Michele Norris

For the last three years, NPR's Michele Norris has asked people to share their six-word stories about race and cultural identity. The confrontation in Sanford, Fla., has been a running thread in the inbox of the Race Card Project since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in 2012.

On June 11, 1963, Gov. George Wallace stood at the University of Alabama to block two black students attempting to cross the color line and register for classes. The event forever associated him with segregation. His daughter, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, 63, is trying to shake that link.

Elysha O'Brien calls herself a "Mexican white girl." Not just because of her ethnically ambiguous appearance, she says, but also because she can't speak Spanish. Fearing their children would experience discrimination if they spoke Spanish, her parents chose not to teach them their native tongue.

Dr. Gregory McGriff, a black doctor in a largely white community, says gaining his patients' trust requires him to spend more time and "communicate a little bit more" than his white colleagues. He says that disparity, while seeming unfair, has helped to make him a better doctor.

In 1877, Anna Sewell wrote a novel about human kindness and cruelty — all from the point of view of a horse. In the decades since, Black Beauty has been embraced by generations of children, and has helped change the way we treat and think about horses.

Introducing a new NPR book club ... for kids! Our first book will be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Young readers are invited to read the book and share their thoughts and questions with us. Just before Halloween, Gaiman will be on the program to answer questions from young listeners.

Police in London are bracing for another night of rioting. Parliament has been called back into session amid demands in some quarters for the army to be deployed. Major sporting events have been canceled as the riots and looting spread to provincial cities.

Author Nadine Cohodas has written a new biography of singer Nina Simone. It's called Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone, and it tells the story of the singer's evolution from classical pianist to civil rights icon. Read about Simone's musical beginnings in an excerpt from the book here.

President Obama has ordered 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan. The plan is to get the forces there by the summer of 2010, a very fast timeline. To make that happen will be a real challenge for the U.S. military — troops and their equipment will have to move halfway around the world to join the fight.

Afghanistan's election commission has cancelled plans for a presidential runoff vote, and declared Hamid Karzai the winner. The move followed a decision by Karzai's only remaining challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, to pull out of the race.