Hulu Original Series “Washington Black” stars Ernest Kingsley Junior and Sterling K. Brown. Hulu Original Series “Washington Black” stars Ernest Kingsley Junior and Sterling K. Brown. James Pardon/Disney
“Your legacy isn’t just the work that you do, it’s the opportunities that you create for other people.” —Sterling K. Brown.
For Sterling K. Brown, part of the appeal of producing and starring in Hulu’s Washington Black (July 23) was mentoring Ernest Kingsley Jr., the young actor playing the title character. “If I’m in a position where I can help somebody get an opportunity to do it, that means a lot to me, because your legacy isn’t just the work that you do, it’s the opportunities that you create for other people,” Brown said. Based on the bestselling novel, Kingsley plays George Washington “Wash” Black, a young boy who escapes slavery and, through his scientific mind, sets off an unexpected adventure. Brown plays Medwin, whose life intersects with Wash. “It seems most Black stories that are for mainstream consumption have to do with Black pain, have to do with Black trauma,” Brown said. “So I thought, how awesome would it be to take this historical context but to still illuminate, [and] highlight, joy, hope, faith, love, etc.” And for Kingsley, the story has broad appeal—”that universal story of us going through that harrowing narrative and pain in our past and triumphing over it.”
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Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
Sterling, you can always take top billing, but for this project you’re supporting and producing. What about this inspired you to want to make it?
Sterling K. Brown: It was the central character. It was a young boy who finds himself in the midst of slavery, but through the power of his imagination, of his hope, of his faith, is able to transcend his circumstances. And it’s also the community that protected his dreams, right? Recognizing the power and importance of dreamers and how dreaming is contagious. I think that’s why, oftentimes dreamers are sort of snuffed out and taken out, and why people need to protect them, because they recognize that, like so many of us, [they] are just trying to survive, or just trying to make it from day to day to day, until you come into the presence of a dreamer, and they say life is bigger than what you can currently imagine. And if you follow me, I can show you something bigger. That’s who Washington is, and I’ve never seen that in the historical context of slavery, not allowing slavery to define who he is as a person, but allowing his creativity to be fully manifested and ultimately be like this brilliant creator, the seeker of love and beauty everywhere that he goes, and bringing that contagion with him.
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Pursued by Willard, Wash faces a life-altering choice. Meanwhile, tensions are on the rise between Tanna and McGee and Young Wash and Titch’s Arctic journey, forces Young Wash to forge his own path forward. From… Pursued by Willard, Wash faces a life-altering choice. Meanwhile, tensions are on the rise between Tanna and McGee and Young Wash and Titch’s Arctic journey, forces Young Wash to forge his own path forward. From Hulu’s Washington Black.
Disney/Chris Reardon
That’s one of the things that I think I was so pleasantly moved by the story is that so often, when it comes to depictions of slavery in film and television, joy and hope are often not necessarily part of the story. And those stories are very important to tell. But I loved the aspect of hope that this story has.
Brown: It was very important to me. Interesting enough, this project came to me before American Fiction. But American Fiction actually talks a lot about how it seems most of Black stories that are for mainstream consumption have to do with Black pain, have to do with Black trauma, right? So I thought, how awesome would it be to take this historical context but to still illuminate [and] highlight, joy, hope, faith, love, etc.
And Ernest, taking on this role, the title role, that’s a lot this early in your career. Did you feel the pressure of the title role? And how did you go about finding your version of Washington?
Ernest Kingsley Jr.: Of course. Look, I did feel some pressure. It was quickly dissipated by the cast around me, the community around me, and someone like Sterling as well, who’s been such a mentor and a friend and a brother. He definitely was showing me the ropes all along. I was really being supported by the talent and the love and care by our cast and crew. And in terms of research, I guess to start off with, definitely reading the book. The show kind of branches off from it. Reading the book was a great foundation for me, just to kind of initially get into the world of Washington Black and the epicness and the journey and the story, and then obviously, going deeper into other things and the time period. But it was definitely the book that launched me into it.
WASHINGTON BLACK – “St. George and the Dragon” – Young Wash and Titch evade capture, finding allies, threats, and shocking truths about Titch’s family. In Halifax, Tanna’s attempt to derail her engagement complicates her ties… WASHINGTON BLACK – “St. George and the Dragon” – Young Wash and Titch evade capture, finding allies, threats, and shocking truths about Titch’s family. In Halifax, Tanna’s attempt to derail her engagement complicates her ties to Wash and Goff. As Wash’s aquarium impresses Goff, danger looms, testing loyalty amid shifting ambitions.
