Race

Low-income neighborhoods are more vulnerable to natural disasters, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And those poor neighborhoods are also disproportionately communities of color. 

In light of the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this past summer, the Dallas school board voted to change the names of four elementary schools named for Confederate generals: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, William Cabell and Albert Sidney Johnston.

The firing of a 22-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department is exposing tensions between the police chief and his officers, and between the department and the city’s African-American community.

It was one of those football game highlight moments. Dallas Cowboys fans went wild as punt return specialist Ryan Switzer dashed 83 yards for a touchdown in the first half against the visiting Washington Redskins last month.

A new survey shows black adults in Texas and around the country have a lot of concerns about reproductive health. Experts met in Dallas this week to talk about the findings and their implications.

The top local stories this evening from KERA News:

North Texas Congressman Joe Barton announced Thursday he won’t seek another term next year. It marks an end to the Ennis Republican’s three-decade career in Washington. He faced a growing chorus of calls for his resignation after a nude picture and a sexually charged exchange were made public.

Trying to keep up with medical terminology and acronyms during a doctor’s visit can be tricky for anyone. Imagine if you and your doctor didn’t speak the same language. 

Recent headlines, like the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict travelers from certain countries, have raised questions in education circles about whether U.S. politics are having an impact on foreign student enrollment at American universities. 

President Trump took another predawn Twitter swipe at a protesting NFL player this morning.  That came after a UT-Dallas researcher released a new study showing a deep racial divide among college students about "taking a knee" protests.

Seventh-grader Zahir Hameed says many students don’t have a problem with him. But there’s one kid who calls him names.

“He just calls me 'stupid' and 'idiot,' and he just acts like I’m about to bomb the place,” said Zahir, on a recent Saturday morning at the East Plano Islamic Center.

The Wylie student is one of many Muslim kids here who shared their stories about bullying.

Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District is in the midst of a makeover with new retail and apartments. A few blocks away, a new art gallery – Mercado Artesanal – aims to help the neighborhood keep its cultural identity.

The top local stories this morning from KERA News:

Black and Hispanic children face tougher barriers to success in Texas than other racial and ethnic groups, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The recent debates in Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth over Confederate monuments and places named for Confederate figures puts Cindy Harriman in a unique position. She’s the executive director of the Texas Civil War Museum – and a lifelong member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Google’s latest Doodle pays tribute to the late Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla-Perez, whose debut album was released Oct. 17, 1989.

The project was pitched by Perla Campos, a Granbury native and the global marketing lead for Google Doodle. She says it was important for her to see Latino culture represented on the front page.

It’s a little after 6:30 at night inside Daugherty Elementary in Garland, but classes are in session. Alvaro Méndez stands in front of a group of eager students: They're parents learning English.

It’s up to the Dallas City Council to decide the fate of the city’s Confederate symbols.

The council is expected to vote early next year; the city's Cultural Affairs Commission endorsed a series of recommendations this week made by a task force appointed by Mayor Mike Rawlings. Here's what those actions would do.

Some kids in Fort Worth are getting a little bonus with their haircuts -- a chance to read with their barbers. It's part of a new effort by the city's schools to place books inside barbershops and encourage barbers to dive into them with their pint-sized patrons. 

The Richardson Independent School District has suspended two high school students after they posted racially charged messages on social media.

The nation came to know Dr. Brian Williams in the days after July 7, 2016. He was working at Parkland Hospital that night when wounded police officers were brought into his operating room.

After President Trump's decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program this week, we've heard voices from big cities like Dallas and Houston.

Former NPR journalist Tasneem Raja has been collecting stories of people in Tyler who were brought into the country illegally as children for her news startup, The Tyler Loop. 

Earlier this year, KERA sponsored an essay contest for high school students across North Texas. The assignment: Draw inspiration from a poem by Maya Angelou to talk about race relations in the U.S.

A statue of Robert E. Lee was at the center of the white supremacist rally last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Cities across the U.S., including Dallas, are now renewing debate on what to do with existing Confederate memorials.

A string of recent incidents, from bomb threats at Jewish community centers to armed protests in front of mosques to shootings of unarmed black men, has gotten a group of faith leaders in North Texas to take action.

They're working to start conversations and build understanding between different faiths across Dallas-Fort Worth.

Opal Lee has lived 90 pretty remarkable years -- from the night, when she was a kid, that a mob of white protesters drove her family from their Fort Worth home, to her symbolic walk to Washington, D.C., last fall to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

Two years ago, Ana Zamora was on top of the world. She’d written a letter to then-President Barack Obama, and he invited her to his State of the Union address.