The Color Between The Lines with Esther Dillard

He was shot at 16 years old. The physical wound healed in months. The trauma rewired his thinking for decades. And right as his new book on divine certainty releases his wife suffers a serious accident he never saw coming.That is where this conversation begins.In this episode of The Color Between the Lines, I sit down with Pastor Tour Roberts co-senior pastor of The Potter's House in Dallas and fo...

White men are 29% of this country and yet they hold 90% of CEO positions, 90% of venture capital, and 98% of the U.S. presidency. If we believe in merit, what explains that gap? Political strategist and author Steve Phillips doesnt sidestep the question. In his new book Are White Men Smarter Than Everybody Else? Playing Offense in the Fight for Racial Justice in America, he names the dynamic...

A new documentary is putting the blind and low vision community at the center of its own story both on screen and behind the microphone. Possibilities, produced by the American Foundation for the Blind, is the first feature-length film made by blind and low vision filmmakers, and the first to fully integrate open audio description into the storytelling itself. In this episode of The Color Between...

Here is the corrected version two fixes made: Jerry Pickney Jerry Pinkney in the opening line, and Charnelle Pickney Barlow Charnelle Pinkney Barlow in the book credit.Jerry Pinkney illustrated more than 100 children's books over nearly six decades. He was the first solo Black illustrator to win the Caldecott Medal. He designed U.S. postage stamps. He was the most exhibited illustrator in American...

Before the Civil War ended. Before Juneteenth and before anyone knew her name a fourteen year old girl stood at the edge of the Niagara River in the dark. Canada was a quarter mile away. And the only people who knew she was there were the Black men in white jackets clearing dinner tables inside a grand luxury hotel. This is the story of the Cataract House a five story hotel in Niagara Falls, New Y...

They eloped six months after his mother died. No reception, no celebration because after the world had mourned Coretta Scott King so publicly, quiet felt like the right thing to do. Twenty years later, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King are doing what they never got to do. They are standing before the people they love and saying: we choose each other. Again. On purpose. Right now. Host...

In 2002, New Jersey became the first state in the country to make Black history mandatory not just in February, not just in one subject, but across every grade level and every classroom, all year long. Most Americans have never heard of that law. Dr. Patrick J. Lamy, Executive Director of the New Jersey Amistad Commission, is the man making sure it actually happens. Host Esther Dillard sits d...

FIFA called it the equivalent of 104 Super Bowls. But with kickoff less than a month away, nearly 80% of hotels across all 11 U.S. host cities are reporting bookings below forecast. International fans are staying home. And the economic picture looks very different than it did six months ago. So what does that mean for the small business owner who was counting on this moment? In this episode of The...

Journalist Esther Dillard asked three generations of the men in her life that one question her son Nicholas, his dad, and his grandfather Anthony Dillard. What came back was not what she expected. This is not a typical Color Between the Lines episode. There is no expert guest. No author. Just three men. Three answers. And one conversation Esther believes every family needs to have before it is too...

27 pounds of fibroids. A pregnant Black woman. A hospital that tried to cancel her surgery.Dr. Pierre Johnson stepped in when the system said no. The board-certified OB-GYN known as The Fibroid Slayer removed the fibroids, saved the pregnancy, and preserved her uterus.In this episode, Esther Dillard sits down with Dr. Johnson for a conversation about the fibroid crisis that is hiding in plain sigh...

What is the idea driving the redistricting battles, the rollback of diversity programs, the surge of authoritarian politics, and the rise of white nationalist violence in America and around the world? Dr. Ibram X. Kendi has a name for it. And in this conversation, he explains exactly where it came from, how it works, and what each of us can do to fight back.In Season 3 Episode 14 of The Color Betw...

She is 18 years old. She is headed to Columbia University to study human rights. And she carries one of the most recognizable names in American history.But this conversation is about her.Yolanda Renee King the only granddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King opens up about what a Black cotillion really is and why its history goes back to 1778. She shares what changed inside...