Disney/Chris Reardon
Even though this is a work of fiction, it does really illuminate part of Black history that not a lot of people know much about. Black pirates, for example. Was there any part of this history that you learned something from?
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Brown: I love the Dahomey, which also is echoed in [The] Woman King. I loved the sort of throughline of the Afro Nova Scotian community that we’ve discovered in Halifax, right? And I’ve worked in Charleston, South Carolina, on a TV show called Army Wives, for a long time and the Gullah accent [also called Geechee] I found very peculiarly in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And I was like, “You guys sound like you’re from South Carolina.” “No, we don’t sound like we’re from South Carolina. We’re from up here.” And I’m like, “Whoa, what are you talking about, man?” And it’s sort of like the accent that Medwin uses, because I thought that 50 percent of all Africans that entered into the United States came through a port in South Carolina called Sullivan’s Island, right? And so for me to hear that accent when I went to Halifax was this incredible moment, like, “Oh, wow. We really did make it.” This underground railroad is not something that I just heard about. I see the evidence of it here in Nova Scotia while we’re shooting on location. It was a magical moment for me.
And Ernest, what about you? Did you learn anything about this history?
Kingsley: I think Sterling kind of touched on it, the Afro Nova Scotia community. Obviously, we see how Medwin has really upheld and built that community at the time, but also just going there and filming and realizing that they’d been there for nearly seven generations. And just seeing the community they’ve built and how close-knit and tight they are, against all odds, against when they first arrived there, all those generations ago, they were given kind of terrible land, the unfertile land, and what they built from that, what they did, and they’re still there in abundance. Just getting introduced to that kind of culture and community was really cool.
There are also aspects of the characters in this that we so often don’t see, particularly Black characters in science, space, flying, all of those things. Was it important to you for these characters to be doing things that, historically in entertainment, we’ve often only seen white characters do.
Brown: Man, you’re making my heart just crack open in the most beautiful way possible, because there is an active erasure of our history going on in the United States right now. To make it sound as if we just didn’t exist. And there is no American history without Black history. And there’s also a de-emphasis of our history of creativity, of innovation, of invention, right? And so, in order to put that on the screen, hopefully people will reverse engineer and be like, “You know what? I know it’s a work of historical fiction, but what is the history of Black entrepreneurship, invention, creativity?” Because there’s so much that we’ve done, but that’s not highlighted for such a long time, especially as a young person growing up in the States, the idea of being smart and being cool was sort of seen as an anathema. They didn’t cross over with each other, especially in the Black community, actively putting something on screen that shows a very, very cool, passionate, loving man who’s so smart, who’s so imaginative, who’s so creative.
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I had a professor tell me once that Black history is American history, you can’t really separate the two. But Ernest, for you, as someone who isn’t American yet you’re telling this uniquely American story, what was it like for you processing how this story is told?
Kingsley: To be really honest, it’s quite like universal in terms of the Black, British and American [experiences]. I feel like that universal story of us going through that harrowing narrative and pain in our past and triumphing over it. And also, just the thing of us not getting the credit for our inventions and beautiful things we’ve done spans across, unfortunately, history across the world. And so it was touching the core of the experience that is universal for us. And I think the thing about seeing this Black boy and him getting the visibility—obviously his credit is stolen, but like the visibility—just the narrative and seeing him build this invention, build this thing with his creativity. There’s something about being seen and seeing that on a screen, as opposed to—like you were saying—you see a very common narrative of certain people do certain things, we don’t see Black people in sci-fi, but you see that in the story. And it’s like, that’s evidence, and that’s permission. So, yeah, it was really cool.
To that, what is really powerful about Washington’s experience is every time he looks to the sky and hopes or dreams. The power of the sky and stars in Black history, in spirituals, in the work of Harriet Tubman, it’s really powerful.
Brown: It does make sense, right? Because if you look just in your immediate circumstances, you may just see fields and places where you’ve labored throughout the day. And so the escape is the sky, right? Like sky is the limit, sky is the possibility, because it doesn’t represent anything that’s immediately around you. It’s like, at least there’s some expanse, there’s space, there’s distance, possibility exists up here. Reality is here [on land], possibility is there, right? Even with regards to Wash and the water, he’s never gone into the ocean and didn’t know how to swim, and then ultimately, my man had to throw you into the water, because the water also represents possibility. It’s the unexplored, right? We’ve explored this part. Where can I go to be free, where can I go to be fully realized, right? And then you have a young boy who goes into the water and learns how to fly.
