In her weekly commentary, host Michel Martin shares thoughts about last week's tax protests and why it is important for Presidents to have some money in their own pockets.
Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard stars in American Violet, a new film based on the story of Regina Kelly of Hearne, Texas. Kelly, a single mother of four, was unjustly accused of dealing drugs. Woodard talks about her role and the film's importance.
Filmmaker Bill Haney decided to make American Violet while he was driving home one afternoon in 2002. He was stuck in rush-hour traffic when he heard NPR correspondent Wade Goodwyn report the story of Regina Kelly. Haney was so moved by the story he turned it into a film. Goodwyn recalls his initial reporting and his more recent coverage of the movie's premiere in Regina Kelly's hometown of Hearne, Texas.
Tim Giago, founder of the Native American Journalist Association, has been working as a journalist for more than three decades. Now, despite the country's recession and a shrinking print media industry, he's launching The Native Sun News, a weekly newspaper for Native Americans. Giago explains his inspiration and why he knows he will succeed.
Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book Native Guard. Her parents had an interracial marriage while it was still illegal in Mississippi, and Tretheway's poetry often draws on her childhood as a biracial child in the south.
President-elect Barack Obama defines himself as African-American. His mother is a white American, and his father is a black African. This hits a nerve with some people, who wonder why Obama doesn't use the term biracial to describe his race.
President-elect Barack Obama defines himself as African-American. His mother is a white American, and his father is a black African. This hits a nerve with some people, who wonder why Obama doesn't use the term biracial to describe his race.
David Remnick, editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, discusses Obama's debt to the "Moses generation" of American civil rights leaders — activists who made it possible for Obama to lead his own "Joshua generation."
David Remnick, editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, discusses Obama's debt to the "Moses generation" of American civil rights leaders — activists who made it possible for Obama to lead his own "Joshua generation."
As election results were announced on the evening of Nov. 4, people flooded streets across the country, celebrating the election of America's first black president. Now that the initial excitement has died down, guests and callers discuss the realities of racism in America — and what has and hasn't changed.