civil rights movement

A new survey from Siena College shows that only about a third of New Yorkers think that race relations in the state are either excellent or good. That compares to about two-thirds of them who say that race relations are either fair or poor.

Photojournalist Matt Herron, a Rochester native who was known for chronicling the civil rights movement, has died in the crash of a glider he was piloting in northern California, where he lived.

The 89-year-old’s work primarily appeared in the news magazines of the day, including Life, Look and Newsweek.

Matthew John Herron was born in Rochester on Aug. 3, 1931. His father, also named Matthew, was a certified public accountant. His mother, Ruth, was a fabric artist and weaver. 

David Shakes knows what change looks like, and sounds like, and feels like. He finds it in writers such as James Baldwin, whose words have shadowed us as the country navigates the summer of Black Lives Matter.

Shakes is finding change in the words of Frederick Douglass, and in the narratives of slaves. And in "Emancipation Denied," a play written by a Rochester woman and brought to the stage four years ago by Shakes' North Star Players.