The State of Things

Meet Gary Grant

WUNC | By Amber Nimocks,

Published December 12, 2011 at 11:02 AM EST

Gary Grant's family has owned land in eastern North Carolina since just after the Civil War when his great-grandfather, a former slave, bought a farm. That is one reason Grant has made his life's work defending the rights of African-American land owners in rural North Carolina. Grant is the executive director of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery and founding president of the National Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association. Both groups have fought the federal Department of Agriculture to undo the wrongs of racial discrimination that have cost black farmers their land.

The State of Things

Amber Nimocks

Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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