Sterling, it seems like you’ve had one big project after another these past few years, picking up an Oscar nomination along the way. Do you not like taking breaks? And what is it that makes you want to keep producing projects like this?
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Brown: Thank you. That’s very kind. There is a part of you that feels like you want to strike while the iron is hot. There is a part of you that feels like, “Oh, you know what? If you don’t do something, then maybe they’ll forget about you.” Easy come, easy go sort of thing. I do take breaks. Like, I still assistant coach my son’s NFL flag football team. I see my other son play soccer all the time. I take little breaks for myself, but I try to structure it in such a way [that] the TV show that I get a chance to do in the states keeps me at home for about half the year, and then I have the other half a year to play around with. And it’s been a good formula for me, because my family knows where I am most of the time, and then I still have space to sort of scratch the creative itch inside of me, to just do something different. Variety is the spice of life, and I’m so fortunate H. Alan, in an industry that is undergoing a massive contraction; to be busy and people want to work with me that I feel like I should take advantage of this, because not a lot of people are having these opportunities. It’s a blessing.
WASHINGTON BLACK – “If You See My Mama, Whisper Her This…” – In Morocco, Wash reunites with Titch and uncovers his father’s true legacy. With Tanna, he journeys to his homeland on the Wind Sailer…. WASHINGTON BLACK – “If You See My Mama, Whisper Her This…” – In Morocco, Wash reunites with Titch and uncovers his father’s true legacy. With Tanna, he journeys to his homeland on the Wind Sailer. A dreamscape reunion provides answers to the past, as Wash’s family embarks on a new horizon.
Disney/James Van Evers
What does it mean for you to mentor someone like Ernest? Considering that you could have easily produced a project for yourself in the title role.
Brown: Sometimes you see people try to make that part their part. I was like, “No, it’s not my part.” But if I’m in a position where I can help somebody, where it is their part, get an opportunity to do it, that means a lot to me, because your legacy isn’t just the work that you do, it’s the opportunities that you create for other people, and hopefully just make it a little bit easier. That’s all you’re trying to do. The people that come behind you, you want it to be just a little bit easier, right? I stand on the shoulders of Denzel [Washington], who stands on James Earl [Jones], who stands on Paul Robeson, like there is a legacy here of performance, and each one of those dudes made it a little bit easier for me. And hopefully I get a chance to do the same.
And for you, Ernest, it’s so rare for someone your age to have this kind of mentorship. What is it like for you to have this support?
Kingsley: I don’t think there’s enough words that I could use to describe the level of gratitude. The level of support and love and care that Sterling has poured into me from when I was 21—I’m 24 now—has been second to none. The last three years, he’s been nothing but support, like a pillar. We’ve seen how this industry can be, especially with the strikes and stuff, and it’s not lost on me how rare it is to have that kind of support system with a star that Sterling is a gift, it’s an absolute blessing. I’m really grateful.
Most of the area will get at least some rain this morning but a cold front will push the rain out and bring the sunshine back by early this afternoon.
Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck of VA will get the most rain (1/4” to 1/2”) while the Shenandoah Valley will be lucky to get much more than a few hundredths of an inch. Southeast Virginia is likely to get over 1” of rain. I-95 travel South of Richmond, and I-64 towards Virginia Beach, could be slowed by the rain. Here in our area, the rain will be over by noon and sunshine will be making a quick return.
Steady, northwest winds will bring much lower humidity levels and ensure a beautiful weekend for all of the Capital Pride activities and Father’s Day on Sunday.
Afternoon highs will mostly be in the low/mid 80s today and Saturday and the mid/upper 80s on Sunday.
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Better still, overnight lows tonight and Saturday night will fall into the 50s north and west of Dulles Airport and the low-60s in metro D.C.
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
Clouds will return late Sunday afternoon and rain chances will arrive late Sunday night. All of the forecast models are still showing a high chance for rain for Monday into Tuesday. This doesn’t look like a blockbuster event but rain totals of around 1/2” still look like a good bet.
