Race

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, speaks during a news conference in November. He had met with city Police Chief Anthony Campos and protest organizers after a Ferguson, Mo., grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.

Newark's New Mayor Proves His Crime-Fighting Powers Early

5:21pm January 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

Since his election, Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka has tried some unusual tactics to battle crime. He says that's just a small step in a very long effort to make Newark a safer place to live.

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New York City police officers march before funeral services for police officer Wenjian Liu at Aievoli Funeral Home, in Brooklyn on Sunday. Liu and his partner were gunned down in an unprovoked attack on Dec. 20.

National

NYPD's Wenjian Liu, Killed In Dec. Shooting, Is Laid To Rest

3:17pm January 04, 2015

by Scott Neuman

Some of the thousands who attended the ceremony to honor the officer shot on Dec. 20 turned their backs as a gesture of disrespect for Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke.

National

Why Police Departments Have A Hard Time Recruiting Blacks

3:16pm January 04, 2015

by Martin Kaste

Since the Ferguson, Mo., shooting, there have been renewed calls for police departments to hire more blacks and other minorities. But recruiters say there's a shortage of candidates.

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Police watch a crowd of African-Americans as they wait for a car pool lift in 1956 during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

National

The Goal: To Remember Each Jim Crow Killing, From The '30s On

2:00pm January 03, 2015

by NPR Staff

The Civil Rights Restorative Justice Project wants to document every racially motivated killing in the American South between 1930 and 1970. The project's director says it's a race against the clock.

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Books
Arts

In 'Citizen,' Poet Strips Bare The Realities Of Everyday Racism

11:59am January 03, 2015

by NPR Staff

For her latest collection, Claudia Rankine mined her and her friends' encounters with racism. She says she wanted to talk about "what happens when we fail each other as people."

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National

2014 Stories At The Intersection Of Race And Sports

4:24pm December 31, 2014

by Kat Chow

As the year winds down, Code Switch is taking a step back to pay tribute to some important — but perhaps forgotten — stories about race and sports.

Roxane Gay is an author who examines race, culture and gender.

Roxane Gay: 2014 Was The Year Of 'Enough Is Enough'

12:32pm December 31, 2014

by NPR Staff

Author Roxane Gay spent 2014 thinking and writing about issues that exposed divides in America over race and gender. She offers her thoughts on some of the year's most-talked-about stories.

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President Obama responds to a question from NPR's Steve Inskeep on Dec. 17 in the Oval Office.

Here's Why Obama Said The U.S. Is 'Less Racially Divided'

6:05pm December 30, 2014

by Steve Inskeep

The president says incidents in the past year have "surfaced" long-simmering issues between minority communities and authorities, allowing for a healthy airing of grievances.

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Lieutenant Telsij of Return of the Jedi is one of just a handful of Asian characters in the Star Wars film series.

Diversity In Space: Tracking The First Asian Pilot In The Star Wars Movies

10:00am December 30, 2014

by Steve Haruch

The Asian characters in the original Star Wars films are few, fleeting and often forgotten. But the manager of the "Holocron" database at Lucasfilm helps uncover their back stories.

Arts

'Selma' Tells The Civil Rights Story Through Black Eyes

11:07am December 28, 2014

Director Ava DuVernay's film stands out for its focus on black characters. This story originally aired Dec. 27 on All Things Considered. Warning: This audio contains language some may find offensive.

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