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Reflections of the 60th Anniversary of Urban Uprisings in America

The media narrative used to discredit urban rebellions as violent betrayals of the civil rights movement has been attached to protests ever since.
by Heather Ann Thompson via Black Perspectives on October 17, 2024
Newark protesters and National Guard

A Warning Ignored

America did exactly what the Kerner Commission on the urban riots of the mid-1960s advised against, and fifty years later reaped the consequences it predicted.
by Jelani Cobb via New York Review of Books on July 29, 2021
Children's coloring sheets of overturned police cars.

Magic Actions

Looking back on the George Floyd rebellion.
by Tobi Haslett via n+1 on July 21, 2021
African American man leaning on his car, by a wall spray painted with the words "let's remember McDuffie"

The Long, Painful History of Racial Unrest

A lethal incident of police brutality in Miami in 1979 offers just one of countless examples of the reality generations of African Americans have faced.
by Ashley Howard via Smithsonian on August 28, 2020

The Minneapolis Uprising in Context

A proper understanding of urban rebellion depends on our ability to interpret it not as a wave of criminality, but as political violence.
by Elizabeth Hinton via Boston Review on May 29, 2020

The Most Fascinating Riot You've Never Heard Of

The Astor Place Opera House Riot of 1849 combined two of 19th-century America’s favorite pastimes: going to the theater and rioting.
by John Ganz via The Outline on February 11, 2020
A Black man speaks as other protesters stand around him.

White Milwaukee Lied to Itself for Decades, and in 1967 the Truth Came Out

When the Long Hot Summer came to Wisconsin, the reality of race relations was impossible to ignore.
by Syreeta McFadden via Timeline on August 2, 2017
Demonstrators at a Black Lives Matter rally.

Fifty Years Ago, the Government Said Black Lives Matter

The conclusions of the 1968 Kerner Report portrayed race relations like no other report in history.
by Julian E. Zelizer via Boston Review on May 5, 2016
Martin Luther King Jr. giving a speech.

The Crisis in America’s Cities

Martin Luther King Jr. on what sparked the violent urban riots of the “long hot summer” of 1967.
by Martin Luther King Jr. via The Atlantic on August 15, 1967
Militarized National Guard confronts peaceful protesters in Los Angeles, 2025.

What History Tells Us to Expect From Trump’s Escalation in Los Angeles Protests

Since the 1960s, studies have shown that heavy-handed policing and militarized responses tend to make protests more volatile — not less.
by Jamiles Lartey via The Marshall Project on June 9, 2025
Streetlamps and red trail lights glow in a dark city street.

A Nation of Cop Cities

The push to build large police training facilities follows on a long history of armories as both symbols and manifestations of state power.
by Matthew Guariglia via Inquest on September 26, 2024
A rendering of Buckminster Fuller and June Jordan's “Skyrise for Harlem” project published in Esquire, April 1965.

Nowhere But Up

In the wake of the 1964 Harlem riots, June Jordan and Buckminster Fuller’s plan to redesign the neighborhood suggested new possibilities for urban life.
by Nikil Saval via New York Review of Books on June 8, 2024
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar slam dunking basketball

How Lew Alcindor Became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The early years of a future basketball icon.
by Scott Howard-Cooper via Literary Hub on March 18, 2024
African Americans sitting on their front porch looking at a National Guardsman holding a rifle.

A Haunting Portrait of Newark’s Bloody Summer of Unrest

The photojournalist Bud Lee captured the riots of 1967 and the human cost of the brutal police crackdown.
by M. Z. Adnan via The New Yorker on July 29, 2023
Large public pool

Why America Stopped Building Public Pools

“If the public pool isn’t available and open, you don’t swim.”
by Nathaniel Meyersohn via CNN on July 22, 2023
Aftermath of a riot in Washington, D.C., following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral in 1968. Photography by Warren K. Leffler, via the Library of Congress.

