Race

Amanda Gorman says the title of her 2021 poetry collection "Call Us What We Carry" came from her understanding that "we all can be vessels of both hurt and hope at the same time."

Arts

Poet Amanda Gorman celebrates the gift of Blackness for Juneteenth

1:57pm June 17, 2022

by Olivia Hampton

To mark the holiday, Gorman reads "Fury and Faith," a poem from Call Us What We Carry. She says her collection's title reflects how "we all can be vessels of both hurt and hope at the same time."

Queue Listen Now

Composer Carlos Simon's Requiem for the Enslaved, commissioned by Georgetown University, is a reckoning with the school's troubled history.

Music & Culture

'Requiem for the Enslaved' holds a major university's truths up to the light

1:47pm June 17, 2022

by Tom Huizenga

Georgetown University owes its survival to slavery. A new album by Carlos Simon, an assistant professor at the school, unflinchingly confronts that legacy.

Books
Arts

'On Juneteenth' historian examines the hope and hostility toward emancipation

1:47pm June 17, 2022

by Terry Gross

Juneteenth celebrates the day slavery ended in Texas, June 19, 1865. Historian Annette Gordon-Reed studies the early American republic and the legacy of slavery. Originally broadcast May 25, 2021.

Queue Listen Now

Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, commemorates the end of slavery on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, in compliance with President Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Here, a young woman stands near a piece of art created during the Louisville Jun

Companies are selling Juneteenth branded products. Here's why that's a big problem

10:30am June 17, 2022

by Jonathan Franklin

Brands and companies are working to remove their Juneteenth items from shelves, as experts say those who are selling Juneteenth-branded products are "tone-deaf."

National

Daughters remember their father — the man who brought Juneteenth to San Diego

7:56am June 17, 2022

by Janmaris Perez

Long before Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday, Sidney Cooper had been celebrating the hallowed day for decades. Lana Cooper-Jones and Marla Cooper remember their father who died in 2001.

Queue Listen Now

(L-R) Curt Flood, Bill White, Bob Gibson

Black baseball players struggled long after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier

5:00am June 17, 2022

After Jackie, a new History Channel documentary, tells the stories of three of the Black baseball players who followed Jackie Robinson into the major leagues.

Music & Culture

Songs to believe in: A Juneteenth playlist

8:06am June 16, 2022

by Lara Downes

This Juneteenth, pianist Lara Downes remembers the freedom that has been hard fought and hard won.

Queue Listen Now

National

More schools are offering courses related to Asian Americans

7:51am June 16, 2022

by Juliana Kim

Asian American college students are reigniting the fight for Asian American studies. Educators say increases in violence targeting Asian Amerians heightens the need.

Queue Listen Now

National

Man accused in killing Buffalo, N.Y., shooting will face federal hate crimes charges

4:43pm June 15, 2022

by Cheryl Corley

The Justice Department announced multiple hate and firearms charges against the white man accused of killing 10 people at a Buffalo market in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Queue Listen Now

The Biden administration is starting a process that could change how the U.S. census and federal surveys ask about people's racial and ethnic identities by 2024.

Politics & Government

Biden officials may change how the U.S. defines racial and ethnic groups by 2024

2:28pm June 15, 2022

by Hansi Lo Wang

The Biden administration is starting a process that could change how the U.S. census and federal surveys produce racial and ethnic data that is used for redistricting and civil rights enforcement.