Into America

It’s been one year since a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. They were attempting to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election win by preventing theCongressional certification of his victory.  As the attack on the Capitol unfolded, people on the internet immediately began to identify rioters and widely share details about them. Many of the rioters were  fired  from their jo...

Over the last year and a half, Into America has met some extraordinary people who have shared with us some equally extraordinary stories, but where are they now?  On this episode of Into America, we speak with some of our past guests who shaped our show and helped us make better sense of the world around us. We catch up with old friends like Eric Deggans , who had to figure out how to coordinate h...

Jerry Craft’s graphic novel New Kid has won multiple awards, made the New York Times Best Sellers List, and is beloved by children across the country. But this year, New Kid  made headlines for a different reason when a Texas school district pulled the book  from its shelves after a white parent complained that it promoted Critical Race Theory and Marxism.   Craft was surprised. The story is based...

In the 1920s, Josephine Baker escaped the violent racism of in the United States to seek refuge in Paris, like so many other Black American creatives have done over time. Baker found that France welcomed her, and the freedom she found there helped her become an international sensation in dancing, singing, and acting.  Baker eventually became not only a French citizen but a decorated hero in the Fr...

Looking back on 2021, it felt like maybe Black Americans got closer to knowing justice. In April, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd . And the day before Thanksgiving, three white men were found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery .   But 2021 wasn’t all about victories.   Last month, a jury in Wisconsin cleared Kyle Rittenhouse of multiple homicide charges after he shot and ki...

Although Harvard is one of the Blackest Ivy League schools, Black students still make up just 11 percent of the student body. Many Black students at Harvard experience a level of culture shock when they first arrive to such a historically white space. There’s the whiteness of the university today, but also the institution’s connection to slavery and white supremacy.  This culture shock can be doub...

When Tricia Hersey was in seminary school, she was exhausted. On top of classes and homework, she had a job and a child. She often wouldn’t get to sleep until 2am, and her grades were suffering. Then, one day, as she was researching histories of enslaved people and Black liberation, she had an idea: instead of running herself into the ground, what if she took a nap instead?  That decision turned i...

The 1619 Project was a career-defining moment for New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones . Released as a standalone issue of the Times Magazine in August 2019, the project sought to reframe the American narrative, linking our country’s founding to the arrival of the first enslaved Africans on the shores of Virginia. When the project was initially released it was widely praised as a much-neede...

In the first year of the Iraq War, seven soldiers were captured and held prisoner by the Iraqi forces for 22 days. Two of them were women. One was Private First Class Jessica Lynch , whose story of heroism was praised in national headlines when she returned to America. The other woman was Specialist Shoshana Johnson , America’s first Black female prisoner of war. Except you might not remember her....

In the early 20th  century, the Pan-Africanist  Marcus Garvey led the largest movement Black people in the world. Through his organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association , Garvey preached about the great history of Black culture and called on Black people around the world to unite to create an “Africa for Africans.” But like so many Black leaders, Garvey's fame and power during his l...

Boston maintains a reputation as one of the most racist cities in America, despite its long abolitionist history and image as a bastion of East Coast liberalism. And in many ways that reputation is well-earned. From the city’s staggering  racial wealth gap, to its  violent backlash against school desegregation in the 1970’s, to racial epithets  hurled at Black athletes to this day, there’s plenty...

BET’s Album of the Year winner  Jazmine Sullivan is one of the biggest names in R&B music, but her world stopped back in 2019 when she found out her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sullivan turned from singing, to taking care of her mom. And over time, she started learning about the racial disparities with disease, like the fact that Black women in the US are  40% more likely to die from...

On August 31st, Marva Sadler stood outside the Whole Women’s Health abortion clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, and vowed to help as many people as she could before the end of the day. Along with a small staff, Sadler and a physician performed 67 abortions before midnight. The next day, the nation’s strictest abortion ban went into effect.  The law, known as SB-8,  bans nearly all abortions  after fetal...

