In 2020, America Reckons With Racial Injustices Past And Present

Today on Midday, we begin with a look at new revelations that the founder and namesake of Johns Hopkins University, long described as a passionate abolitionist, was in fact a slave-owner.   Then, we consider the question: Is America finally having a reckoning about race? Since the nationwide protests against inequity and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd, racial justice issues have been front and center in the United States.  We look back at an explosive year in American civil rights. Guests Dr. Robbie Shilliam, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Terry Anne Scott is an associate professor of History and the Director of African American Studies at Hood College. She is the author of Seattle Sports: Play, Identity, and Pursuit in the Emerald City. Dr. Pamela Newkirk is a professor of journalism at New York University. Her latest book is called Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Industry. Dr. Rashawn Ray is a Rubenstein Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland in College Park. His latest book is How Families Matter: Simply Complicated Intersections of Race, Gender, and Work.  Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.