All of our region is still in drought with extreme drought conditions for most of central Virginia and all of the Delmarva Peninsula. That Monday storm is pretty much our best chance for rain over the next 10-14 days. Thankfully, the long range temperature outlook is for daytime highs to stay in the 80s all the way through next week.
QuickCast
TODAY: AM showers likely Sunny, dry after 3 p.m. Turning less humid Wind: northwest 10-20 mph Chance of rain: 60% HIGHS: 80° to 85°
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TONIGHT: Mainly clear Nice breeze Cooler than average Wind: northwest 10-15 mph Chance of rain: 0% LOWS: 55° to 65°
SATURDAY: Sunny skies Breezy afternoon Very low humidity Wind: northwest 15-20 mph Chance of rain: 0% HIGHS: 78° to 85°
SUNDAY: Increasing clouds Seasonably warm Showers after 11 p.m. Wind: northwest/west 10 mph Chance of rain: HIGHS: 85° to 90°
MONDAY: Cloudy, breezy and humid Rain, thunderstorms Rainfall near 1/2” likely Wind: southwest 15-25 mph Chance of rain: 80% HIGHS: 83° to 88°
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Workers at the university’s Vancouver campus fear mass layoffs after the approval of a $6 million budget reduction this week.
Washington State University Vancouver will feel the brunt of the university system’s budget cuts. In this undated, provided photo a student sits on the grounds of the Southwest Washington campus.
Courtesy Washington State University Vancouver
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Faculty and staff at Washington State University’s Vancouver campus say they are on pins and needles, as they wait to hear who will be impacted by the university system’s budget cuts.
In May, WSU’s Board of Regents announced the university would need to trim nearly $12 million from its core operating funds to run a balanced budget next fiscal year. Washington’s public universities are required to operate a balanced budget by state law.
The institution’s Vancouver campus will feel the brunt of the reductions soon. It was given a mandate to slash 15% from its budget. At just over $6 million in cuts, that’s close to half of the targeted cuts for the entire university system, which includes five campuses across Washington.
Amid Portland State budget cuts, a new plan for growth emerges
University leaders approved cuts to Vancouver’s budget on Wednesday. WSU spokesperson Brenda Alling said the university will not be releasing details of the plan.
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“What seems really problematic is this exceptional requirement that Vancouver get a significantly higher cut than any other campus in the whole state,” said WSUV Liberal Arts and History professor Sue Peabody.
Peabody is a tenured professor who has been teaching at the satellite campus since 1996. She said WSUV has weathered cuts in the past, including a 10% budget reduction just last year, but it has so far avoided layoffs.
“This time [WSU] is asking for very, very deep cuts that can only be met with personnel,” Peabody said. “There’s no other way to meet the 15% than eliminating employees.”
WSU is Washington’s land-grant university and it’s the second largest public university system in the state, with more than 25,000 students enrolled in 2025. The Vancouver campus is the institution’s second largest physical campus, enrolling close to 2,700 students.
Amid warnings of future cuts, University of Oregon trustees approve next year’s budget
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WSU is facing a multitude of financial headwinds, as are colleges and universities in Oregon and across the nation.
Washington State’s budget woes are primarily driven by decreasing state funds, anticipated losses in federal research grants, declining student enrollment and increasing personnel costs.
At a packed town hall-style meeting on Monday, university administrators acknowledged that the impending cuts are causing stress among the campus community.
“This is a time of incredibly high anxiety for us all,” Sandra Haynes, WSU executive vice president for statewide campuses, said at the June 15 meeting. “It’s hard not knowing what our futures will be. It’s hard not knowing how we’re going to take these cuts.”
In this provided photo Washington State University Vancouver faculty and staff filled a budget town hall hosted by university administrators on Monday, June 15, 2026.
Susan Lavender
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Administrators also attempted to clear up why the Vancouver campus is taking a disproportionate cut compared to the university’s other campuses and colleges.
According to Damien Sinnott, WSU senior vice president for finance and operations, Vancouver’s 15% cut reflects an effort to align per-student state funding across the WSU system.
“When you look at the Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Everett campuses, Vancouver receives substantially more state funding per student — about $2,500 more per student,” Sinnott explained to faculty last week. “So I think the board used that metric as a sign that Vancouver could withstand a larger budget reduction.”
Linfield University considers controversial program cuts to close budget deficit
Both Sinnott and Haynes said the approved budget cuts seek to minimize impacts to students, jobs and research at the campus. They said they would not be adopting a “do more with less” attitude in the coming fiscal year.