With its luxury resorts and golf courses, Hilton Head, South Carolina, is a popular vacation hotspot. But the island is also home to the Gullah Geechee; descendants of formerly enslaved West Africans who have owned land on the island since their ancestors were freed.  However, every year Gullah Geechee families are in danger of losing their land to investors at Beaufort County's tax auction. If a...

On September 19th, photographers captured a harrowing scene at the US Mexico border: Border Patrol agents, on horseback, chasing and intimidating a large group of Haitian migrants as they tried to cross into Texas. The images sparked outrage , and President Joe Biden eventually condemned the actions of the agents. But since that day, the Department of Homeland Security has expelled nearly 4,000 Ha...

Two things are true. Texas is one of the hottest states in the country and climate change is real. Yet, Texas is one of thirteen states that do not have universal air conditioning installed in their state prisons. As climate change gradually makes the state hotter, prisons are forcing their staff and inmates to endure extreme temperatures with little to no relief.  LaQuita Davis, now released on p...

As a Black girl in Detroit, Tracy Reese loved making her own clothes and attending the famed Ebony Fashion Fair with her mother. Today, she’s one of the most well-known designers in fashion. Michelle Obama, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Oprah Winfrey have all worn her designs. But getting to this level wasn’t easy.  Reese is part of a long line of Black designers influencing the fas...

Every September 11th, people across the country commemorate the emergency service workers and countless civilians who were lost on 9/11. This includes the Vulcan Society , an organization of former and active Black firefighters in New York City, who gather at a memorial every year to remember the 12 Black firefighters who lost their lives.  But many Black firefighters and the families of these fal...

Over the past few decades, families have flocked to the affluent Dallas suburb of Southlake for its top-rated school system. But beneath the manicured lawns and gleaming fountains lie something Black families call “Southlake’s dirty secret." Less than three years ago, two videos of white Southlake teenagers saying the N-word went viral within a few months of one another. The videos prompted an out...

In the 1960s, America burned. Black communities’ frustration against racist policies, economic isolation, and police brutality spilled into the streets in cities across the country .Hundreds were killed, many by police, and cities like Newark and Los Angeles were left with tens of millions of dollars in property damages.  In 1967, shortly after the uprising in Detroit, President Lyndon B. Johnson...

Before he was Big Daddy Kane, the legendary MC who broke out big in the late 80s, he was just Antonio Hardy, the kid from Brooklyn who heard something new coming out of the turntables at the block party. It was the sound of hip-hop coming of age, and Kane was coming up with it. Soon, he’d be writing his own rhymes and traveling to other boroughs to battle their best MCs. Big Daddy Kane would go on...

Dewey Bozella was 18 years old when he was arrested for murder. It was a terrible crime: an elderly woman had been beaten and suffocated in her home in Poughkeepsie, New York. But Dewey had nothing to do with it.  Five years later, Dewey was convicted on flimsy, circumstantial evidence, and became one of the estimated tens of thousands of innocent people stuck in prison for crimes they did not com...

Texas State Representative Senfronia Thompson remembers when her grandparents had to save pennies so they could pay a poll tax in order to vote. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, which outlawed Jim Crow restrictions like literacy tests and poll taxes designed to keep Black Americans from voting. But 56 years after President Lyndon Johnson signed that landmark legislation, Re...

With COVID restrictions in place, the cheering section at this year’s Olympics may be a little quieter than usual. Still, the pomp and circumstance are still on display in Tokyo, as the world’s greatest athletes come together to compete.  But the global stage isn’t just a chance to display athletic feats, it’s also an opportunity for some athletes to make a statement. Several women’s soccer teams,...

Sometimes discrimination is systemic. Sometimes it’s emotional. And sometimes, it’s made of brick and mortar. The Eight Mile Wall in Detroit, also known as the Birwood Wall and the Wailing Wall, was built in 1941 to separate Black and white residents in what is now known as the Wyoming neighborhood.  Erin Einhorn is an NBC News national reporter based in Detroit. She recently teamed up with Olivia...