Race

Myrlie Evers-Williams To Deliver Inaugural Invocation

10:01am January 21, 2013

by Debbie Elliott

The widow of a slain Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evars will help open the inaugural ceremony Monday. President Obama has selected activist Myrlie Evers-Williams to deliver the invocation. She's the first woman and lay person to have the honor.

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Bernard Holyfield (right) shares a childhood story with his friend Charles Barlow, about growing up in a racially charged Alabama during the early 1960s.

National

The Moment Race Mattered: A Haunting Childhood Memory

9:11am January 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Bernard Holyfield was 5 years old when he learned that skin color made a big difference. He recalls an incident in the early 1960s in Alabama in which a drunken white man approached him and his brother while they were playing on their front lawn.

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Shifts In Race Relations Since Obama's Election

2:34pm January 15, 2013

President Barack Obama's election in 2008, sparked many discussions about how race relations would change in the United States. Many Americans hoped that the election of a black man to the highest office would provide opportunities for breakthroughs in racial equality and understanding.

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Living Single (1993-1998) featured four young, black, professional women in New York — including Queen Latifah as the ambitious head of a small magazine.

Arts

'Living' In Color, Long Before 'Girls'

1:14pm January 11, 2013

by Karen Grigsby Bates

HBO's series Girls has been criticized for not being diverse enough. Long before Girls, two shows — Living Single and Girlfriends — featured professional African-American women. But the creator of Girlfriends says times have changed, and the shows she now produces have more multicultural casts to reflect changing demographics.

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Talking About What It Means 'To Be Black'

3:08pm December 27, 2012

In his 2012 book, How To Be Black, comedian Baratunde Thurston offers a humorous and poignant commentary on race in America. As part of our annual series on books we missed, Thurston shares his take on the conversations Americans have about race — as well as the ones we should have, but avoid altogether.

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Inouye, escorted by Army Gen. Charles Taylor, inspects the troops outside the Pentagon during the annual National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony Sept. 14, 2004. Inouye lost his arm in World War II combat.

Politics & Government

Sen. Inouye, A War Hero Who Broke Barriers, Dies At 88

1:06pm December 18, 2012

by Martin Kaste

Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye, the Senate's senior member, received the Medal of Honor for his service in World War II. In Italy, he personally stormed three German machine gun nests, taking them out but losing his right arm in the process. Inouye died Monday after suffering from a respiratory ailment.

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National

Affirmative Action: Factious Past, Uncertain Future

7:09pm December 09, 2012

by NPR Staff

The Supreme Court's expected ruling on a case involving the University of Texas could end race-based affirmative action. But while some say the program works and is still needed, others argue there are better ways of measuring diversity.

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Books

America's First Black Heavyweight Champ

10:54pm July 17, 2011

Jack Johnson was America's first black heavyweight boxing champion. NPR's Tavis Smiley talks with Geoffrey Ward about Ward's book Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, a biography about the boxer, and with filmmaker Ken Burns, who produced a documentary based on Ward's book.

Health & Safety

Communities of Color and Health Issues

10:06am December 16, 2004

Why do communities of color suffer a disproportionate incidence of asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure and infant mortality? NPR's Tavis Smiley gets some answers from PolicyLink CEO and founder Angela Glover Blackwell.

Politics & Government

Michael Eric Dyson: MLK's Civil Rights Legacy

10:06am December 16, 2004

Despite his many accolades, including the Nobel Peace Prize, there are still camps that condemn and criticize the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commentator Michael Eric Dyson and NPR's Tavis Smiley talk about the controversy over King's legacy.