On the morning of April 12, 2015 Freddie Gray was taken into custody by Baltimore Police officers. With his hands cuffed behind his back and feet in shackles, he was put in the back of the vehicle and transported without being secured with a safety belt.

During transport, Freddie sustained a fractured neck with 80% of his spine was severed. Several days later he went into a coma and on April 19, 2015 Freddie was dead.

Marilyn Mosby was only five months into her first term as Baltimore State’s Attorney, the city’s chief prosecutor.

On May 1, 2015 she charged the six police officers involved in Freddie’s death, one of the first cases nationally holding police accountable for the death of a black man while in custody.

This decision had its consequences. Hate mail and death threats ensued forcing Marilyn to defend the decision to charge officers. "For those who believe I am anti-police, it's simply not the case. I am anti police brutality.”

Marilyn Mosby made an unpopular and highly controversial choice in charging the officers. Though none were convicted, there was a $6.4 million settlement with the family and Mosby’s office pursued substantial reforms that contributed to the exoneration of 13 men who had served a combined 300 years in prison despite proclaiming their innocence.

The right choice may not be the easy choice when justice is the basis for one's decision. Today, more than 10 years later, Marilyn and her family continue to suffer the fallout of her decision in holding officer’s accountable. However it is a decision of which she reports as having no regrets.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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On February 1, 1951 Henrietta Lacks walked into John’s Hopkins Hospital with a complaint of vaginal bleeding and a painful lump. When tissue samples were collected and examined, they became the marvel that changed medicine forever.

Henrietta’s ‘Immortal’ cells were retrieved without her consent or knowledge and scientists were in awe at their unusual ability to survive and grow unlike other cells that, after a few cell divisions, would die.

Unfortunately, Henrietta received a diagnosis of incurable metastatic cervical cancer and she passed away shortly after. Her cells, however, were the foundation for scientific innovation with pharmaceutical companies patenting novel means of utilizing her cells and reaping huge profits as a result.

Henrietta’s family was kept in the dark for decades, only to be mislead and deceived by researchers seeking to study their genetic material under the guise of monitoring for hereditary disease. They have been seeking justice for many years with recent undisclosed settlements from companies which have unjustly profited off her cells. Still, one can reasonably question, what is the true price of justice in cases such as these?

This is the first episode of several recognizing impactful women this Women’s History Month 2026.

You can learn more about Henrietta Lacks by reading ‘Medical Apartheid’ by Harriett Washington, ‘Henrietta Lacks -The Untold Story’ by her eldest grandson Ron Lacks and ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ‘by Rebecca Skloot.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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In this concluding Black History Month Episode, I provide an abbreviated sketch of the great history of the Nation of Islam under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad with present day work happening in Camden, New Jersey.

Huey P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson Sr….we have heard mention of these incredible men and their contribution towards equity and justice for the Black man and woman in America.

But we learn very little, if anything at all, about the Nation of Islam (founded in 1930) and how the revolutionary ideology of ‘Self Love’ and ‘Do For Self’ influenced their efforts, inspired the Black Community and impacted national and international leaders alike.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, was described by Reader’s Digest as the ‘Most powerful Black man in America’ and we have not seen any modern economist, sociologist, educator or psychologist impact Black people the way he did.

Because of this influence, one finds in COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) documents how the FBI endeavored, through substantially illegal and unethical efforts, to ‘Prevent The Rise of A Black Messiah’ amongst Black Americans who would have the power to unite and electrify them.

The federal government’s efforts sought to disrupt, discredit and misdirect Black nationalist groups, including the Nation of Islam, and to neutralize them in the public sphere because, 'In unity, there is strength.’

One can claim they achieved great success as so little is known and accurately understood about the Nation of Islam.

This episode seeks to provide a condensed sketch of that history.

To learn more about the history of the Nation of Islam visit CROE.ORG. CROE (Coalition for Remembrance of Elijah Muhammad) serves as the National Archives of the Nation of Islam. Also, visit TEMPLE20.ORG to learn how the application of ‘Self Love’ and ‘Do For Self’ can impact our local communities as it is in Camden, New Jersey.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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Mississippi Appendectomy refers to the involuntary and forced sterilization of Black Women in the southern United States from the 1920’s through the 1980’s. This procedure was bolstered by the practice of Eugenics whereby scientists and political leaders enacted state control through sterilization laws to govern the population growth of Black people not unlike that which occurred on the slave plantations.

The notion that reproduction was restricted to candidates deemed fit and black women were only 12% of the population yet 64% of those sterilized demonstrates the states’ antipathy of Black proliferation.

The celebrated feminist and women’s rights activist Margaret Sanger was a prominent eugenicist and proponent of arresting the growth of the Black population. As an advocate of birth control, especially for Black women, her intentions towards Blacks have been described as genocidal.

In 1964, during her testimony at the Democratic National Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer detailed her experience of being forcibly sterilized while in the hospital to have a non-cancerous tumor removed. Her remarks were so striking that President Lyndon B. Johnson interrupted her speech, calling a press conference to distract the public away from her testimony.

Sadly forced sterilizations are not transgressions of the past. Women continue to be impacted, specifically while in detention centers, not unlike those who were institutionalized in the 1930’s through 1980’s.

