The People’s Mic in Your Inbox

✉️ THE MORNING TRAP – APRIL 12, 2025

Apr 12, 2025

KinFam, wassup yo! Welcome Home—

We’re coming to you heavy this morning.

Saint Augustine’s University is fighting for its life. And what’s happening there? That ain’t just about one school—it’s a blueprint for how Black legacy gets erased in real-time.

Accreditation revoked. Students displaced. History auctioned off like spare parts.

But let’s be clear: This isn’t misfortune. It’s mismanagement, underfunding, and a system that was never designed to protect our institutions in the first place.

And that’s why The Morning Trap exists.

Because when mainstream media gives you a paragraph on page 12, we’re pulling up with a mic, a map, and the whole damn ancestors’ receipts. We’re not just reporting on the fire—we’re ringing the alarm and organizing the hose.

We’re building something here. A daily drop for the movement. A newsletter that hits like radio. A platform rooted in us.

But to keep this going? We need more than clicks. We need community.

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When you become a member of the #KinFam, you’re not just supporting independent Black-Owned media—you’re investing in a voice that speaks for us, to us, with us. Your membership powers deep dives like today’s SAU exposé, grassroots action links, and audio drops coming this spring.

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Because listen—Black media has always been the difference between silence and survival. From The Chicago Defender to Jet Magazine, we’ve had to build what wasn’t given. And in this moment? That legacy lives in us.

We are the drumline. The dispatch. The documentarians of our own damn destiny.

Let them sleep. We publish receipts.

And as we cover this fight to save Saint Augustine’s, know this:

We don’t just need to protect Black colleges.
We need to protect Black media—because we’re the ones who’ll tell the truth about what’s being lost.

We got you.
We need you to get us too.

— The Morning Trap Team
Your People’s Mic, Daily.

Count Me In

🎯 TOP TRAP – SAU IS BLEEDING, AND HBCUs ARE ON THE BRINK

If Saint Augustine’s falls, it’s not the end of a school—it’s the foreclosure of a Black future.

Welcome Home, Kin!

📌 Quick Recap:

Accreditation revoked. SAU has until May to save its status and funding.
$30M+ in debt. Layoffs, lawsuits, and land deals gone wrong.
Culture collapse. Athletics suspended. Enrollment tanked. Students left in limbo.

🗣️ Trap Quote of the Day:

“How you lose a 157-year legacy in real time? Mismanagement, underfunding, and silence from the state.”

🎛️ THE TRAP BREAKDOWN – Deep But Digestible

🎤 Today’s Relevance:

While everybody’s watching NCAA Final Four replays and scrolling celebrity HBCU shoutouts, one of the oldest Black colleges in the country is getting dragged toward the edge. Saint Augustine’s ain’t just broke—it’s being broken on purpose.

📚 Backstory:

Founded in 1867 by the Episcopal Church, Saint Augustine’s University was born as a freedom project—for the formerly enslaved, by the spiritually grounded. That’s not just history. That’s sacred ground. And now? It’s being auctioned off in slow motion.

💸 The Players:

SAU Trustees: Accused of reckless leadership and financial coverups.
North Carolina AG: Investigating mismanagement and blocked a sketchy $70M land deal.
SACSCOC: Revoked accreditation; arbitration ends in May.
50 Plus 1 Sports: Tried to lease SAU land for a third of its value.

🔁 The Pattern:

This ain’t just about one school. From Bennett College to Morris Brown, Black schools are consistently underfunded, blamed for structural neglect, then forced to make desperate decisions. The same state systems that underinvest in Black education suddenly want oversight when it's too late.