'Radio Diaries'
The Artful Reinvention Of Klansman Asa Earl Carter()
April 20, 2012 Since its first publication in 1976, The Education of Little Tree has sold more than 1 million copies. But the book and its author are not what they seem. That's because before Forrest Carter became a Cherokee novelist, he was Asa Earl Carter, a Ku Klux Klan organizer and segregationist.
London 2012: The Summer Olympics
Straight Out Of Flint: Girl Boxer Aims For Olympics()
February 27, 2012 A 16-year-old from Michigan named Claressa Shields is the youngest fighter competing for a place on the first-ever U.S. Olympic women's boxing team. She's facing fighters almost a decade older and much more experienced — but she's beaten the odds before.
Music Interviews
Robert Johnson And Pablo Casals' Game-Changers Turn 75()
November 23, 2011 Two hugely important recordings, made by pivotal musicians an ocean apart, were made on the same day in 1936.
How A Protest Led To The GI Bill()
November 11, 2011 When World War I veterans returned from overseas, they were promised a cash bonus for their service — but they wouldn't get their money until 1945. Then the Great Depression struck. Desperate for relief, in 1932 a group of veterans from Portland, Ore., went to Washington to demand early payment. The protests led to violence — and eventually the GI Bill.
The Last Man On The Mountain()
August 11, 2011 In the 1990s, retired miner Jimmy Weekley, 71, became an unlikely anti-mining advocate when a coal company proposed a mountaintop removal mine virtually in his backyard in West Virginia. Most of his neighbors sold out to the company and moved away, but Weekley has refused to budge.
Who Was Brother Claude Ely?()
May 5, 2011 Over the past decade, Macel Ely decided to find out who his great-uncle — the late gospel singer Brother Claude Ely — really was. In interviews with nearly 1,400 people, Macel discovered that Claude had a healing effect on those who came to his revivals — and his music influenced some of the pioneers of rock 'n' roll.
The Legacy Of George F. Johnson And The Square Deal()
December 1, 2010 On Dec. 1, 1948, the nation witnessed one of the largest funerals in U.S. history, for George F. Johnson. The owner of the Endicott Johnson Corp., at one time the country's leading shoe manufacturer, believed it was his responsibility to provide for workers' welfare. So he created what he called the Square Deal, which one welfare expert says is an anachronism today.
Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching()
August 6, 2010 On Aug. 7, 1930, two young African-American men were lynched by a mob in Marion, Ind. The night before they had been charged with murdering a white factory worker and raping his companion. The case was never solved, but a photograph of the lynching became iconic. And a third man narrowly survived: Who was James Cameron?
My Grandfather's Execution()
May 7, 2010 When Bridgette McGee-Robinson was growing up, she didn't know anything about her grandfather — who he was, where he was from, why no one ever talked about him. So she set about digging for the truth about the black man who was executed in 1951 for raping a white woman in Mississippi.
AIDS Diarist Thembi Ngubane Dies()
June 5, 2009 Thembi Ngubane, who chronicled her experience of living with AIDS, died Thursday at the age of 24. Ngubane lived in a shack in the biggest township in South Africa, but over the past five years, her diary about living with HIV was heard around the world.
