African Americans

Giddens' Freedom Highway is an exploration of African American experiences, accompanied by an instrument with its own uniquely African American story: the banjo. Originally broadcast May 11, 2017.

In the 1960s, Reagon was a founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee's Freedom Singers. In 1988, she spoke to Fresh Air about the songs she sang as an activist.

Jamiles Lartey discusses policing in America. He is a staff writer for The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. criminal justice system. He previously reported on criminal justice, race and policing for The Guardian, where he was part of a team that created an online database tracking police violence in 2015 and 2016.

Janelle Monáe is interested in what it means to represent minority groups in art and music. She's currently starring in the Amazon series 'Homecoming.' And her 2018 CD 'Dirty Computer' was named one of the top albums of the year.

James McBride is best known for his memoir, The Color of Water, about being the son of an African American father and a white mother. His new novel, Deacon King Kong, takes place in 1969, in a Brooklyn housing project, similar to the one he grew up in., and involves the wide consequences of a shooting.

Growing up, Bridgett M. Davis' mother booked and banked bets from their home in Detroit. She writes the role of "the numbers" in the black community in her memoir. Originally broadcast Feb. 4, 2019.