Vizionit

05/25/2026

✍️🏆 Big congratulations to the talented student writers at Little Rock Central High School for earning national recognition in the 2026 NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing! 🎉📚

Central had eight students selected, with Pardhu Kadiyala and Shangyu Wu earning the highest distinction, First Class Awards, for their exceptional nonfiction narrative essays. We are so proud of all of our award-winning writers! 👏📝

05/15/2026

Most people know Memorial Day
as a long weekend.
A day off.
Cookouts.
Family time.
Fireworks.
Maybe a flag.
Maybe a sale.
But the deeper story
goes somewhere far more powerful.
Before it was widely known as Memorial Day,
it was often called Decoration Day.
And one of the earliest known ceremonies
connected to that tradition
was organized by formerly enslaved people
in Charleston, South Carolina
in 1865.
Think about that for a second.
Not long after slavery had ended,
people who had just come out of bo***ge
chose to stop
and honor the dead.
But not just any dead.
They honored Union soldiers
who had died
in the struggle tied to freedom
and emancipation.
These were men and women
who had given their lives
in a war that changed the future
of millions.
So the people who had the most reason
to understand the cost of freedom
came together
to make sure those men
would not be forgotten.
They gathered flowers.
They cleaned the burial ground.
They decorated the graves.
They marched.
They sang.
They prayed.
And in doing so,
they created something bigger
than a ceremony.
They created a message.
A message that freedom has a cost.
A message that remembrance matters.
A message that the people
who fought and died
for liberation and justice
deserve honor.
That is what makes this story
so moving.
This was grief.
But it was also gratitude.
This was mourning.
But it was also celebration.
This was pain.
But it was also proof
that a people once denied dignity
were now publicly showing dignity
to others.
And that matters.
Because Memorial Day
did not begin
as just another holiday.
At its heart,
it was about memory.
It was about sacrifice.
It was about freedom.
And Foundational Black Americans
were part of that story
from the very beginning.
So when this day comes around,
remember that it carries more weight
than many people realize.
It is not just about who died.
It is also about what they died for.
And it is about the people
who made sure that sacrifice
would be remembered.
That story deserves to be told.
And our people deserve to be in it.

05/13/2026

If you are Black, I wanna tell you something.

Your ancestors and the people who came before you helped shape the world you live in today.

Foundational Black Americans helped create the work behind GPS, the technology used in cell phones, and the home security system.

That means brilliance is not far from you.

It is part of your story.

You come from builders.

You come from thinkers.

You come from inventors.

So, do not shrink yourself.

Do not play small.

And do not act like greatness is foreign to you.

You can create.

You can build.

You can do great things too.

05/13/2026

Artifact of the Week: Brick from Abbottabad Compound

In the early morning hours of May 2, 2011 Pakistan time (afternoon of May 1 Eastern Daylight Time), a U.S. military raid on an al-Qa'ida compound killed Usama Bin Ladin, America's most wanted terrorist. The mission's success was the culmination of many years of complex, thorough, and highly advanced intelligence operations led by the CIA with support from partners across the Intelligence Community.

Following the raid on the Bin Ladin compound, 13 bricks which were stamped with an “A,” “M,” or “S” were retrieved from a pile of building materials next to the main house. Agency officials presented the first brick to the CIA Director and this brick to the CIA Museum.

Learn more:
https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/brick-from-abbottabad-compound/

05/13/2026

04/22/2026