Race

Education

The number of first-year Black medical students jumps 21% in the past year

5:11am January 18, 2022

by Kirk Carapezza

Medical schools across the country are reporting a record increase in first-year Black students. (This report originally aired Jan. 15, 2022 on Weekend Edition Saturday.)

Chamath Palihapitiya, a 34-year-old venture capitalist and minority owner of the Golden State Warriors, is under attack on Twitter for saying "Nobody cares" about the Uyghur genocide in China.

Co-owner of the NBA's Warriors lambasted after saying 'nobody cares about the Uyghurs'

11:43pm January 17, 2022

by Dustin Jones

The 34-year-old billionaire repeatedly told his podcast co-hosts that "Nobody cares about the Uyghurs." The sound bite has gone viral and has been viewed millions of times on Twitter.

National

Charles McGee, celebrated Tuskegee Airman, dies at 102

5:38pm January 17, 2022

Retired Brigadier General Charles Edward McGee, a member of the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen who flew during World War II, has died. He was 102.

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From center left to right: Yolanda Renee King, Arndrea Waters King and Martin Luther King III, lead the annual D.C. Peace Walk: Change Happens with Good Hope and a Dream across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge for Dr. Martin Luther King Day in Washi

MLK's memory is honored by demonstrators calling for the passage of voting rights bill

5:32pm January 17, 2022

by Jaclyn Diaz

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would. have turned 93 on Jan. 15. He was just 39 when he was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tenn.

National

Important parts of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy are often glossed over

4:58pm January 17, 2022

by Adrian Florido

Ongoing fights for voting rights and racial justice have sparked a reckoning over how Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy is often invoked in that work.

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Laura Coates teaches law at George Washington University Law School and is a senior analyst for CNN. She also hosts The Laura Coates Show, on radio SiriusXM's Urban View.

Books
Arts

Attorney Laura Coates has witnessed the dissolution of voting rights first hand

7:00am January 17, 2022

by Terry Gross

While working for the Department of Justice, Coates says she saw voter rolls being purged and instances where polling places were moved to known Klan locations. Her new memoir is Just Pursuit.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Rabbi Israel Dresner's synagogue, Temple Sha'arey Shalom, in Springfield, N.J., on Jan. 18, 1963. Dresner became close to King when he was an activist for civil rights in the 1960s.

Israel Dresner, rabbi who marched with Martin Luther King, dies at 92

8:29am January 16, 2022

by Tovia Smith

Rabbi Israel "Sy" Dresner was one of the early Freedom Riders in the 1960s civil rights movement and was close with King. He said Jewish teachings and Jewish history compelled his activism.

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National

Yolanda Renee King on voting rights, 'critical race theory' and her grandfather's legacy

8:18am January 16, 2022

by Alana Wise

Martin Luther King, Jr's teenage granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King, is supposed to speak on the King holiday. For her generation, the lessons of King's life may be tied up in "critical race theory."

As demand for testing ramps up, community clinics and nonprofits struggle to keep up with the need. These groups have run testing sites throughout the pandemic in low-income and minority neighborhoods, like this one in the Mission District of San Francisc

Essential workers face a tough choice: Find a test or miss work

7:00am January 16, 2022

by Raquel Maria Dillon

Facing lost wages if they can't work, essential workers struggle to get timely COVID tests amid a nationwide testing crunch. Community clinics are struggling to meet the need.

Glenn Youngkin waves to the crowd at his inauguration on Saturday Jan. 15, in Richmond, Va.

Republican Glenn Youngkin is sworn in as the governor of Virginia

6:17pm January 15, 2022

The businessman, the first Republican to hold the office in nearly a decade, took the oath alongside Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears. The pair surprised Democrats when they swept office in November.