching the gas tank drop, stretching groceries into next week, holding your breath until rent clears — and this culture will STILL decide your dignity based on whether you make it comfortable enough to look at. @jamilahlemieux is a writer, cultural critic, & published author of Black. Single. Mother. This clip names something this culture works hard to keep unnamed. The gatekeepers don't protect Black mothers based on merit. They protect the ones who perform their way into acceptability — the ones who don't remind them of what they'd rather not see. That distinction costs some women everything. Watch it. Sit with it. Then go listen to the full conversation. Links in bio. #TeachTheBabies #BlackSingleMother #JamilahLemieux #LetsALLGetFree

Jamilah Lemieux said what needed to be said. "Women need to break up with the idea that we must be responsible 365, seven days a week, for every moment of our child's care." Not a hotep take. Not an attack on Black mothers. A call for the village to actually show up and for co-parents to actively, hands-on parent. Because when everyone does their part, everybody wins. The mother. The father. The child. As Dr. David Johns puts it — not tech bro AI. African ancestral intelligence. The village. 🖤 Subscribe and listen to the full TTB episode with @jamilahlemieux — link in bio. 👆🏾 . . . #TalkingThemBack #NBJC #BlackLGBTQ #JamilahLemieux #BlackSingleMother #BlackMotherhood #BlackWomen #TTB #TheVillage

Class is in session. Pull up. When the gas tank is on E, groceries are a calculation, rent is a prayer, and you feel sick just trying to keep up—and this country STILL hasn't stopped stigmatizing the women holding Black families together—we have work to do. @jamilahlemieux is a writer, cultural critic, and now a published author. Her debut book, Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging, is out now. And we got in the room and went all the way in. We talked about the Moynihan Report and the lie it told. We talked about Nia Long, Taraji P. Henson, and Cardi B—and who this culture decides to protect. We talked about what every-other-weekend actually costs. We talked about the village. And we talked about what it means to love Black women the way they deserve to be loved. This one is for the class. For every Black single mother who has been carrying more than anyone should carry alone. Links in bio. #TeachTheBabies #BlackSingleMother #JamilahLemieux #LetsALLGetFree

Late to post this. But some conversations don't expire. I sat down with @codeforamerica CEO Amanda Renteria for The Government Fix to talk about education—what it actually takes to build systems that serve all children. Not the ones with enough resources to navigate broken ones. All of them. I started in a classroom. Then the Hill. Then the White House. Every time I moved closer to where decisions get made, I kept finding the same thing: the children most affected—Black students, LGBTQIA+ youth, kids from communities that show up as data points but never as decision-makers—were nowhere near the people writing their futures. That's not an accident. That's policy. Proximity to pain is a prerequisite for fixing it. We can't keep sending people into policy rooms who've never learned a child's name. And we can't keep acting surprised when those policies fail. We got into all of it. 🎙️ The Government Fix for Education with @codeforamerica ▶️ https://hubs.ly/Q04ftcWJ0 #TheGovernmentFix #Education #BlackStudents #LGBTQYouth #PolicyMatters #TeachTheBabies #NBJC #CodeForAmerica

She didn’t have a plan. She had tar, grass, a river, and faith. That’s it. Her name is Jochebed—mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. The matriarch of the family that freed the Israelites. And most of us have never heard her name. I wrote about her today. About what she did, what it cost, and what it means for the moment we’re actually in. Because the same Pharaoh logic—the state deciding whose children have a right to exist—is not ancient history. It’s the 14th Amendment fight. It’s redistricting. It’s right now. I also named what gets left out every year: the reverence for the mother principle didn’t begin in Greece or Rome. It began in Africa. That knowledge wasn’t lost. It was taken. To every mother, grandmother, auntie, church mother, and mama figure holding things together—this one is for you. New piece is live. Link in bio. Read it. Share it. Then ask yourself: Do you have a community where you’re growing in your organizing? Do you know your purpose? Are you living it? 🔗 Link in bio. #LetsALLGetFree #MothersDay #TeachTheBabies #OrganizeNow

Wake UPPPPPPP. #WorkWoke #LetsAllGetFree ✊🏾