NPR and Michel Martin's Tell Me More: Lessons In Dignity: A Cry Out for Justice

Above, below: Tunisian students shout during a demonstration in solidarity with Egyptian protesters in Tunis. A popular revolt in

Tunisia forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country. And members of the Great Migration, Chicago, 1918 [Chicago

History Museum/Getty Images].

I have been, like most people, following news of the street protests and unrest in the Middle East. And it may seem strange, but my mind keeps going back to a book I read last summer by the great former New York Times reporter Isabel Wilkerson. It is called The Warmth of Other Suns and it is about the so-called Great Migration.

It details the mass movement of millions of blacks from the rural Southern United States to the North, Midwest and West in the decades following the first World War, up until the beginning of the 1960s.

What would one have to do with the other?

Read and/or listen to more.

HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES: Stopping Bullets with Jobs

FATHER GREG BOYLE OF HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES

IN CONVERSATION WITH TAVIS SMILEY

The California Endowment's CenterScene Public Programs hosted Father Greg Boyle on Thursday January 27, 2011 to discuss his new book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. Through storytelling, Father Boyle

restores an intimate humanity to the former gang members who pass through the welcoming arms of Homeboy

Industries while also narrating his journey to becoming "Father G" to LA's most marginalized youth. The largest gang intervention program in the US, Homeboy Industries provides employment and job training to facilitate gang members' redirecting their lives away from violence and crime. Focusing on concrete actions that support and sustain healthy communities rather than the need to insert a specific message, his work embodies the crux of restorative and economic

justice through jobs, compassion, and the rebuilding of selfhood.

Tavis Smiley Presents: America's Next Chapter Conversation

HOW AMERICA CAN RETURN TO ITS GREATNESS

Two costly wars, a fledging economy, a failing educational system, and job losses have Americans

worried not only about the fate of the country but its legacy as a global leader. Broadcaster Tavis

Smiley will convene a panel of thought leaders to wrestle with how America can return to its

greatness. The panel will include opinion-makers such as Cornel West, Arianna Huffington,

Maria Bartiromo, David Frum, Dana Milbank, David Brody, Maria Teresa Kumar, John Chen

and other prominent thinkers.

Video streaming by Ustream

CIVIC FRAME PRESENTS: AMPLIFY BALTIMORE

SESSION I: WHO ARE WE [DEMOGRAPHICS] & WHERE ARE

WE GOING[CITY PLAN]?

Watch live streaming video from amplifybaltimore at livestream.com

SESSION II: POLITICAL LITERACY

Watch live streaming video from amplifybaltimore at livestream.com

SESSION III: PUBLIC SAFETY

Watch live streaming video from amplifybaltimore at livestream.com