Karen Grigsby Bates
Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.
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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. -
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.
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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.
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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.
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The prolific author tackled difficult issues of race in novels and poetry. He used his writing to challenge assumptions about African-Americans, including civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. -
As white Americans wonder how they can best help people of color engaged in social justice movements now, here are some suggestions.
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A dedicated group of fathers in Los Angeles is working to help neighborhood dads do better by their children and their community. -
Venus and Serena Williams have inspired thousands of young African-Americans to learn and play tennis, and brought racial diversity to the sport. Has golf benefited in the same way from Tiger Woods?
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Sisters Yukia Walker and Yuneisia Harris are co-owners of Curvaceous Couture, an upscale bridal salon in Columbia, Md., that caters to plus-size brides. That clientele is often overlooked.
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Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the successful crossing of the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, a key moment in the civil rights movement. Journalist Ethel Payne was there.
