Leoneda Inge

One of the largest Ku Klux Klan demonstrations in North Carolina was in the summer of 1966.  That’s when Klansmen marched in full regalia through downtown Raleigh. That day was also historic because the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was in the capital city.

Donations of clothes, diapers and food are pouring in for residents of McDougald Terrace in Durham. Hundreds of people remain displaced again this week after a carbon monoxide scare at the public housing apartments.

Traffic moved slowly but orderly through Pittsboro, in Chatham County, on a recent day. Karen Howard, the driver, reached the traffic circle that can't be avoided. It's the circle around the Old Chatham courthouse.

People seeking health care in rural Warren County have waited a long time for good news. Now they're celebrating.

Elon University joined other schools, community groups and law enforcement officials across the country for an inaugural National Day of Reconciliation. The idea was to improve relations between police and people of color.

Kamala Harris shook a lot of hands and took a lot of selfies when she was in Durham over the weekend. But while some people paid thousands of dollars to take a professional photo with the U.S. Senator and hopeful President, it was clear that her real friend is the new pastor of St. Joseph AME Church – the Rev. Jonathan Augustine.

The life of an aging blues or folk musician is not always pretty. Many of these old soulsters have not been able to retire with dignity. For the past 25 years, the Music Maker Relief Foundation has worked to improve the lives of these musicians. It has literally saved the lives and the music of more than 400 artists.

During the regular school year, Ty Mathis is a math and science teacher in the Alamance-Burlington School System. This summer, he's teaching mostly middle school African-American boys at a Bridge to Medical School Camp in Graham. The camp is designed to encourage boys of color to consider medical school.

Phil Freelon, the decorated architect most celebrated for his work on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History And Culture, has died. He was 66.

A recent report from the North Carolina Rural Center shows small businesses in rural North Carolina have been disappearing at what some call an alarming rate.

Democratic presidential candidates joined McDonald’s fast-food workers and supporters yesterday to push the corporation to unionize its employees and pay them $15 dollars an hour. Julián Castro, a Democratic presidential hopeful and former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, marched and rallied with low-wage workers in downtown Durham.

This Mother’s Day weekend, the Stagville State Historic Site in Durham is remembering the enslaved women who once toiled on the plantation. Researchers are still discovering the voices of these women.

Fifty years ago today, Howard Lee was elected the first African American mayor of the town of Chapel Hill. There hadn't been an African American mayor of a predominately white Southern city since Reconstruction.

North Carolina Central University officially unveiled the new name of its administration building Wednesday. The name of former North Carolina governor, Clyde Hoey, a known segregationist, is no longer on the building at the historically black institution.

This is the season when many college students are preparing to study abroad for the summer. But numbers show the percentage of African American students taking advantage of these educational trips remains low.

N.C. Central University in Durham is working to change that.

In 1970s Durham, N.C., two of the most unlikely people became what we would call today – “frenemies.” The relationship between a Ku Klux Klan leader and a civil rights activist would go down in history and is now on the big screen.

For 30 years, Historically Black Colleges and Universities have gone head-to-head in a special competition to prove who can answer tough questions quick and hit buzzers fast.

You may have heard of the four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina who sat at a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth's and helped spark the Civil Rights Movement in 1960. Thursday in Chapel Hill, community and town officials are celebrating the Chapel Hill Nine – nine high school students who also sat down, to stand up.

Editor's Note: WUNC Race and Southern Culture Reporter Leoneda Inge shares a personal account of her son, Teemer Barry, and his journey navigating sickle cell disease during his first year of college.

Sickle cell disease afflicts about 100,000 people in the United States, many of them African Americans. It is an inherited blood disorder that can cause frequent infections and chronic pain.