In a blog post, Simon added that while there is much to be "argued, debated, addressed ... this moment ... can still, in the end, "prove transformational, if not redemptive for our city."
Redefining the narrative of what it means to be black and male in the U.S. is at the heart of "Question Bridge: Black Males," an award-winning, multimedia art project.
A rare exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art features 60 of Lawrence's paintings about the journey of 6 million African-Americans, who fled the segregated South during the Great Migration.
A week of peaceful protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, a young African-American man, turned violent Saturday. Police arrested twelve people for destroying property and other crimes.
Even with the arrests, police said Saturday's protest over Gray — a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody after receiving a fatal spinal cord injury — was "mostly peaceful."
In the New York Congressional district where an an unarmed black man died at the hands of police last year, neither candidate for a special congressional election is using the death to score points.
Demonstrations continue in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. State troopers have been brought in to help control crowds. Gray will be laid to rest on Monday.
NPR's Scott Simon takes a walk through the neighborhoods of West Baltimore to talk with residents in the wake of Freddie Gray's death in police custody.
In the aftermath of several police shootings of unarmed black men, many police departments are holding community forums to talk to residents about policing.