Race

In a nondescript West Dallas office complex, David Villalobos is on a roll, talking to about three dozen men and women – mostly black and Latino – all in matching teal shirts. They are canvassers for the Texas Organizing Project, preparing to hit the streets and knock on doors. Villalobos is answering a question about getting people to talk about the election when they’re not very interested in voting.

Terry Turner lives at the intersection of religion, history and politics. The pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church comes out of the deep traditions of the African-American church, and he's past president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

As the Dallas economy has boomed over the last decade, something else has surged, too — the wealth gap between whites and people of color.

A report released this month by nonprofit Prosperity Now attributes the disparity, in part, to the city’s “extensive history of segregation and its longer lasting effects.” And exacerbating these disparities are home values and housing costs in Dallas.

Updated, 7:21 a.m. Tuesday

The Dallas Police Department has fired officer Amber Guyger, almost three weeks after she shot and killed her black neighbor in his apartment. 

Miguel Oliva Esquivel was outside at work when he heard a helicopter flying overhead.

"What’s with the helicopter?" he wondered.

From the outside, the brick and metal building in Paris, Texas, looks like any other storefront. But inside, Iglesia Evangelica Filadelfia has become a place of refuge.

This church is not just a house of worship. It’s where immigrants caught up in a raid at a trailer factory — and their family members — have gone seeking information, financial aid and comfort.

Late Wednesday night, a Dallas County jury sentenced former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver to 15 years in prison and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.

Bernard and Shirley Kinsey started buying art 50 years ago. Today, the Kinsey Collection travels around the country, illuminating 400 years of the African-American experience, through documents, books, artifacts and artwork.

You can’t get much simpler than the materials Denton artist Taylor Barnes often uses – just black charcoal on white fabric. Or tree branches and twine. A visit to her unusual studio on the University of North Texas campus in Denton reveals how she can do so much with so little.

The State Board of Education will take a final vote Friday on what will be the first state-approved course on Mexican-American history in Texas public schools.

Former NFL player Husain Abdullah will be among the students at Southern Methodist University walking the stage this weekend. His journey to a master's degree in conflict resolution is like no other.

A new study by the Communities Foundation of Texas and the left-leaning Center For Public Policy Priorities evaluated education, employment, debt, housing and healthcare across Dallas County. 

The data show experiences vary greatly from zip code to zip code.

The top local stories this morning from KERA News: Events across the country will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The civil rights activist was assassinated 50 years ago, Wednesday.

A small group of Dallas faith leaders gathered beneath the Confederate war memorial in Pioneer Park Friday, demanding the city proceed with its original recommendation to remove the public monument.

Cuban-born entrepreneur and philanthropist Jorge Baldor is behind some well-known cultural and political efforts in the Dallas Latino community.