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But those statements are doing little to calm the frustration and fears that some faculty and staff are feeling over the mandated reductions.
“Those cuts will be felt by the students. Those cuts will diminish the quality of instruction at WSU Vancouver,” said WSU English professor Desiree Hellegers. “What we’re really seeing is a divestment from Southwest Washington.”
Hellegers has taught at the Vancouver campus for 33 years. She plans to retire this fall, partly to help shield some of her colleagues from layoffs.
“I know there’s a lot of young professors who may be on the chopping block,” Hellegers said. “To me, it’s kind of a question of, ‘What are administrators willing to sacrifice, themselves, in order to avert the worst of the damage?’”
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My grandmother met Harold Washington once. I was young when she told me the story, so I don’t remember every detail. What I remember is what she kept: a mug he gave her, which she held onto until the day she died.
I grew up on South Shore Drive, sold the Sun-Times for a quarter at a paper stand at 75th and Stony Island, right in front of the KFC, and graduated from Hyde Park Academy. I did not know then that I would spend my career studying the civil rights terrain Washington had walked. But I understood, even as a child, what it meant that he was there.
I am thinking about him now.
Harold Washington served barely two terms in Congress before becoming Chicago’s first Black mayor in 1983. In that brief time on Capitol Hill, he did something that does not get remembered often enough. From the House Judiciary Committee in 1982, he helped lead the extension of key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, including protections requiring jurisdictions with documented histories of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing their voting rules.
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The Congressional Black Caucus chose Washington to manage that bill on the House floor, where he spent seven weeks in hearings fighting to keep the enforcement mechanisms that protected Black voters from states that would prefer to be rid of them.
He won that fight.
Now, more than four decades later, we are fighting it again.
I am recalling Mayor Washington because of the efforts by President Donald Trump and many Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, a proposed federal election law that would make it much tougher for many citizens to vote and is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.
States curtail voting rights
Republican governors in Florida, Mississippi, Utah and South Dakota have already signed bills requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration or citizenship checks, with similar legislation passed in Tennessee. Five states, Arizona, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, will have show-your-papers requirements in place for the 2026 midterms.
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In New Hampshire, the law has already produced its intended effect: In 2025 town elections, married women who did not have their marriage license on hand could not register, with at least one woman required to come back three times.
The infrastructure of exclusion does not require a federal law to take effect. It requires the threat of one, and the states that were waiting have already moved.
Washington would have recognized this immediately. The Voting Rights Act extension he managed in 1982 was not a symbolic gesture. It was a structural intervention, closing the door on states that wanted to escape accountability for their documented histories of discrimination.
The SAVE Act opens that door again, not with a return to literacy tests or poll taxes as such, but with a documentary requirement that functions identically: neutral on its face, devastating in its application and concentrated in its harm on the communities Washington spent his life trying to bring into the democratic process.
Washington’s 1983 mayoral campaign brought together Black voters on the South and West sides, Latino voters long excluded from the machine’s benefits and progressive white voters who believed Chicago could be something other than what it had always been.
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His campaign was powered by a voter registration drive that added nearly 100,000 new voters to the rolls before the primary. He understood, instinctively and strategically, that expanding access to the ballot was not a prelude to political power. It was political power.
The SAVE Act would dismantle the registration infrastructure Black and Brown turnout campaigns depend on. Only 6% of voters register in person at an elections office. Washington’s coalition was built on the other 94%.
What Washington’s record demands of us
Washington deserves a reckoning, not a commemoration. He knew that formal equality was not enough, that the machinery of democratic participation had to be actively maintained against those who would narrow the circle.
His mug sat on my grandmother’s shelf for decades. She was not a politician. She was a Black woman on the South Side of Chicago who met a man running for mayor and felt, maybe for the first time, that he was talking to her. He gave her a mug. She kept it her whole life.
That is what is at stake. Not abstractions. People. The kind of people who keep a mug for decades because a politician made them feel like they mattered.
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Harold Washington fought this battle once, from the Judiciary Committee floor, in seven weeks of hearings most people have forgotten. We are fighting it again, this time against a bill that would quietly push millions back out of the process, with six states already implementing versions of it before Congress even acts. The least we can do is remember who showed us how.
Donathan L. Brown, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Northeastern University, a former U.S. Fulbright professor, and the author of five books on civil rights and voting rights. A native of the South Side, he graduated from Hyde Park Academy.
