Race

Sen. Cory Booker says we are witnessing 'a Jackie Robinson moment for our nation'

4:23pm April 04, 2022

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, about the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for a seat in the Supreme Court.

White people feared COVID less after learning other races were hit hardest, data show

4:23pm April 04, 2022

by Adrian Florido

New research finds that white Americans made aware about COVID's racial disparities cared less about the virus themselves. The data have potential implications for public health messaging.

In a record year for book ban attempts, ALA says these 10 books were challenged most

4:23pm April 04, 2022

by Miranda Mazariegos

To kick off National Library week, the American Library Association listed its annual top 10 most challenged books. It said it faced an unprecedented number of attempts to ban to books this year.

Arts

The aftermath of Will Smith's slap illuminates the links of Black Hollywood

8:36am April 03, 2022

What does it mean for the elite circle of Black actors, directors and producers in Hollywood when moments like Will Smith's slap at the Oscars happens?

Deborah Watts, a cousin of Emmett Till, the Black 14-year-old from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and lynched after he allegedly whistled at a white woman, holds a poster on March 11, in Jackson, Miss.

Experts warn the new anti-lynching law may not actually help prevent hate crimes

10:16pm April 02, 2022

by Robert Baldwin III

President Biden recently signed into law the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act to hold people convicted of hate crimes accountable. But legal experts say the law may not actually deter those crimes.

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I Color Myself Different, written by Colin Kaepernick and illustrated by Eric Wilkerson

Books
Arts

Colin Kaepernick says 'I Color Myself Different' in his first children's book

8:00am April 02, 2022

by Samantha Balaban

Colin Kaepernick's kindergarten teacher gave his class an assignment: Draw a picture of your family. When he colored his family yellow and himself brown, it became a pivotal moment for his identity.

National Park Service ranger Betty Reid Soskin, 100, retired on Thursday. She's seen here in 2013, working at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif.

National

The oldest park ranger, who told the stories of Black women in WWII, retires at 100

3:31pm April 01, 2022

by Bill Chappell

"What gets remembered is a function of who's in the room doing the remembering," Betty Reid Soskin has said. She shaped World War II history exhibits to highlight the segregation Black people faced.

Several pyramids in the morning light in the royal burial grounds in Meroe, Sudan.

Chester Higgins' camera brings a 360 degree view to Black life

3:47pm March 31, 2022

by Jon Kalish

Acclaimed African-American photographer Chester Higgins has made dozens of trips to Africa since the 1970's to document the continent's history and culture. Now 75, he has no plans on slowing down.

Ralph Lauren honors HBCUs in new collection with Morehouse and Spelman Colleges

4:18pm March 30, 2022

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Robin Givhan, senior critic-at-large at The Washington Post, about the significance of Polo Ralph Lauren's collaboration with the HBCUs Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.

Books
Arts

How one Civil Rights activist posed as a white man in order to investigate lynchings

1:34pm March 30, 2022

by Dave Davies

White Lies author A.J. Baime tells the story of Walter White, a light-skinned Black man whose ancestors had been enslaved. For years White risked his life investigating racial violence in the South.

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