African Americans have some of the lowest vaccination numbers across the nation and here in the valley.

Real organs and real body parts, the BODIES exhibit at Luxor draws people in and educates them on the human body.

In the wake of last week’s frightening events in Washington, D.C., and as the nation faces ongoing threats of white supremacist violence, the Zinn Education Project is releasing an open letter signed by more than 170 prominent scholars of U.S. history urging school districts to devote more time and resources to teaching the Reconstruction era in upper elementary, middle, and high school U.S. history and civics courses.

A violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday — and many are questioning why law enforcement did not respond faster.

In the mid-1990s, a novel wedding tradition became popular among African Americans: ‘jumping the broom’. As the couple is pronounced legally wed, they turn to the crowd, clasp hands and jump over a broomstick placed on the floor. One couple explained the ritual’s attraction. ‘It’s traditional,’ they said, ‘and we need to bring it back to our culture. Every Black person should do it.’ For them, as for many, culture and tradition were intimately linked to group identity, and jumping the broom symbolised racial and ethnic unity among those descended from enslaved people in the United States. Indeed, couples who did not jump the broom prior to its widespread revival often expressed regret that they were unaware of the custom when planning their wedding.

One evening in the winter of 1970, an NBA rookie named Fred Carter showed up for a game, bounced around the Baltimore Bullets locker room, and then did something unexpected: He strolled up to Wes Unseld, the Bullets’ 6-foot-7 center, and extended his fist.

In the first decades of the 20th century, desegregation seemed like a distant dream. Bombings, lynchings, and other acts of brutal racist violence were all too common, and schools and other public spaces were largely segregated by race. Yet deep in the coal mines of West Virginia, an integrated militia of coal miners was forming, and they had little in common except for their enemy: oppressive coal barons. White hill folk, European immigrants, and African Americans were fed up with life-threatening working conditions, terrible wages, crushing debt, and corrupt mine operators. They were the original rednecks, and their interracial coalition was ahead of its time.

In this episode of The African American Folklorist, I speak with Dr. Tyler Parry, author of the book "Jumping The Broom - The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual."