A New Chapter in the "Roots" Saga

Journalist Taylor Branch says most histories of the African American civil rights movement written by white people are missing heart and context. He seeks to avoid this pitfall in his new book, Parting the Waters. Branch joins Fresh Air to discuss the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. in black churches, and how John F. Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover attempted to control him for their own ends.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says the movie star had a range of about six notes, but he had personality and a swinging house band. Yet Astaire deserves praise for making famous several songs which later became standards.

Literature professor and writer Carolyn Heilbrun writes about women's issues under her own name, and detective novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. She believes that the path forward for feminism is androgyny and a greater blurring of gender roles and identities.