This story appears to be nothing less than taking another author's work and profiting from it. You had neither the original idea nor the knowledge to write it. If you wanted to do pieces for Black History Month you could have solicited authors with the background and expertise to write for your publication. I hope this isn't a new trend.

My personal experience is that almost none of my serious and heavily researched pieces on Black History were curated by Medium yet a couple of throwaway promotional pieces were. The curation process at Medium is undecipherable, Having followers mean nothing any longer as followers have to actively search for your stories to find them. Medium appears to be only servicing its own publications at the expense, and now the knowledge of the independent writers. Boo!