‘Mic Dispatch’ episode 8: Ron Stallworth and ‘BlacKkKlansman’; GirlTrek

On this edition of Mic Dispatch, we meet Ron Stallworth, who 40 years ago became the first black detective on the police force in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Stallworth also did something few people would believe a black man could do: In the late 1970s, he managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan, the white extremist hate group. Stallworth’s story inspired the upcoming Spike Lee film BlacKkKlansman, which adapts portions of the former detective’s memoir of the same name to the silver screen. The movie hits theaters Friday, ahead of the anniversary of deadly white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Next, we profile GirlTrek, an organization on a mission to save the lives of black women across the United States. The statistics are staggering: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 82% of black women are over a healthy body weight and 53% are obese. According to the American Heart Association, 48.3% of black women over 20 live with cardiovascular disease. GirlTrek’s solution to combating these issues is surprisingly simple: walking.

Check out episode eight of Mic Dispatch above — only on Facebook Watch.

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