Karen Grigsby Bates
Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.
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Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. visited Los Angeles and spoke to a standing room-only crowd at Temple Israel. The synagogue honors his legacy by replaying the speech once a year. -
Oprah Winfrey has named Ruby, a novel about a beautiful, abused woman in Texas, as her March book club selection. That could make first-time novelist Cynthia Bond into a literary star. -
The film, about a 1965 voting rights march, stands out for its focus on black characters, including some of the movement's lesser-known organizers, and the way it humanizes Martin Luther King Jr. -
Audiobooks as we know them have been around for about 25 years. But the form really took off when MP3 players like the iPod came out.
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A filmmaker invited white residents of Buffalo, N.Y., to speak candidly about race. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates finds that the results are thought-provoking, often surprising and sometimes disturbing. -
Members of African-American fraternities and sororities are among the thousands of people who have joined recent demonstrations. But some of those groups discourage displaying official gear. -
Food writer Andrea Nguyen dives into the story of banh mi, a Vietnamese street sandwich with a French colonial past that's been popping up on menus around the country. -
Carol's Daughter was started to sell products for black women who wear their hair natural. But ever since L'Oréal bought the brand, folks are wondering if it can maintain the loyalty of its customers. -
Just as women were entering the corporate workplace in big numbers, the shapeless power suit emerged. Over time, the "power look" changed. How do women project power in the modern office? -
Cottrell died last Friday in Plano, Tex. His do-it-yourself product brought more affordable curly hair to the masses.
