archive
A Musical Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Home
January 14, 2005 Each year, more than 600,000 people visit Martin Luther King Jr.'s boyhood home in Atlanta. NPR's Fred Child goes on a special tour of the house to learn more about the role that music played in King's young life.
'We Shall Overcome': Reliving the Civil Rights Era
December 1, 2004 Herb Boyd documents an era in We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement as It Happened. The book comes with CDs narrated by activists and actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
'Along Martin Luther King'
January 19, 2004 There are 650 streets in the United States bearing the name Martin Luther King. Jonathan Tilove, author of Along Martin Luther King, talks about chronicling life on black America's "Main Street."
The First Civil Rights Bus Boycott
June 19, 2003 Fifty years ago — and two years before the famed bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. — black citizens in Baton Rouge, La., staged what's believed to be the first-ever organized protest of Jim Crow laws in the South. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on the anniversary of the Baton Rouge bus boycott.
Hip Hop: Today's Civil Rights Movement?
March 1, 2003 Hip-hop culture, with its street rhythms and explicit lyrics, is more relevant in advancing civil rights today than the peaceful messages of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., author Todd Boyd says. In an interview with NPR's Scott Simon, Boyd says hip hop artists use language as a political weapon that provokes and "makes people think." (Note: Contains language that some may consider offensive.)