The Cutting Edge: Black News and Views

Part Two traces Sam Cooke's transition from gospel to a pop musical career and his road to social consciousness.

This first part traces the life of singer Sam Cooke from his early days in Chicago and his career in gospel music. Hear from his brother, L.C, Cooke. his father, the Rev. Charles Cooke, his manager, J.W. Alexander and friend and musician Leroy Crume.

The Cutting Edge brings you excerpts from a discussion on the significance of Hurstons recording of Kossolas life, within the larger context of slave narratives, and the impact of Hurstons' training as anthropologist and ethnographer on her literary works of fiction and non-fiction.

 Schomburg Centers' Director Kevin Young, reads from his latest book, "Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News, which traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon, from the legacy of P. T. Barnum's "humbug" and culminating with the currency of President Donald Trump's "fake news." The Cutting Edge presents a conversation held at the Schomburg between Young and author Garnette Cadogan, author and visiting scholar at MIT

In 1968 Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, began the Poor People's Campaign to unite people of all backgrounds against oppressive government policies. Last year, Rev. William Barber. former president of the North Carolina NAACP, and Rev. Liz Theoharis followed in the King's footsteps by announcing a new Poor People's Campaign- challenging racism, voter suppression, poverty, militarism, and environmental devastation. The Cutting Edge presents a conversation held at the Schomburg Center with the Rev. Barber, Rev. Theoharis and Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall, author of "The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice".

This edition of the Cutting Edge presents Michael Eric Dyson, author of "What the Truth Sounds Like" speaking at Harvard University about the unfinished conversation on race in America. The conversation is moderated by DeRay McKesson, activist and host of "Pod Save The People".

Black writers speak about writing in the Age of Trump

Historians look at the effective re-enslavement of African-Americans after the Civil War

Features Sen. Corey Booker and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Part Two of a two-part series featuring Jackson, Miss. Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren