This week on The Exchange, we take a look at efforts to create a more fair, equitable and compassionate world. We will look back a year since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and talk with Sioux City NAACP leader Ike Rayford. Also, we talk with a researcher who is part of an ongoing study on the reasons behind the disproportionate number of missing and murdered indigenous women and children in Nebraska. And we talk with the author of a new book that celebrates the heroism of Japanese American soldiers during WWII.

Also, Sioux City gets a brownfields grant to help develop historic downtown properties. We will hear about the details from a manager of the Iowa Department of Natural resources. 

But, first remembering George Floyd. Floyd died one year ago, on Tuesday May 25th.  Siouxland Public Media's Sheila Brummer looks back the tragedy, the movement that it sparked and how the Siouxland NAACP leader Ike Rayford and police chief Rex Mueller responded to the marches and calls for justice that followed.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Omaha are looking into why Native Americans in Nebraska are three times as likely to go missing at three times their rate in the state’s population. 

UNO Criminology Department assistant professors Tara Richards and Emily Wright have been working on the study since 2019. She speaks with Mary Hartnett.  

Author Daniel James Brown is known for his stories of American courage as in the Boys in the Boat, the story of 1936 Olympic rowing team, tells the stories of some courageous Japanese American soldiers in WWII in his book, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.  He spoke with Mary Hartnett about the book and the young men who, in many cases, gave their lives for the country that locked up them and their families during the war. 

Last week Sioux City received a $300,000 brownfields grant to help develop historic downtown properties from the Environmental Protection Agency.  Siouxland Public Media’s Mary Hartnett talks to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Mel Pins about the grant and buildings that will benefit from the intervention.