S. Epatha Merkerson is best known for her role on the TV series “Law & Order,” but her new documentary explores different territory. “The Contradictions of Fair Hope” chronicles the evolution of an African-American benevolent society that was founded to support newly freed slaves after the Civil War. Merkerson and fellow producer Rockell Metcalf talk about the project with guest host Christian McBride, who composed music for the film.

It's the 150th anniversary of The Civil War and the effects are still with us. Celeste Headlee reflects on her family's role in the Civil War; the branches of her family tree include both slaves and owners. The Civil War is over, but the fight continues; we still argue over whether to fly the Confederate flag and how to teach the history of the war.

In September, musician and poet K'Naan wrote an op-ed about returning to his native Somalia for The New York Times. He had left the country, which is in the grip of a devastating famine and violent civil war, twenty years earlier, fleeing with other members of his family for safety in Canada. He came on the show to discuss this in September.

It’s been a century-and-a-half since a minstrel tune called “Dixie” debuted in New York.  The song went viral, and soon North and South alike were whistling “Dixie.”  With the outbreak of the Civil War, “Dixie” became an anthem of the antebellum way of life.  And today we are still fighting over “Dixie.”

It's the 150th anniversary of The Civil War and the effects are still with us. Celeste Headlee reflects on her family's role in the Civil War; the branches of her family tree include both slaves and owners. The Civil War is over, but the fight continues; we still argue over whether to fly the Confederate flag and how to teach the history of the war.

I can easily trace my family line back to the Civil War.  I imagine a lot of people can, and I'm sure that there are more than a few whose lives were altered by that conflict. It was slavery that brought my mother's family to the U.S, it was slavery that produced my great-grandmother, a product of a slave named Anne and her Scotch-Irish owner. It was slavery that was at the heart of the rift that caused the Civil War. It was the Civil War that gave Anne her freedom, and allowed her daughter to get an education.

Most Americans have an ancestor that fought on one side of the war or the other. Maybe you had a great-great-great grandfather who fought against "Northern aggression," or a far removed aunt who nursed the boys in blue at an army hospital. Maybe both. The branches of my family tree include both slaves and owners, both the blue and the grey. In 1861, it was brother against brother; in 2011, it's an internal war against ourselves.

On Tuesday, to mark the 150-year anniversary of the start of the Civil War, we aired a segment featuring two African-American men whose ancestors fought with the confederate army. Nelson Winbush and Stan Armstrong said they are proud of their relatives' military service. But to some of our listeners the segment smacked of misinformation. Did African-Americans fight in the Confederate Army in the Civil War? And if so, did they do so out of free will or as enslaved people?

Today is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. And while history buffs all appreciate the influence that the war had over the future well being of our nation – it can be easy to gloss over the details of the war. Like who fought in it. Joining us to talk about the history of black confederate soldiers is Stan Armstrong, director of a documentary called "Black Confederates: The Forgotten Men in Gray.” Stan’s great-great-grandfather was a black confederate soldier.

Many Americans are related to people who fought and died in the Civil War. But imagine that you’re related not just to one figure we associate with the Civil War and aftermath, but two. This is the case for Kenneth Morris. Not only is he the great-great-great grandson of abolitionist and Lincoln adviser Frederick Douglass, he’s also the great-great grandson of Booker T. Washington, the post-Civil War educator and activist. On top of that, Morris is the Founder president of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, which aims to eradicate modern-day slavery.

Tuesday is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, which kicked off with the Battle for Fort Sumter. The battle began when confederate soldiers from Fort Johnson bombarded Fort Sumter, a piece of federal property in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. In the end, Fort Sumter surrendered to the Confederates. In anticipation of Tuesday’s anniversary, enthusiasts from around the country have spent several years and thousands of dollars planning a reenactment of the Battle of Fort Sumter.

We know that the North and South remember the Civil War differently. But there aren't just two versions of the war: there’s practically a different version for every person doing the remembering. Studio 360’s Kerrie Hillman traveled to where the shooting started — Charleston, South Carolina — to see...

Slideshow: Charleston and the Civil War

Many of the images we know of the Civil War come from the photos of Mathew Brady. Brady and his assistants recorded the rigidly posed generals and the battlefields scattered with bodies. But very few people at the time actually saw Brady's pictures – and those who did were horrified. Illustrators like...

Slideshow: Mathew Brady and Winslow Homer

When the first shells exploded over Charleston’s Fort Sumter on the night of April 12, 1861, the news reached New York in a matter of hours. Journalist and historian Adam Goodheart describes the reaction of one New Yorker, a poet named Walt Whitman. Goodheart’s new book on the ...

One out of every 25 American men died during the Civil War, and sometimes it seems the country is still fighting its battles. Kurt talks with Adam Goodheart, a historian and journalist, about how the mapmaker’s divide between red states and blue echoes the gray and blue... 

Bonus Track: The War Between the Beards

The Siege at Bridgeport, a strategic site in Alabama, took place in 1862 — and again this year. Civil War re-enactors spend time and money reliving battles that were decided 150 years ago. They’ll tell you that if you just give it one weekend, you’ll be hooked, too. But one Confederate officer...

Slideshow: Siege at Bridgeport, 2011

Ivory Coast's bloody conflict continues, as forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara battle for power against the forces of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to step down. Thousands have reportedly been killed since last November's election, many of them civilians; and tens of thousands more have lost their homes. Nearly 85,000 people have fled across the border to neighboring Liberia. Mike Sunderland, Africa media manager for Save the Children, is stationed near a refugee camp in Bahn, Liberia, and shares what he has witnessed.

Ivory Coast is one step closer to civil war after troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara dismissed Laurent Gbagbo’s offer of a ceasefire and seized the political capital of Yamoussoukro. Richard Downie, deputy director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that a link can be drawn between Libya's Gadhafi and Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo.

Almost all of the four million voters in Southern Sudan casting their votes on whether or not to secede from the North have been affected by decades of bloodshed and civil war in that country. Takeaway producer Noel King has been reporting from the ground in Southern Sudan during the preparation for the vote as well as the referendum itself. Noel shares with us the stories she's heard from people of all different generations, and how all the violence has affected their lives.