CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien speaks frankly about her own identity as a black woman, raising her children and what she found while doing "Black In America," a CNN special series about the state of black America since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Her parents, both immigrants, met and married at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in some states. Her father (from Australia) is white and her mother (from Cuba) is black. O'Brien has four children. More of "Black In America" (she previously reported on King's assassination) will air Wednesday and Thursday at 9 p.m. Wednesday's installment is "The Black Woman & Family" and Thursday's is "The Black Man."

Q: Were many black men and women you spoke with in the process of making "Black in America" feeling there had been big improvements since the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

A: I think many people felt that the answer to that question was yes and no. Many people felt that clearly there had been some huge steps forward for black Americans in this country over the last 40 years. But there was a large portion of the black population in this country that was not getting to experience those achievements. In fact, you saw families that were middle class that would fall the next generation to basically working poor. So they were not able to build on the success of the parents and keep kind of growing in the right direction. They were going the wrong direction. What we ended up seeing, and it was confirmed by many people, was the sense that there are two black Americas. One black America is doing very well. There's another black America that is incredibly poor. The gap between those two is getting bigger.

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PG audio

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Q: Do you identify yourself as biracial?

A: When I was growing up, my mother used to always say, and this was from the time I was zero, "You're a light-skinned black girl." So growing up I always identified as being a light-skinned black girl. That's what I am. I'm a black girl. Then as consciousness grew, probably in the '80s, biracial became the dialogue. I consider myself black because historically people who are part black are black. And also I happen to be biracial, which is sort of an explanation of skin tone. That's how I describe myself.

Q: Did you ever wonder why they didn't say you were white since your dad was white?

A: No. My mother is black, which means I am 50 percent black and in this country just because your dad's white doesn't make you white. It makes you black.

Q: You interview a biracial couple and the mother clearly wants to raise the children black and the father wants to leave it up to them. How are you raised differently when you are raised black?

A: Well, white people don't tell their kids "You are white." I think that's a huge difference right there. My kids are very light skinned. Some look like they are 100 percent white. Some don't. My husband and I are on board [with our message], but I think the two of them (biracial couple interviewed) are not quite on board with how they see their children. They have a little boy who looks black. I'm not sure it helps the kid to be told you get to pick. I'm not sure he does get to pick. My mom and Dad were very clearly on board with how they saw their six kids.

Q: So is it a false racial assignment when a biracial person is told he or she is black or white?

A: Black people have a history of having relatives who are white, otherwise you get into a complicated game. If you looked at my brothers and sisters, for example, you would look at my brother Tony and say he's black. Most black people have a history of white people in their families, and that's why you see in most black families a whole range of hues.

Q: And is there prejudice in the black community to this day about that range of hues?

A: Oh yeah, I think that that's very true, absolutely. A lot of the people we talk to in our documentary talk about that. There's prejudice and preferences within the black community and also reflected in the white community too.

Q: What was the most unexpected thing you found in doing this documentary?

A: For me one of the things that was really interesting was to see how many people are working to turn around what are some very dire conditions for disadvantaged African Americans in this country. People like a trauma surgeon in Baltimore, who deals mostly with kids in his city who've been shot because they are mostly involved in gangs and violence and drugs. After he literally patches them up, he then goes to their bedside and says, 'I want you to join a program. What do you need? Do you want a GED? If you want to get out of this life you've been stuck in because of all the circumstances that surround you and some really bad choices that you have personally made I can help you.' That's very impressive to me.