2025 was something like a Charles Dickens novel: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For the U.S., it was a year of triumph and tragedy, controversy and challenge. We've compiled a list of the most important events that happened this year that involved or affected Black women. 

The U.S. Department of Education is reclassifying professional degrees. This reclassification will hurt students and working women. For students, degree classification will determine their financial support. According to Newsweek’s Jasmine Laws, this situation may have a devastating effect on the future labor supply.  

Compared to Black families of the 1800s, the family of a Black Delta State University freshman discovered hanging from a tree on September 15 has access to an embarrassment of modern investigative tools and resources, in theory. There are campus-wide security cameras, high-powered civil rights attorneys and a celebrity-funded autopsy. But will any technology be enough to uncover the truth of what happened to Demartravion “Trey” Reed?