Karen Grigsby Bates

African-Americans are disproportionately affected by gun violence, and many black leaders are among the most vocal advocates of gun control. But there is a segment of the black commun...

The second mystery by Mette Ivie Harrison boasts details about contemporary Mormon life that most of us aren't privy to. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates says His Right Hand is is her "one that got away."

Kenya Barris sometimes looks at his five kids in wonderment. Private schools, professional parents who can give them things and open doors. No sense of privation. And the kicker is, he's responsible! "We're kind of taught to give your kids more than you had," Barris muses. "But in giving them ...

ABC will air the final episode of its hit comedy Black-ish Wednesday night before the season ends for holiday break. Although the show focuses on the upper-middle class Johnson family...

It's art imitating life, really. All American Boys is a young adult novel that looks at a specific instance of police brutality from the perspectives of two high school classmates: Rashad, who is savagely beaten by a local policeman who (wrongly) suspects him of shoplifting and assaulting a white woman, ...

A YouTuber named James Wright Chanel has been all over the Internet praising Patti LaBelle's sweet potato pies; a video he uploaded of himself bursting into song upon tasting the singer and cookbook author's name-brand concoction has been viewed over 2 million times.

Chanel's endorsement created a tsunami of ...

This week, anti-racism demonstrations at the University of Missouri's flagship campus in Columbia have been front and center in the news. One of the newsmakers was a journalist covering the story who inadvertently became part of it.

Tim Tai, a senior journalism student, was covering the aftermath of the resignation ...

Advertising for products to treat symptoms of menopause is becoming much more upfront about issues like painful sex. But more than a few of the remedies are solutions in search of a problem.

There's been lots of talk over the past few years about the glaring lack of diversity in Silicon Valley's tech industry. Software engineer Leslie Miley made national news this week when he publicly explained his recent decision to leave his job at Twitter — a job he loved — ...

By now, anyone who's wanted to has seen the video that shows a white school policeman violently subduing a 15-year-old black girl in Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C. Most people agree on the general details: The (still unnamed) girl had her cellphone out, which was against the rules. ...

Activist and philosopher Grace Lee Boggs died in Detroit on Monday at the age of 100. She was well known for her social justice work, which she continued right into her 100th year.

Brash, biting Cookie Lyon is arguably the most compelling character on Fox's hit show Empire. The show's co-producer and writer Attica Locke says that's because we've all got a bit of Cookie in us.

Ravi Patel had tried and failed to find "The One." So he reluctantly let his parents arrange for him to meet dozens of prospects. And his sister has filmed the whole thing — for our viewing pleasure.

Idris Elba's name has been floated as a possible successor to Daniel Craig. Anthony Horowitz, who writes the current Bond books, apologized for saying Elba is "too street" to play the suave spy.

Photographer Tony Gleaton died last Friday at the age of 67 after struggling with a particularly aggressive cancer for 18 months. He was working, signing prints, talking to museums (several have his work in their collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Harvard's Peabody ...

Some people take the day off for their birthdays. Not Cynthia Hawkins. She's at the grill of Hawkins House of Hamburgers, making food that keeps her customers happy, like her bacon cheeseburger. And she's persnickety about the bacon.

"Applewood bacon," she says. "The best bacon you can eat on a ...

The Hawkins family has been feeding Watts since 1939. Cynthia Hawkins is the third generation to continue the tradition, and in an LA neighborhood that is often referred to as a food desert.

Twenty-five years after Charles Johnson's Middle Passage — which dwells with race, class and gender in 19th-century America — won the National Book Award, he reflects on his book's evolving meaning.

Bill Cosby was instrumental in opening the door for black stuntmen in Hollywood early in his career. He was to be a central figure in a new documentary about black stuntmen, but that ...