Jim Crow

Rep. Kelly Alexander speaking at NC Legislative Office Building in Raleigh

North Carolina lawmakers again seeking literacy test repeal

12:09pm March 02, 2023

North Carolina lawmakers and voters have rejected past efforts to strip an unenforceable literacy test requirement from the state constitution that was used for decades to disenfranchise Black vote

Race

New app brings High Point history to life for tourists

4:25pm February 27, 2023

by David Ford

A new app that leads listeners on a walking tour is bringing the history of High Point’s Washington Street to life for tourists in the area.

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Workers remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park in Charlottesville, Va., in July. Initial plans to remove the statue four years ago sparked the infamous "Unite the Right" rally at which 32-year-old Heather Heyer was kille

Arts

A Black museum asks to melt Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee statue to create new art

5:30pm October 22, 2021

by Becky Sullivan

In 2017, debate over Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee statue sparked a violent neo-Nazi rally that left a woman dead. Now, a Black cultural center wants to melt it down and turn it into public art.

Disney added a warning on its streaming service to some of its titles with racist depictions, including Dumbo. The crows' appearance and musical number in the movie "pay homage to racist minstrel shows," Disney said.

Arts

Disney Warns Viewers Of Racism In Some Classic Movies With Strengthened Label

5:50pm October 16, 2020

by Reese Oxner

Disney strengthened language used to denounce racist depictions in some of its classic properties on the company's streaming service.

The. Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, speaks at a January 2019 service to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy.

National

What The Civil Rights Movement Of The '60s Can Teach Atlanta Protesters Now

11:25pm June 03, 2020

by Mary Louise Kelly

Atlanta was the cradle of the civil rights movement in the '60s. As protests return to the city — this time in response to the death of George Floyd — what lessons can be taken from the past?

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Patsy and Winfred Rembert in Hamden, Conn., at their StoryCorps interview in 2017.

National

He Survived A Near-Lynching. 50 Years Later, He's Still Healing

1:41pm November 15, 2019

As a young, black man living in Georgia's Jim Crow era, Winfred Rembert experienced an unforgettable trauma. "I still wake up screaming and reliving things that happened to me," he told StoryCorps.

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U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., says that under current election procedure, there's "no way" he could win statewide office in Mississippi. Several African-Americans are now challenging those procedures.

Black Voters Sue Over Mississippi's Jim Crow-Era Election Law

7:39pm September 24, 2019

by Debbie Elliott

Four African Americans are suing over a Jim Crow-era election rule that requires statewide officeholders to win a majority of the popular vote and at least 62 of 122 Mississippi state house districts.

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Stony the Road, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

In 'Stony The Road,' Henry Louis Gates Jr. Looks At The Period After Reconstruction

2:27pm April 03, 2019

by Michael Schaub

In his new book, the literary scholar presents an absorbing, necessary look at the "Redemption" era, in which the hard-fought gains of African-Americans were rolled back by embittered Southern whites.

Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, And America's Journey From Slavery to Segregation, by Steve Luxenberg

'Separate' Is An Eye-Opening Journey Through Some Of America's Darkest Passages

12:18pm February 25, 2019

by Terence Samuel

Author Steve Luxenberg repeatedly manages to tell us stories around Plessy v. Ferguson that capture both the hope and the hopelessness that has been central to America's long argument about race.

(From left) Lake County, Fla., Sheriff Willis McCall and an unidentified man stand next to Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Charles Greenlee. The three were accused of rape in 1949, along with a fourth man. They were all pardoned Friday.

National

Accused Of Florida Rape 70 Years Ago, 4 Black Men Get Posthumous Pardons

5:45pm January 11, 2019

by Ian Stewart

The new governor said the arrests and trials, and in two cases the killings, of the Groveland Four were unjust. Families of the men had worked for the pardons. The accuser maintained she did not lie.