"Your kids always tend to ask what's next, mommy?"Sharell Matthis said those words while working, while homeless, and whileraising six children with no safety net. This is her story.In this final episode of Unhoused and Unheard: The Black Experience ofHomelessness, Sharell takes us through what it actually looks like tonavigate homelessness as a Black mother in America eviction, motels,sleeping in...

"To live on the streets is very frightening. It lowers your dignity as a manand as a woman."Those are the words of Donald Gardner 68 years old, a cobbler, a HUDcontractor, and a full-time caretaker for eleven years. Then the pandemic hit.His business shut down. His godfather passed. The family took the house. AndDonald Gardner found himself working at TGI Fridays while sleeping outsideat night. No...

She lost her mother at 15. Was stranded in Nigeria. Came back to Americaand landed straight in foster care. The moment she aged out she was onher own. No family. Two minimum-wage jobs. College classes. And no guaranteeof a place to sleep.This is Adaora Onuora's story.In the first episode of Unhoused and Unheard: The Black Experience ofHomelessness, host Esther Dillard explores what happens when th...

What happens when children grow up never hearing anything accurate or positive about their own history? According to Dr. Maxine Bryant, founder of Griot Speaks, the damage runs deeper than most people realize and sugarcoating history does not protect children. It miseducates them.In this conversation, Dr. Bryant shares the African proverb that became the foundation of her life's work, why she beli...

More than a century ago, journalist Ida B. Wells risked her life documenting lynchings across the United States in her groundbreaking investigation A Red Record. Today, civil rights investigator Jill Collen Jefferson, founder of the organization JULIAN, says some suspicious deaths in the United States deserve closer scrutiny. In this episode, journalist Esther Dillard speaks with Jefferson about h...

Most people know Harriet Tubman as the fearless conductor of the Underground Railroad. But far fewer know that she also served as a Civil War scout, spy, and military leader for the Union Army. In this episode of ERASED, award-winning journalist Esther Dillard explores Harriet Tubmans powerful and often overlooked role during the Civil War, including her leadership in the historic Combahee River R...

We are living in a moment of visible racism, rising authoritarianism, and uncertainty for many families. In this episode of The Color Between the Lines, Esther Dillard sits down with feminist leader Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee to discuss why they wrote the childrens book Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All. But this conversation goes far be...

Did Reconstruction fall apart or was it ended by a single vote? In this episode of The Color Between the Lines, South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn explains how three razor-thin votes reshaped American history including the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the disputed 1876 election, and the decision that effectively ended Reconstruction. By an 87 commission vote, Reconstruction came to an end....

Whats the real difference between being rich and being wealthy? In this episode of The Color Between the Lines, Dr. Willie Jolley breaks down the distinction between income and ownership and why that difference can determine whether your financial success lasts for one generation or many. We explore: Rich vs wealthy explained Why saving alone isnt enough How to build a simple wealth system The min...

Tony Awardwinning performer and Broadway trailblazer Melba Moore joins The Color Between the Lines for an intimate, wide-ranging conversation about her life, career, and the personal journey behind her memoir, This Is It: Marvelous and Getting Better.In this interview, Moore reflects on: Her defining Broadway role in Purlie and what it meant to win a Tony Award without formal theater training...

Why didnt most Americans learn about Robert Smalls in school? Robert Smalls was formerly enslaved, stole a Confederate ship during the Civil War, freed his family and crew, and later became a United States Congressman during Reconstruction. And yet, his story is rarely taught in classrooms. In this explainer, journalist and storyteller Esther Dillard explores why Robert Smalls legacy was left out...

Its one of the most common and misunderstood questions people ask about domestic violence. In this episode, Im joined by Nathaniel Fields, CEO of the Urban Resource Institute, to break down what survivors are really weighing when they decide whether to stay or leave. We talk about the realities many people never consider including why survivors may stay to protect their pets, how immigration statu...

Fair lending laws were designed to protect people not algorithms. So what happens when artificial intelligence starts deciding who qualifies for a loan, a mortgage, or financial opportunity? In this explainer episode, journalist Esther Dillard breaks down how AI is being used in lending, what federal fair lending laws actually require, and where technology is already raising serious civil rights c...