Race, Identity & Culture

Imam Sayed Hassan Qazwini is the religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Detroit, the biggest such center in the United States. It includes a Mosque in which he preaches.

South African journalists Mondli Makhanya talk about race and racism in their country in light of the upcoming U.N. conference on World Racism, which will be held in South Africa. Barrell is editor of Johannesburg Daily Mail & Guardian. Until his appointment as editor last year he was political editor of the M&G. Mondli Makhanya is the Political Editor of the Sunday Times.

Historian and civil rights activist Roger Wilkins has written a new book Jefferson Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism (Beacon Press). Wilkins considers our founding fathers and their conflicting attitudes toward race and how it affects his own sense of patriotism. Wilkins is a professor of history at George Mason University, a Pulitzer-prize winner, and former Assistant Attorney General under President Johnson.

Andrew Ward is the author of “Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers, Who Introduced the World to the Music of Black America” (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux). The Jubilee singers were nine former slaves who who set off from Nashville in 1871 to raise money to rescue their school, Fisk University, from bankruptcy. They toured the U.S., Britain, and Europe introducing audiences to African-American spirituals. The Jubilee singers are also the subject of an upcoming American Experience documentary on PBS. (Monday, May 1, 2000 at 9:00)

Writer Philippe Wamba ("Phil-EEP WAM-bah"). He is the son of an African father and a African-American mother. His new book looks at the affinity between African-Americans and Africans, the things that divide them, and they myths they each hold about the other. It's called "Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America" (Dutton). Wamba has lived in both countries. His father, Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, is currently leader of the rebel faction in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Stand-up comic Margaret Cho. Her new one-woman show "I'm The One That I Want" is about her foray into the TV sitcom, when she was the first Asian-American to star in her own TV show. The series, "All-american Girl" was short lived, and a nightmare for Cho.

Former president of South Africa, F.W. Deklerk. He dismantled apartheid, released Nelson Mandela from prison, and later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela. Deklerk has a new autobiography, "F.W. DeKlerk: The Last Trek A New Beginning (St. Martin's Press).

Novelist Arthur Golden wrote the bestseller, "Memoirs of a Geisha" which was on the New York Times Bestseller List for one year. It's now out in paperback, and a movie version will be made by Stephen Spielberg. "Memoirs of a Geisha" was GOLDEN's debut as a novelist.(

T.J. Leyden is a former skinhead who now works for the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance, speaking out against hate and hate crimes. Leyden is 32 years old. He joined the Hammerskin, a Neo-Nazi group when he was 14, later became a recuiter, and left it at the age of 29. Now he is a consultant for the Center's Tools for Tolerance Program and speaks out around the country to school groups, church groups, law enforcement and military units.

Farmer is a member of the Cayuga Six Nations tribe from Canada. He stars in the new film "Smoke Signals," based on the story by Sherman Alexie. Farmer starred in the recent Jim Jarmusch film, "Dead Man" and the 1989 film "Powwow Highway," as well as numerous other films, plays, and television shows. Farmer also is publisher of "AboriginalVOICES: The Magazine of Evolving Native American Arts & Culture."