A jury in St. Paul, Minn., cleared a police officer of manslaughter charges in the shooting death of an African-American man in 2016. After deliberating for 29 hours over five days, jurors also acquitted Jeronimo Yanez of two lesser charges resulting from the traffic stop. Yanez claimed he feared for his life when he shot Philando Castile as he sat in his car. Castile’s girlfriend, sitting in the passenger seat, live-streamed the aftermath on Facebook. Castile had a permit to carry a weapon, and told Yanez during the stop that he had the gun on him.

When I was growing up in the 1950s, there were no black-skinned people in our little Texas town. When my family made trips to Amarillo, we saw them on the streets and in the stores, but we never met them.

What do California gold, a Western frontier fort, and an ex-slave who learned that the abolition of slavery did not abolish racism, have in common?

WASHINGTON—Since 1983, Americans have set aside the third Monday in January to pay homage to Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work. But for many, this year is different.

This week marks the last days in office for the country’s first African-American president, and in fewer than 100 hours, President-elect Donald Trump will take over as the nation’s 45^th commander in chief. Some people angry and frustrated by the transition took to the streets of the nation’s capital to protest what they see as a repudiation of King’s legacy.

That race continues to be a major source of anxiety and division in America is an undeniable fact. While some politicians continue to use race to divide, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is trying again to bridge the gap in his latest PBS documentary series Black America Since MLK.

It’s easy to feel “edgy” when most of the politicians, academics, and news and entertainment media share your beliefs. In general, leftists, including the one in the White House, want to weaken gun rights, religious freedom for Christians, and immigration enforcement, to name a few items on their agenda. They call facts racist and attempt to suppress dissent.

WASHINGTON—More than 100,000 people crammed onto the National Mall to witness the dedication of a new national monument commemorating the contributions of African-Americans and reflecting on America’s dark history of slavery.

“A cleared-eyed view of history can make us uncomfortable,” President Barack Obama told the crowd. “But it’s precisely because of that discomfort that we can learn, grow, and harvest our collective power to make this nation more perfect.”