After the Murder

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was the fateful moment that the wave of hope finally broke for Black America.
by Donovan X. Ramsey via Guernica on July 6, 2023
Lithograph of the Haymarket riot.

Chicago Never Forgot the Haymarket Martyrs

Ever since the execution of labor radicals in 1886, reactionaries have tried to tarnish their legacy — and leftists have honored them as working-class martyrs.
by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 1, 2023
Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.

The Night James Brown Saved Boston

The city might have gone up in flames after MLK's assassination, if not for the quick actions of a DJ, a city councilor, and The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.
by Dart Adams via Medium on April 5, 2023
Black-and-white collage style poster for the Jewish Museum

Fuzz! Junk! Rumble!

A show at the Jewish Museum surveys three eventful years of art, film, and performance in New York City—and the political upheavals that defined them.
by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on October 10, 2022
Image of army soldiers and weapons facing crowd of protestors holding signs

A Theater of State Panic

Beginning in 1967, the Army built fake towns to train police and military officers in counterinsurgency.
by Bench Ansfield via New York Review of Books on September 16, 2022
Black Lives Matter Protesters.

The Atlanta Way

Repression, mediation, and division of Black resistance from 1906 to the 2020 George Floyd Uprising.
by Sarah Abdelaziz, Kayla Edgett via Atlanta Studies on October 4, 2021
Illustration of 1844 Philadelphia riots

When Philadelphia Became a Battlefield, Its Surgeons Bore Witness

The surgeons’ observations survive thanks to a remarkable document: an eleven-page published report presented to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
by Zachary M. Schrag via Nursing Clio on June 22, 2021
People protesting Trump's immigration policies.
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Thirty Years After Mount Pleasant Erupted, a Push for Better Treatment Persists

American policy continues to create problems for Central American refugees.
by Mike Amezcua via Made By History on May 5, 2021
Three African American protest leaders address a crowd.

True Stories About the Great Fire

A movement’s early days as told by those who rose up, those who bore witness, those who grieved, and those who hoped.
by Dan Adler, Anthony Breznican, Kenzie Bryant, Michael Calderone, Arimeta Diop, Caleb Ecarma, Joe Hagan, Chris Smith, Claire Landsbaum, Abigail Tracy, Erin Vanderhoof via The Hive on August 24, 2020
Black and white photo of black child with his hands up, with police wielding weapons behind him
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The 1968 Kerner Commission Report Still Echoes Across America

Anger over policing and inequality boiled over more than 50 years ago, and a landmark report warned that it could happen again.
by Clyde Haberman via Retro Report on June 23, 2020

The Racist History of Curfews in America

The restrictions imposed during recent racial justice protests have their roots in efforts to “contain” Black Americans. 
by Linda Poon via CityLab on June 18, 2020
Two posterboards covered in red handprints that read "Black Lives Matter" and "No Justice, No Peace."

Stop Comparing Today’s Protests to 1968

There are superficial similarities, but what we’re seeing now is something completely new.
by Thomas J. Sugrue via Washington Post on June 11, 2020

No Justice, No Peace

To understand the slogan's meaning, consider the words of Martin Luther King, who saw the riots of the 1960s as not revolutionary enough.
by Asad Haider via Viewpoint Magazine on June 4, 2020

10 Experts on Where the George Floyd Protests Fit Into American History

Many are looking to history for clues about how to understand the evolving moment. Here's what to know.
by Matt Delmont, Kellie Carter Jackson, Olivia B. Waxman, Simon Balto, Duchess Harris, Tyran K. Steward, Greg Carr, Ashley Howard, Jamila Michener, Philip A. Klinkner via TIME on June 4, 2020
Armed military police in riot gear blocking demonstrators near the White House, June 3, 2020.

When Police Treat Protesters Like Insurgents, Sending in Troops Seems Logical

Militarized police forces laid the groundwork for using troops to quell protest.
by Stuart Schrader via Washington Post on June 4, 2020
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