ROSA PARKS

Alabama’s capital, a city once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected its first African American mayor Tuesday. Probate Judge Steven Reed, 45, clasped the history-making victory to be elected the next mayor of Montgomery after defeating businessman David Woods by a decisive margin. Reed won about 67% of the...

Mattel has released new Barbie dolls that pay tribute to civil rights activist Rosa Parks and astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. The dolls, which were timed to coincide with Women’s Equality Day on Monday, are the latest in the Barbie’s “Inspiring Women” series. Parks was called the “mother of the modern civil rights movement” after she...

Three handwritten wills have been found in the suburban Detroit home of Aretha Franklin, months after the death of the “Queen of Soul,” including one that was discovered under cushions in the living room, a lawyer said Monday. The latest one is dated March 2014 and appears to give the famous singer’s assets to family members. Some writing is extremely...

A Tennessee social justice center that has hosted iconic civil rights leaders was destroyed in a fire and a “white power” symbol was found on the site, the center said and NBC News reported. The symbol, which officials did not describe but said was connected to the white power movement, was discovered after the main office was completely destroyed in...

Thousands are expected to pour into Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on Tuesday and Wednesday to pay their final respects to Aretha Franklin. Hundreds of people were already lined up after dawn Tuesday, many from Detroit but others from as far as Las Vegas and Miami. The setting for the public viewings could not be more...

For decades, a burning question loomed over a towering 20th century book: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”: What happened to the reputedly missing chapters that may have contained some of the most explosive thoughts of the African-American firebrand assassinated in 1965? The answer came on Thursday, when an unpublished manuscript of a chapter titled “The Negro” was sold by Guernsey’s...

Four-foot-tall, “wide-eyed” robots with touch screens are now dancing, playing games and taking selfies with Smithsonian visitors at six museums, the Smithsonian announced Tuesday.

The house where Rosa Parks sought refuge after fleeing the South will be briefly displayed in Rhode Island, after a trans-Atlantic odyssey conceived by an artist and a Parks family member determined to preserve the civil rights activist’s legacy.

He felt stung by the politics that helped define his life — and resolved to keep a distance. But in death, the Rev. Billy Graham on Wednesday received a rare tribute from the nation’s top political leaders under the Capitol Rotunda. “Here lies America’s pastor,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, gesturing to Graham’s casket under the eye of the dome,...

The body of the late Rev. Billy Graham will lie in honor Wednesday in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building.

Rosa Parks’ commitment to social justice and the fight for equality reaches way beyond the bus. In honor of what would be Rosa Parks’ 104th birthday on Sunday, take a look at some lesser-known facts about the civil rights icon’s life before she became a public figure. Her early political career focused on issues of interracial sexual violence, and she...

The following is the full text of Oprah Winfrey’s speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards:

Recy Taylor, a black Alabama woman whose rape by six white men in 1944 drew national attention, died Thursday. She was 97. Taylor died in her sleep at a nursing home in Abbeville, her brother Robert Corbitt said. He said Taylor had been in good spirits the previous day and her death was sudden. She would have been 98 on...

Erika Gonzalez talks to Nydia Ocasio, who is with Prince George’s County Parks and Recreation department, about the annual festival that celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month.

A mother and daughter from the Evergreen State have put a new spin on playing dress-up. Each day in February, Cristi Jones of Kent, Washington, takes to Twitter to post a portrait of her 5-year-old daughter, Lola, dressed up as a black female pioneer to celebrate Black History Month.