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3 weeks ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
Her name may not be well known, but Bessie Stringfield’s prowess and bravado on a motorcycle are legendary. Stringfield taught herself to ride a motorcycle as a teen. She went on to become the first African American woman to travel across country solo on a motorcycle in the 1930s. WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn has more on North Carolina native Bessie Stringfield, mentioned in a current exhibition at the Gantt Center in uptown Charlotte. Stringfield was born in 1911 in Edenton, near Elizabeth City.
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3 weeks ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
The American Association of University Professors is calling the recent firing of a UNC Charlotte employee wrong in a letter released this week. WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn reports on the backlash, which comes after the employee implied in a secret recording that the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion work is continuing under different names.
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4 weeks ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
UNC Charlotte officials are pushing back after a conservative group called Accuracy in Media published what it says is a video that shows the school is surreptitiously pursuing banned diversity, equity and inclusion policies.The organization released a video Wednesday of a university employee saying her division continues to engage in DEI-related work, but under new names.
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1 month ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
The world-renowned "Philadanco!The Philadelphia Dance Company" will be in Charlotte for a one-night performance on May 28, at the Knight Theater. It's the first local show for the mostly African American company. Philadanco! was founded by Joan Myers Brown, who turns 94 this year and still has a strong presence with the company.
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1 month ago | 
wunc.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
Monday is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Malcolm X, a civil rights activist, minister and spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He was loved and respected by many but feared and hated by many others because of his early fiery speeches against both racism and non-violent protests. Opposition was strong on April 18, 1963, when Malcolm X held a debate on racial integration with civil rights leader and attorney Floyd McKissick in Durham.
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1 month ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
In 1863, abolitionistHarriet Tubman guided a raid that liberated nearly 760 enslaved people working on rice plantations along the Combahee River, near Beaufort, South Carolina. Dr. Edda Fields-Black, a history professor at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote a book about the raid titled "Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War." It shares the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for History. WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn speaks with Fields-Black in this report.
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1 month ago | 
wunc.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
In 1873, a group of 50 or so African Americans facing threats from the Ku Klux Klan in their hometown of Cross Anchor in Spartanburg County, South Carolina,left in the middle of the night for the western North Carolina mountains. They named a king and queen, built a two-story palace and called their new kingdomHappy Land. Bestselling author Dolen Perkins-Valdez has written a novel with the same title based on this incredible true story.
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1 month ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
In 1873, a group of 50 or so African Americans facing threats from the Ku Klux Klan in their hometown of Cross Anchor in Spartanburg County, South Carolina,left in the middle of the night for the western North Carolina mountains. They named a king and queen, built a two-story palace and called their new kingdomHappy Land. Bestselling author Dolen Perkins-Valdez has written a novel with the same title based on this incredible true story.
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1 month ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
Black motorcycle riders have always been around, but they haven’t received much attention — and when they have, it’s often been negative. A new exhibition at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture, “Black Behind Bars,” seeks to shine a positive light on the history of Black bikers. For photographer Alvin Jacobs, who took the photos for the exhibition, it’s also about mental health. WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn reports on the exhibition and Black biker culture.
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1 month ago | 
wfae.org | Gwendolyn Glenn
Student government leaders at UNC-Chapel Hill are leading a national effort that calls for the Trump administration to back off from its attempts to control student activities and the curriculum on college campuses. The students are circulating a that accuses the White House of politicizing higher education, targeting international students and threatening funding at schools that do not end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