To learn more about the modern day forced sterilization of women imprisoned in California and ICE detention facilities in Georgia, visit these links:

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/22/belly_of_the_beast_documentary

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/22/new_film_links_forced_sterilization_in

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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The Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainty of many Blacks towards the Covid-19 vaccine was a stark reminder of this nation’s historical mistreatment of Black patients and their resulting distrust in the medical industry.The Tuskegee Experiment, also called the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, is the most commonly known medical malpractice of physicians towards a vulnerable Black population in the U.S.

This research was conducted 1932 to 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service in which Black men already, infected with syphilis, were diagnosed as having ‘bad blood’. And rather than providing them the proven and effective treatment of syphilis, doctors duped these patients by instead engaging in a four decades long study in which they observed the ravages of the disease on their bodies and health. As horrific as this study was, it was by far not the most gruesome and barbaric of malpractice.

In March 1945, a Black truck driver, Ebb Cade was severely injured in an accident with what was believed to be life threatening injuries. He was taken to the Manhattan Engineer District Hospital in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Despite sustaining numerous broken bones, he survived. To his great misfortune, the doctors assigned to Mr. Cade were contracted with the US Atomic Energy Commission.

When it became known that a ‘well developed colored male’ was in the hospital, he was injected with Plutonium 239 by military physician Joseph Howland. Plutonium, described as the most ‘fiendishly toxic’ radioactive substance and the same compound used in atomic bombs, was injected even before doctors set his broken bones.

Subsequently, researchers pulled 15 teeth and extracted several bone samples from Mr. Cade to assess how plutonium moves throughout the human body.

That March in 1945 Mr. Ebb Cade made history as the first person and Black man injected with ‘the most dangerous chemical known’ without his consent or voluntary participation in a very dangerous research experiment.

It can be baffling to consider what men subjected other humans beings, however the ignorant and prejudicial coloring of Blacks as inferior, barbaric or on the level with beasts provided a cover for these heinous acts. It could accurately be said of these well respected scientists and doctors that they, in fact, were the barbarians.

To learn more about the diabolical history of medicine in the U.S., read 'Medical Malpractice' by Harriett A. Washington or search for Harriett A. Washington on Youtube to view her discussions on the subject.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com.

Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com. You can follow Nurah Speaks on X, Instagram and Facebook @NurahSpeaks and subscribe to the channel on YouTube.

Don't Just Join The Movement, Be The Movement!

Black History Month derived from Carter G. Woodson, a journalist and historian, who established Negro History Week in 1926. Negro History Week was created, in part, to develop pride amongst Black Americans for their heritage and contributions to this nation. In February 1976 President Gerald R. Ford became the first president to issue a Presidential message urging the nation to recognize Black History Month.

As we embark in this month long observance, let us examine the history of our people in this nation critically and soberly. We must be mindful that all history is relevant although not all history is pleasing.

And during this month of reflection, let us consider how the events of yesterday can help us prepare a successful tomorrow so our observance this month is not in vain.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

This episode of Nurah Speaks is a deeply personal reflection on love, loss and what I've learned from grief.

In Episode 260, “Losing Ellen,” I chronicle the story of losing my grandmother, Ellen, and walk listeners through my experience before and after her passing along with what grief has revealed to me along the way.

Losing my grandmother was an excruciating loss—filled with agony and heartbreak—but also with moments of profound love and deep gratitude. Those who have accompanied a loved one through their final days understand this painful irony: the trauma of loss co-occurring with all the beautiful, tender and loving moments just before.

On Nurah Speaks, we do not shy away from life's hard but important truths. Death can arrive in a single moment or it can unfold slowly through a series of moments of months or even years.

How we manage death— the acceptance of it as a normal part of life—can help us survive the very, very lows while honoring the love that remains.

This episode is for anyone navigating grief, learning how to carry the love that remains and discovering who they are now, after loss.

If you watch the live recording of this episode on the Nurah Speaks Youtube channel, I include some of my favorite photos of my grandmother with friends and family.

WHEN GREAT TREES FALL

Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,

rocks on distant hills shudder,

lions hunker down

in tall grasses,

and even elephants

lumber after safety.

When great trees fall

in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses

eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

never taken.

Great souls die and

our reality, bound to

them, takes leave of us.

Our souls,

dependent upon their

nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed

and informed by their

radiance,

fall away.

We are not so much maddened

as reduced to the unutterable ignorance

of dark, cold

caves.

And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always

irregularly. Spaces fill

with a kind of

soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never

to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be

better. For they existed.

For more information on grief, I included two helpful links below:

•https://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/•https://grief.com/10-best-worst-things-to-say-to-someone-in-grief/

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Episode 259 features an excerpt of Dr. King’s Sermon ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’.

While Dr. King is most commonly known as a leader within the Civil Rights Movement, it is important to remember that Dr. King was a pastor and concerned with the moral fiber of his people.

In ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ King speaks on the substance of our hearts, our character and inclination to good, though our goals are unattained. And while we are often judged and unjustly criticized in our effort to establish truth and justice, the desire for good in our heart is a virtue and blessing.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

You can follow Nurah Speaks on X, Instagram and Facebook @NurahSpeaks and subscribe to the channel on YouTube.

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!