Oh, my dear Washington Informer family, my heart is heavy this week. For 20 years, we have shared this sacred space in The Religion Corner, leaning on the Word of God. Today, I must speak from my soul. What we are witnessing across the world feels entirely surreal, as if an invisible hand is trying to turn back the clock of racial progress by more than 150 years.
We see it in the tragic death of the first Black Cambridge professor, Jason Arday, whose history-making story was weaponized against him through unproven plagiarism allegations at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. And we see it right here in the United States, in the murder mysteries occurring down south in the state of Mississippi. I tremble for the future of our grandchildren, wondering if they must inherit the same hatred and malice our ancestors bled to overcome.
Scripture reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” We cannot sit in despair. We must look at the truth, hold it up to God’s light, and stand up to fight.
A gentle soul has been crushed by global malice. Many of you know how deeply I care about individuals with autism. It is a cause profoundly personal to me, woven into my daily prayers because of my own beautiful grandson. When I look at him, I see the pure love, unique genius, and divine purpose God places inside children with special needs. So when news reached me about Jason Arday, it made me feel some kind of way.
Arday was a precious, gentle soul diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay. He did not speak until he was 11 and could not read or write until he was 18. Yet, through God’s grace, he became a certified genius. In 2023, he made history as the youngest Black professor ever appointed at the prestigious University of Cambridge in the U.K. Those who knew him described him as an exceptionally loving, kind and deeply caring human being who used his platform to open doors for others.
Yet the enemy saw his light. A hyper-aggressive media campaign in London unleashed 249 hostile articles in just 22 days, followed by 181 more after he resigned, weaponizing unproven allegations to tear down this brilliant Black man. They used him to attack diversity, executing a public trial that his family says became too heavy for his gentle spirit to bear. On Aug. 14, 2026, he was found dead in his home. Whatever the truth of the allegations, this situation could have been handled in a better way.
This cruel hatred in London sounds achingly akin to what we face in America. We must remember Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” We lift Arday’s family in prayer and vow to protect our neurodivergent trailblazers so they never stand alone.
Terror in the soil and institutional eviction are where this all began. While our scholars face psychological warfare abroad, our families in the American South confront terrifying physical echoes of a dark past. The sudden deaths of young Black residents in Mississippi have left me on my knees crying out for justice. Tasia Fortune, 29, was found hanging from a tree in Jackson; authorities have not ruled her death suspicious, but her family rejects the idea that it was self-inflicted. Trey Reed, 21, a student at Delta State University, was found hanging from a tree on campus. Nolan Xavier Wells, 18, vanished during a boat excursion and was found dead off Horn Island, with autopsy findings not yet made public.
The horrific imagery of a hanging tree strikes deep, systemic trauma into our communities. This happens at the exact same time corporate and educational boards are completely erasing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Statistics show that Black women hold less than 5% of corporate leadership roles, yet represent the highest percentage of diversity administrators laid off or forced out. They are stripping away the safety nets protecting Black women in hostile workplaces, effectively evicting us from tables we fought for decades to sit at.
Our call to action begins with James 2:17: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” We are approaching the end of an era if we do not act right now. We cannot let our children face this venom:
• Vote with Unprecedented Numbers: Mobilize our churches, get our vans moving, and march to the polls in record numbers to crush voter suppression.
• Fund Campaigns Like Never Before: Invest financial capital into democratic campaigns and PACs that explicitly pledge to protect voting rights, appoint fair judges, and codify workplace protections.
• Build Defense Networks: Our churches must establish legal and psychological defense funds to wrap our arms around our scholars and executives so they never face media smear campaigns unprotected.
• Demand Federal Justice: Flood the Department of Justice with demands to intervene in these Mississippi death investigations. We will not allow local jurisdictions to sweep the deaths of our children under the rug.
Let us stand firm, protect our babies, support our brilliant minds, and vote like our lives depend on it, because it does. This column is dedicated to the memory of Jason Arday, a loving soul who made history as the youngest Black professor ever appointed at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, go to her website, www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on X @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.
