Gillian Brockell

Sylvia Mendez’s role in setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education has been forgotten and overlooked.

There were more government shutdowns under Ronald Reagan than under every president since, combined. But some were as short as a few hours.

A history as intertwined with race as with partisanship.

Newly digitized journals reveal the life of Gouverneur Morris, the Constitution preamble writer, vocal opponent of slavery and disabled congressman.

The Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol wouldn’t exist without the artistry of an enslaved man named Philip Reed.

Ron DeSantis, who has attacked Florida history lessons and aims to run for president, dismisses slavery in his 2011 book as a “personal flaw” of the Founding Fathers.

Alex Haley’s transcript of his famous 'Playboy' interview with Martin Luther King Jr. does not match what was published.

Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached, after he openly campaigned for a president and told jurors who he thought was guilty.

Union soldiers improvised a Passover celebration near what's now Fayetteville, W.Va. They're being honored with a sign at the approximate site.

In the 1950's, Rep. Douglas Stringfellow was a promising young congressman with an incredible World War II story. Then the truth came out.

A Washington Post investigation of more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building found that one-third honor enslavers or Confederates.

How Oct. 1 came to be celebrated as “Jerry Rescue Day” in abolitionist Syracuse.

These men, women and children betrayed the Union and spied for the Confederacy. They're featured in a new online exhibit from the Wall of Spies Experience.

A new book tells the scandalous secrets of a forgotten 19th-century tycoon, Miriam Follin Peacock Squier Leslie Wilde, also known as Mrs. Frank Leslie.

The letters show a desire for freedom and a desperate longing to be reunited with their families.

Theresa Malkiel fled persecution in Russia and ended up in a New York sweatshop.

The context in which King shared his views on the filibuster is the same one in which the Senate now finds itself: amid battles over voting rights legislation.

Behind Britney Spears's struggle to regain control of her fortune and her medical decisions is a long history of robbing women of basic freedoms.

A six-hour workday could have become the national standard during the Great Depression. Here's the story of why that didn't happen.

Millions of Americans gained freedom from slavery in a slow-moving wave of emancipation during the Civil War and in the months afterward.

The Lincolns had four sons. Mary buried three of them. A new exhibit at President Lincoln's Cottage sheds light on bereaved parents, then and now.

At 91, Harrison Ruffin Tyler demonstrates that "long ago" wasn't so long ago.

In the small town of Ocoee, Fla., a racist mob went on a rampage after a Black man tried to cast his ballot on Nov. 2, 1920.

In 1790, George Washington fell severely ill, threatening his life and the young nation he led.