African American issues

Haywood has written a new memoir, "The Haygoods of Columbus" about his family, and growing up in Columbus, Ohio in the mid 60s and 70s. He lived adjacent to Mount Vernon Avenue, the center of Columbus' Black community. Haygood moved back to Columbus to write the book. Haygood has also written a biography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and "Two on the River" a lyrical recollection of a two-thousand mile journey down the Mississippi.

In light of the deaths of rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, a discussion on the culture of rap and the violence that surrounds it with Chicago police officer Eric Davis. He's a member of the rap group the Slick Boys. Davis and two other officers founded the group in 1991 to provide positive role models for the inner-city kids they encountered on their jobs every day. The group has received national acclaim for their songs about the importance of getting an education and staying off of drugs and out of gangs.

Chapmyn was homeless, surviving on garbage and sleeping in vacant buildings in the '80's. A suicide note he began writing to his mother inspired him to write the play "Our Young Black Men Are Dying and Nobody Seems to Care," which became a big hit on the so-called chitlin circuit. He went on to write other plays on social issues facing the African-American community., making a name for himself as a playwright and a social activist.

Richburg is the Hong Kong bureau chief for the "Washington Post," the paper's former Africa bureau chief, and has won awards for his reporting, including being selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In his new book "Out of America," he reflects on his three years experience in Africa and questions the connections made between the identity of African-Americans and their African roots.

Gates is the W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Humanities and chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University as well as a staff writer for "The New Yorker." In his new book, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man," Gates records the thoughts of some of society's most revered black American men. The men debate the current state of black men and the difficulties of race and gender relations in American society.

Rock is 26 years-old and grew up in Brooklyn. He got his start in show business performing stand-up comedy routines in Manhattan. He spent three years on "Saturday Night Live" and appeared in a few films, including the recent "Beverly Hills Ninja." He has a new comedy and talk-show series, "The Chris Rock Show," premiering February 7 on HBO.

Massiah is founder and Executive Director of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia. He has won numerous awards for the films he has produced for public television. Messiah's latest project is a documentary featuring the late civil rights activist and NAACP co-founder W.E.B. DuBois, called "W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices." It premiers on PBS this month.

A broadcast of the debate between playwright August Wilson and critic Robert Brustein over multiculturalism and the theater. The discussion is moderated by actress, playwright, and performance artist Anna Deavere Smith. Wilson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the play "Fences," says the modern theater system jeopardizes the values of black actors because it is dominated by white society. Brustein, the American Repertory Theater's artistic director and the theater critic of "The New Republic," claims Wilson's ideas encourage black separatism.

William Labov teaches at the University of Pennsylvania discusses Ebonics. He's been studying Black English for 30 years and traced the rules governing Black and White English. He also examined the differences between the two and explored the roots of the changes taking place in the languages.

Higginbotham served in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He's an expert on race and the legal process and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His new book is "Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process"