History

Education

'Critical race theory' bans frustrate teachers during Black History Month

5:21pm February 19, 2022

by Anya Steinberg

In the past year, more than 35 states have introduced over 150 bills limiting what schools can teach about race. For many educators in those states, it's made teaching Black History Month fraught.

Mary Stepp Burnette Hayden, pictured around 1942, with her granddaughter, Mary Othella Burnette, and two of Hayden's great-grandchildren.

National

A granddaughter passes on the legacy of 'Granny Hayden,' a midwife born into slavery

2:31pm February 18, 2022

"If somebody needed help — Granny was going. Black and whites alike, it made no difference to her," Mary Othella Burnette says of her late grandmother, a second-generation midwife in Black Appalachia.

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George Takei testifies before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in California in 1981.

Arts

George Takei got reparations. He says they 'strengthen the integrity of America'

1:07pm February 18, 2022

by Neda Ulaby

Eighty years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order that sent thousands of Japanese Americans to internment camps. Actor George Takei was among them.

Cristina Calderón, the last known native speaker of the Yaghan language, poses outside of the local community center in Puerto Williams, southern Chile, on April 23, 2017.

World News

Cristina Calderón, Chile's last known Yaghan speaker, dies at 93

7:03am February 18, 2022

by Rina Torchinsky

Until the end of her days, Abuela Cristina — as many knew her — bided her time making traditional reed baskets, and sharing the Yaghan language and culture with those around her.

Gail Halvorsen, also know as the "Candy Bomber", poses for a portrait at his son's home in Midway, Utah, in 2020. Halvorsen, who was known for his airdrops of sweets during the Berlin airlift after World War II ended, died Wednesday at the age of 101.

The 'Candy Bomber' who dropped sweets during the Berlin airlift has died at age 101

6:08pm February 17, 2022

by The Associated Press

"Halvorsen's deeply human act has never been forgotten," Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey said in a statement.

'Born on the Water' puts the '1619 Project' into kids' hands

5:44pm February 17, 2022

Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson discuss how their book, 1619 Project's Born on the Water, helps young Black children feel affirmed in where they come from.

Politics & Government

Like thousands of North Carolinians, anti-racism educator Lucretia Berry took a field trip to Old Salem Museums & Gardens as a child.

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Often overlooked, civil rights advocate Constance Baker Motley gets her due

1:30pm February 16, 2022

by Tonya Mosley

In Civil Rights Queen, author Tomiko Brown-Nagin profiles Motley, a Black woman who wrote the original complaint in Brown v. The Board of Education and was on Martin Luther King's legal team.

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History

'Critical race theory' bans frustrate teachers during Black History Month

A granddaughter passes on the legacy of 'Granny Hayden,' a midwife born into slavery

George Takei got reparations. He says they 'strengthen the integrity of America'

Cristina Calderón, Chile's last known Yaghan speaker, dies at 93

The 'Candy Bomber' who dropped sweets during the Berlin airlift has died at age 101

'Born on the Water' puts the '1619 Project' into kids' hands

'Throughline': The battle over the filibuster's future is a battle over its past

In Supreme Court nomination debate, echoes of past judicial breakthrough

Enslaved people helped build Old Salem. For years, their stories went untold.

Often overlooked, civil rights advocate Constance Baker Motley gets her due