Race

It's Been 5 Decades Since 'Soul Train' Was First Nationally Syndicated

5:36am September 30, 2021

by Sam Sanders

NPR celebrates its 50th anniversary by looking back on moments of 1971. When Don Cornelius created Soul Train 50 years ago, it soon became a cultural institution — showcasing Black music and culture.

Remembering Seminal Philosopher Charles W. Mills

4:35pm September 27, 2021

Philosopher Charles W. Mills has died at 70. He upended the canon of Western philosophy, calling out the whiteness in the discipline and adding the dimension of race to dominant liberal frameworks.

Engineer Marian Croak (left) and ophthalmologist Patricia Bath are the first Black women to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in its nearly 50-year history.

Meet The First 2 Black Women To Be Inducted Into The National Inventors Hall Of Fame

3:45pm September 27, 2021

by Rachel Treisman

Dr. Patricia Bath transformed cataract surgery and fought to eradicate preventable blindness. Marian Croak pioneered the technology behind audio- and videoconferencing and text-to-donate services.

Fred Harris, pictured in 2016, is the last surviving member of the Kerner commission. Their report openly discussed racism in the U.S. in a way that sent shockwaves through the country.

Politics & Government

The Kerner Commission's Last Living Member Says We Still Need To Talk About Racism

3:23pm September 27, 2021

by Mycah Hazel

Former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris is the last surviving member of the Kerner commission, appointed in 1967 to study the root causes of social unrest in America. Its groundbreaking report blamed racism.

Queue Listen Now

Tiny Desk Teams Up With Alt.Latino This Month

7:54am September 26, 2021

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre about their Alt.Latino Tiny Desk takeover for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Country singer Mickey Guyton released her latest album, Remember Her Name, on Sept. 24.

Music & Culture

On Debut Album, Mickey Guyton Remembers Her Name

2:54pm September 24, 2021

Over the last decade, singer-songwriter Mickey Guyton has been trying to convince the country music industry that she is country. NPR's Noel King talks her about the highs and lows she's experienced.

Created in 2018, the Our Black Girls website centers the stories of missing Black girls and women.

National

Tens Of Thousands Of Black Women Vanish Each Year. This Website Tells Their Stories

10:55am September 24, 2021

by Sharon Pruitt-Young

Erika Marie Rivers created the Our Black Girls website to shine a light on Black girls and women who have gone missing or were murdered, a demographic that gets disproportionately less media coverage.

Music & Culture

A New York Metropolitan Opera First: Performing A Work By A Black Composer

6:34am September 24, 2021

Terence Blanchard will become the first Black composer to put on a show at the Metropolitan Opera in the institution's 138 year history. Blanchard's Fire Shut Up In My Bones will be performed.

Plan To Widen Highway In South Carolina Would Cut Through Black And Brown Communities

4:40pm September 23, 2021

NPR's Leila Fadel talks with Omar Muhammad, executive director of the Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities, on communities in North Charleston, S.C., facing displacement for a highway project.

National

Monument Marking End Of Slavery Unveiled In Virginia, Weeks After Lee Statue Removed

10:49am September 23, 2021

by Patrick Larsen

Just weeks after officials in Richmond, Va., took down the nation's largest statue of Robert E. Lee, a new monument is going up — the Emancipation and Freedom Monument to mark the end of slavery.