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Alex the African grey parrot, famed for his role in cognition research conducted by psychologist Irene Pepperberg, dies at the age of 31. Alex learned elements of the English language to identify shapes, colors and sizes, shattering the notion that parrots are merely mimics.

New Hampshire indentured servant turned novelist Harriet Wilson wrote Our Nig more than a century ago. The work is the first known publication by an African American woman. Now Wilson will become the first person of color in New Hampshire history to have a monument in her likeness.

Karen Grigsby Bates usually has a big stack of books to enjoy over the summer months. She shares four selections covering the gamut: from history to memoirs to children's books to cookbooks.

In the year since the pandemic caused most prisons to shut their gates to visitors, people have not been able to see their incarcerated friends and family. So, some turned to letter writing.

Historian John Hope Franklin has spent much of his life — 90 years, so far — investigating the legacy of slavery in America. Now he has investigated his own life through the biography Mirror to America.

Sumner High School, founded in 1875, may face closure. It's graduated folks such as Tina Turner and Chuck Berry, as well as comedian Dick Gregory. Several Tuskegee Airmen also attended the school.

Wesley Brown graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949 — the first African American to do so. Others had tried, but were forced out by racism and even violence. Brown and author Robert J. Schneller, Jr., tell John Ydstie about efforts to integrate the Academy.

Author and poet Maya Angelou talks about her latest work, a book of recipes and recollections she's put together that combine her love of cooking and good food with her deeper love of the people she shares her table with.

Nelson George, a prolific writer and critic of black America, has made a documentary based on his best-selling book Post-Soul Nation. The new film, Smart Black People, profiles African-American personalities who left their stamp on America in the 1980s.

Bishop Keith Butler, founding pastor of the Word of Faith International Christian Center Church, is fighting very long odds to unseat Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow and become the second black senator on Capitol Hill.