Race Inquiry Digest ( May 3) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Feature – Interview with Bryan Stevenson (Part 1)“Talking About History Is Way We Liberate America”: New Memorial Honors Victims of White Supremacy. The museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice are the culmination of years of exhaustive research and interviews with local historians and descendants of lynching victims, conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative, led by its director, Bryan Stevenson. (Part 2) “Death Penalty Is Lynching’s Stepson”: Bryan Stevenson on Slavery, White Supremacy, Prisons & More. 

Is Stacey Abrams Assembling a New Democratic Majority? When early voting begins today in the Georgia primary campaign for governor, Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, may very well take a momentous step closer to becoming the first black woman in the nation to be elected governor. Read more 

A Slave Who Sued for Her Freedom. For 200 years, “no one knew that she had sued for her freedom,” William G. Thomas III told The Atlantic. Together with director and animator Michael Burton and writer Kwakiutl Dreher, Thomas produced the short film Anna, based on Williams’s story. It premieres on The Atlantic today. Watch the film here 
John “Jabo” Starks, the drummer who helped anchor some of James Brown‘s biggest hits, died Tuesday, The New York Times reports. He was 79. Listen to 5 classic tracks, including “Super Bad,” “Sex Machine” and other funky landmarks from half of the Godfather of Soul’s legendary groove tandem. Listen here 

The census is a threat to communities of color. Yolanda Brewster, 65, is a U.S. citizen originally from Guatemala. The 2020 Census may include a citizenship question that could negatively affect noncitizens. Read more 

Why the Teachers’ Revolt Must Confront Racism Head On. Race is not an add-on to the struggle for wages. It shapes the terrain of struggle. In all these states of teachers’ revolt—Arizona, Oklahoma, and Kentucky—an increase in the concentration of students of color is associated with a decrease in dollars spent per pupil. Read more  

A Witness to the Desegregation—and Resegregation—of America’s Schools. Rebecca Palacios began teaching soon after a landmark court case mandated integration of Latino schools—and watched the case’s effects weaken over decades. Read more 

Waffle House Doubles Down On Chikesia Clemons Arrest As Activists Call For Boycott. Clemons herself spoke publicly for the first time on Sunday, appearing on the MSNBC show “PoliticsNation” with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Listen here

Black lawmakers visit Silicon Valley to press Apple, Twitter and other tech giants on diversity. For members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who arrived in the Bay Area on Monday, the tech sector has been too slow to diversify its executive ranks, invest in minority-owned start-ups and assist workers who can’t find jobs in tech hubs, like San Francisco, or afford those cities’ sky-high costs of living. Read more 

Will Asian Americans make California even bluer in November? Can Democrats flip congressional seats in some of California’s traditional Republican strongholds, to help them retake the U.S. House? In several of these targeted districts, Asian Americans accounted for nearly 15 percent of the 2016 electorate. So how do Asian Americans lean? Read more 

Visit our home page for more articles and register your email to receive notification of Race Inquiry Digest updates. Click here for earlier Digests.