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It was the anthem of the Confederacy, but President Abraham Lincoln used it as gesture of reconciliation at the end of the Civil War. It's a symbol of racism and slavery to many African Americans, but it endures. On Morning Edition, NPR's Cynthia Johnston explores the origins of Dixiefor the Present at the Creation series.

Influential stage director Vinnette Carroll died this week at the age of 80. She was the first black woman to direct a Broadway production -- and the first to earn a Tony nomination for directing. NPR's Laura Sydell offers a remembrance.

A new movie deals with the kinds of drastic choices few people ever have to make. The Grey Zone, starring Harvey Keitel, tells the story of Jewish concentration camp prisoners, who were compelled to help the Nazis run the gas chambers. Iris Mann reports.

Big dairy farms are profiting from California's tougher limits on greenhouse emissions. They're getting paid to capture methane from cow manure. But critics say the system subsidizes polluters.

Two groups are seeking to promote a better public understanding of who controls media outlets and how the media is regulated by the government. It's an exercise in "media literacy" carried out by The Action Coalition for Media Education and The Alliance for a Media Literate America. Paul Ingles reports.

The new Todd Haynes film Far from Heaven pays tribute to the 1950s melodramas of Douglas Sirk, who gave the world All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life. Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert star in Haynes' homage. David D'Arcy reports.

He has starred in the mock-horror vomitorium comedies: The Evil Dead, The Evil Dead Two and Army of Darkness, all directed by Sam Raimi. He also has had television roles in the popular series Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules. More recently Campbell appeared in Spiderman and Serving Sarah. Campbell's memoir, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, is now out in paperback.

As a Colombian-American singer-songwriter, Soraya has spent her life traveling between two worlds. NPR's Felix Contreras reports on Soraya's career and a personal challenge that threatened to derail it.

Bob Hope, master of the one-liner and world-famous comedian, dies of pneumonia at 100. A star in vaudeville, radio, television and film, Hope helped define the monologue. He was best known for entertaining U.S. troops at bases around the world. Pat Dowell has a remembrance.

Chunks of concrete from the Berlin Wall are sold as memorabilia. Germany's parliament recently gave one chunk as a gift to the United Nations. But the artist who painted it says he deserves to be compensated for his artwork. NPR's Emily Harris reports.