Walter Ray Watson

Last year, NPR went back 50 years to look at the tremendous political and social events that changed our world forever. We found many of those stories resonate with challenges we face today.

Fifty years ago, Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American woman elected to Congress. As part of our series on significant events from 1968, we examine Chisholm's life and work.

The photographer and folklorist documented a caravan of mule-driven wagons that left Mississippi to march on Washington 50 years ago to draw attention to poverty.

Parliament showed me that being black has liabilities, but that it's also a powerful gift.

The longtime piano accompanist and musical director accidentally broke the hit "I Left My Heart In San Francisco." But he was also the driving force behind the style Bennett is best known for.

A documentary shares the good and bad of black history through photography.

A rare, untitled 1913 silent film is the subject of a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibit, 100 Years In Post-Production: Resurrecting A Lost Landmark of Black Film History, tells the story behind the silent film's production.

The film features Bert Williams, one ...

The bandleader and composer shifted the jazz landscape of the 1950s and '60s with his bluesy, funky music. Along the way, he mentored major musicians and devised future jazz standards.

There would be no last call on the day of the March on Washington, and Manny and Mitzie Landsman had no choice in the matter. Their D.C. shop, Metro Liquors, was closed for business on Aug. 28, 1963, just one of 1,900 businesses ordered by local authorities not to sell, ...

Charles Lloyd has a way of talking that sounds a lot like the notes from his saxophone: full of youthful energy, yet packed with experiences reserved for grownups.

"Look," Lloyd says. "I heard Billie. I heard Dinah, I heard Aretha, Marvin. I ...