Every Friday, I share other great content (with some added context) to dive into over the weekend.

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Merck's Longtime CEO Ken Frazier Steps Down After Nearly 30 Years

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Time

Merck Chief Executive Officer Kenneth C. Frazier is stepping down from his role atop the helm of the pharma giant on June 30 after nearly 30 years with the company. He will be replaced by Robert M. Davis, Merck’s chief financial officer and head of global services.

Frazier is one of the highest-profile African American CEOs in not only the pharma industry, but also the United States. He was the first African-American to lead a Fortune 500 company. He has been with Merck since 1992 when he joined the company as vice president, general counsel and secretary of the Astra Merck group.

THE MIGHTY GRAND PITON

I loved this short film (let’s hope this gets made into a full series)!

The Mighty Grand Piton is a short film about a young British girl, Connie, who travels to the Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia for her school holidays with her family. There, she accidentally awakens a giant robot buried under the Twin Piton mountains on the south of the Island. This robot seems compelled to protect Saint Lucia but his origins are mysterious. No one knows where he came from or how long he’s been there. During the many years he’s lain dormant, The Mighty Grand Piton, became nothing more than the stuff of legend.

The Mighty Grand Piton is the brainchild of Wesley Louis, whose parents were born in Saint Lucia before moving to the UK. Connie, whose character is based on an amalgamation of Wes’s nieces and nephews, is also an embodiment of his own experience of visiting the Caribbean. Specifically, the story references his memories of engaging with a culture and community that he grew up just hearing about. We also get a sense in this film what it was like seeing for the first time a landscape that could not be more different from where he was born in London.

See more artwork from the short film here.

The All-Black Towns of Oklahoma

Oklahoma was once seen as the promised land for Black people after emancipation. It was home to more all-black towns than anywhere else in the U.S. and this movement was spearheaded by the vision of Edward P. McCabe.

All-Black towns grew in Indian Territory after the Civil War when the former slaves of the Five Tribes settled together for mutual protection and economic security. When the United States government forced American Indians to accept individual land allotments, most Indian "freedmen" chose land next to other African Americans. They created cohesive, prosperous farming communities that could support businesses, schools, and churches, eventually forming towns. Entrepreneurs in these communities started every imaginable kind of business, including newspapers, and advertised throughout the South for settlers. Many African Americans migrated to Oklahoma, considering it a kind of "promise land."

So what happened to these towns? Yup, you guessed it. The first law passed when Oklahoma became a state was to segregate the railway coaches (sigh). Many more Jim Crow laws followed, more oppression ensued, many Blacks left looking for, you know, a thing called freedom, human rights, etc. and then the Great Depression hit.

Today, we hear more about Greenwood and the Tulsa Massacre (thanks Watchmen) but for much of our history that story, along with the rich history and success of all-Black towns in OK were buried.