African-American Issues

Glover created, co-writes and stars in the FX series Atlanta, a hybrid of comedy and drama set on the fringes of the city's hip-hop scene. He has also recorded music under the name Childish Gambino.

Film director Barry Jenkins and playwright Tarell McCraney both grew up in the same housing project in Miami, and both were raised by mothers who were addicted to crack. Their new film Moonlight draws on their experiences.

Journalist Beth Macy talks about George and Willie Muse, black albino brothers who were born in the Jim Crow South and were forced to become circus freaks. Her new book, Truevine, retells their story.

Greenberg, who died Wednesday, was the last surviving attorney to argue the cases that led to the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. Originally broadcast in 1994 and 2004.

Britt Bennett's debut novel centers on three African-American friends dealing with their community's expectations and their own mistakes. Critic Maureen Corrigan says it is full of "mini epiphanies."

Enter Me

Ryan Speedo Green grew up in a trailer park and did time in juvenile detention before discovering he had a unique singing voice. He now performs at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

In 1912, white mobs set fire to black churches and black-owned businesses. Eventually the entire black population of Forsyth County was driven out, says Blood at the Root author Patrick Phillips.

The National Book Award winner's new novel is based in part on her memories of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. Woodson describes the teen years as an "amazing and urgent moment" in life.

In his new novel, The Underground Railroad, Whitehead returns to his childhood vision of the Underground Railroad as an actual locomotive that carries escaped slaves through tunnels.

Actor Michael K. Williams has played powerful intimidating characters in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and in the new show The Night of, but says he's not at all like them.

Eric Adams joined the police department intent on reforming it. "If I was not a voice for change it would bother me," he says. He was on the force for 22 years. Now he is Brooklyn's borough president.

Mat Johnson is a biracial novelist who has been thinking about what the craft of storytelling can offer us as we try to make sense of the era we're in of officer involved and officer-targeted killings.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the remake of the 1977 mini series Roots. He says it deserves to be seen and talked about.

The creator of the ABC sitcom "black. . ish" draws on his own experience for his show about an affluent African-american family living in a wealthy white suburb. . . where their privileged children lose touch with black culture. "black. . . ish" will receive a coveted Peabody award this weekend.

A 2015 report by the Vera Institute of Justice finds that local jails have become a warehouse for people too poor to pay even low bail and for the mentally ill, creating a downward spiral for those who are confined as well as for their families and communities. A talk with the co-author of the report Nancy Fishman.

TO BE ADDED

Comic Jerrod Carmichael is the creator and star of the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show. On the show, he plays a character, also named Jerrod Carmichael, who debates with his family about complicated, often uncomfortable topics.

King began acting professionally as a teen on the TV show 227. Now she co-stars in ABC's American Crime and HBO's The Leftovers. She also directs for television, but says "I absolutely love acting."