Laura Kebede-Twumasi

The racist caricature that Black people are inherently lazy and morally corrupt underscored the perceived authority of Earle, Arkansas sheriff’s deputy Paul Peacher to haul men off to forced labor in the 1930s. Nearly a century later, similar…

Please be aware that we discuss extreme violence and that you’ll hear racial slurs that were common to the time. In this second episode about the Ell Persons lynching of 1917, we talk to the people alive today who have deep connections to this…

I turned 30 years old in the midst of a pandemic and some of the nation’s largest protests against racial injustice and police brutality. My grandpa turned 30 years old as a soldier in the Vietnam War…

A vinyl chair made to rock back for hours of video games seemed like a fitting choice for 14-year-old Jalan Clemmons as he crafted his work space for online classes. No one really knows how long all-virtual learning will last in Tennessee’s largest…

Fifty years ago, one of the largest and longest protests held in Memphis centered on education. The protests, known collectively as Black Monday, called for parents to take their children out of school during at least five Mondays in the fall of 1969…

As Gov. Bill Lee proposes a program that will allow thousands of students from low-income families to choose private schools, it’s unclear how many Memphis parents might take him up on the offer. That’s because what’s not often publicly acknowledged…

Hidden behind what Memphis education officials have said is good news when it comes to student discipline is a disturbing trend: As short-term suspensions have decreased, expulsions have increased. Last year, Shelby County Schools handed down nearly…

Debates about monuments honoring Confederate icons and what they represent often come down to one’s view of Civil War history. Last weekend’s violent gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left one protester dead, was…

As Shelby County Schools embarks on a process to cut costs by closing schools, two dozen Memphis schools already have three strikes against them. Twenty-five schools have test scores so low that the state could require them to be overhauled; enroll…

The last time Edward Miller ran was from the barrel of a gun. As a toddler, he would run full speed into a wall in his family’s small apartment and get back up as if he meant to do it. “He never walked,” his mother, Lawanda Booker, said. “He ran…

COLUMBIA — The Rankins are a musical family. So it only seemed fitting that at 17-year-old Bryan “Phatman” Rankin’s funeral his grandma Willa Rankin, his aunt Sheila Rankin and his father, Bryan Rankin, would sing in tribute. “I’m going to try to…