From high-heeled kicks to Air Jordans, a traveling exhibit from the Brooklyn Museum encourages us to look at everyday footwear as exquisite objects of desire, and see "sneakerheads" as the historians.
Decades before Jackie Robinson broke American baseball's color line, a long-standing camaraderie between black and Japanese players would shape the future of baseball in Japan.
For Victorian athletes in America, the game on the diamond gave them a chance to compete against men — and win. Re-enactment teams offer the same opportunity to modern women.
The prolific author tackled difficult issues of race in novels and poetry. He used his writing to challenge assumptions about African-Americans, including civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.
Lee once said she wanted to be the chronicler of "small-town, middle-class Southern life." Even withouther highly anticipated second novel, Go Set a Watchman, many fans would say she succeeded.
Fried chicken is a racially fraught food. But for African-American women in Gordonsville, Va., the dish became a route to financial independence after the Civil War.
Author Max Leonard says that, when it comes to the Tour de France, the riders in the back often have far more interesting stories than the riders in the front. His new book is called Lanterne Rouge.
NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Gary Robinov, director of Raising Ali, a film about the 50th anniversary of the heavyweight boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine.