Race

With many bills in state legislatures seeking to ban teaching of critical race theory, we reached out to Becky Pringle, a 30-year veteran science teacher who now heads the NEA, the largest teachers’ union in the country. Pringle says when kids ask questions about race, adults need to be “courageous enough to answer those questions truthfully.”

Republican-controlled legislatures across the country are advancing measures to limit how students can be taught about race and racism.

The white woman who was infamously caught on camera falsely accusing a Black birdwatcher of threatening her last spring in Central Park is suing her former employer for racial discrimination. Amy Cooper is also accusing holding company Franklin Templeton of firing her without conducting a quote “legitimate investigation” after video of the altercation between her and birdwatcher Christian Cooper —…

It was a big day for the Hartford Marathon Foundation as the Burlington to Collinsville Classic 10K marked their first in-person race since the pandemic began. “We all have been waiting to see our running community for 14 months,” said Elizabeth Johnston, marketing director for Hartford Marathon Foundation, as over 500 racers crossed the finish line. The Hartford Marathon Foundation…

There are myths dating back centuries that Black people have thicker skin or a higher pain tolerance than white people. Now in the Derek Chauvin trial, defense attorneys have said Chauvin couldn’t overcome the strength of George Floyd. Edwin Lindo, assistant dean for social and health justice at University of Washington, breaks down the history behind the myths.

“Sesame Street” is introducing two new Muppets, a Black father and son, as part of an effort to help children understand racial literacy. The two Muppets, Wes and Elijah, were introduced in a short video created by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind the long-running show. In the video, Elmo wants to know why Wes’s skin is brown, so his father...

Purcell Conway, a civil rights activist from St. Augustine, Florida, talks about the watershed moments that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and why it’s still not the end of the fight for racial equity in the United States.

Johnnie R. Turner, a former Tennessee state representative, talks about her experience with implicit segregation on buses and public spaces even after courts have ruled to desegregate.

Dr. Albert Gaskins, a doctor and desegregationist, speaks about his record as a civil rights activist as a young man and young professionals to open doors for other Black Americans.

Marie L. Greenwood, the first tenured Black teacher in the Denver public school system so revered that she had an elementary school named after her, recalls how she fought to open the gates for more Black teachers in a system that didn’t have faith in them.

Dr. Edward S. Cooper, the first Black President of the American Heart Association and Martin Luther King Jr.’s physician, has spent his life sealing the health gap for Black Americans.

Rev. William B. Moore talks about how Black student of the time used civil disobedience to gain small victories during the Civil Rights Movement, and how participating as a sit-in protester shaped the rest of his life as an activist.

Dr. LaVerne Bell-Tolliver, a native of segregated Little Rock, Arkansas, recalls her experience as the first Black student attempting to desegregate Forest Heights Junior High School.

Elaine Brown is accustomed to breaking new ground — and overcoming adversity is a challenge she’d conquered long before she made history in the 1970s as the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party.

UCLA Assistant Professor of Sociology S. Michael Gaddis dishes on new study that reveals Millennials may not be as racially progressive as previously believed.

While some data shows that millennials may be the least racially biased group in the nation, they still show “strong racial bias and anti-Blackness” when looking for roommates, a UCLA study released today suggests.

Adrian Solis has worked for months advising on the new Black and Latino history curriculum that was recently approved by the Connecticut State Board of Education. “It’s exciting but it’s also like, well now the real work begins,” said Solis, a social studies teacher at Henry Abbott Technical High School in Danbury. He says now he and other teachers...

Connecticut is now the first state in the country to offer a statewide Black and Latino curriculum. We got the chance to hear from some of the students who helped develop the course.

Race has been a big topic of discussion ahead of this year’s presidential election. “I think there’s been kind of a widening acceptance that race is one of the central organizing features in politics,” said Wesleyan University Assistant Professor of Government Steven Moore. Moore has been studying the role that race and race relations play in voters’ choices. “I...

After a contentious exchange at the first presidential debate, a conversation about hate groups in the state has been ignited. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks hate groups and lists the “Proud Boys” and several other hate groups as active in Connecticut. The Proud Boys name was brought up during the debate. “They are an organization that doesn’t necessarily...