How Martin Luther King, Jr. Lit Up the World

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says the movie star had a range of about six notes, but he had personality and a swinging house band. Yet Astaire deserves praise for making famous several songs which later became standards.

Literature professor and writer Carolyn Heilbrun writes about women's issues under her own name, and detective novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. She believes that the path forward for feminism is androgyny and a greater blurring of gender roles and identities.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new ABC special, Roots: The Gift, which revisits protagonist Kunta Kinte. He says it's a true successor to the original miniseries, and exceeds it in quality.