Alex Jones shouts into a megaphone in front of a US map full of US Border Patrol officers.

Welcome to the Jade Helm Presidency

Conservatives once panicked about a supposed federal plot to invade their communities and quash dissent. Now they’re cheering it.
Coretta Scott King standing in front of many microphones.

On Coretta Scott King’s Path to Civil Rights Activism

Coretta Scott King would become one of the nation’s most visible—and, to some, most dangerous—critics of America’s rapidly expanding war in Vietnam.
Photos of radical revolutionaries.

Lessons From the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s

If calls for radical change aren’t given a political outlet, violence will always return.
ASCII art of "We the People" by Paul Sahre.

Is the Constitution ‘Dead, Dead, Dead’?

The difficulty of amending the Constitution does not mean that it is a flawed and outdated relic of a distant past.
Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson.

One Legend to Another: When Jackie Robinson Testifed Against Paul Robeson in Congress

On black leadership and interracial heroism during the Cold War.
A New York City subway station in 1980s.

The Day Bernie Goetz Shot Four Unarmed Teenagers on the Subway

Chronicling the vigilante crime that shook 1980s New York City.
Ruins of the Al Azhar University in Gaza.

Historians Have a Duty to Condemn Scholasticide in Gaza

Leaders of the American Historical Association overruled a motion to condemn scholasticide in Gaza, opting for cowardice over ethical clarity.
Police turn fire hoses on nonviolent youth civil rights demonstrators in Alabama.

Minnesota Had Its Birmingham Moment

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. outlined a strategy to expose official brutality. Anti-ICE protesters are following it—and it’s working.
Police officer looking at Viola Liuzzo’s car after the march from Selma to Montgomery.

From Selma to Minneapolis

On M.L.K. Day, the death of Renee Good calls to mind another woman who died protesting for the rights of others.
Hubert H. Humphrey, shakes hands with Martin Luther King, Jr., as Coretta Scott King looks on.

Don’t Overlook Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King condemned the brutality of the Vietnam War and criticized how it drained money from housing, health care, and jobs.
ChongLy Scott Thao taken from his home this week by ERO.

Into the Abyss

The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.
Art piece of two black women and a motif of kente cloth and cowrie shells.

The Black Feminist Collective That Gave Us Identity Politics

The Combahee River Collective’s 1977 statement reshaped the politics of the Black left and beyond.
Sketch of Samuel Green.

Samuel Green Freed Himself and Others From Slavery. Then He Was Imprisoned Over Owning a Book

He covertly assisted conductors on the Underground Railroad, but it was his possession of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” turned that him into an abolitionist hero.
A small, lit candle being cupped in a hand.

The Racist Roots of the Death Penalty

Racial injustice was central to the establishment of the U.S. death penalty. Ending racial injustice must be central to its abolition.
Department of Justice logo on a wall.

Work in Progress: Resignations

DOJ civil rights lawyers' resignations after leaders' refusal to probe ICE murder echo past revolts as administrations tried to politicize the Division.
Amy Coney Barrett holding a senate report.

This Is the History of Anti-Trans Bigotry Amy Coney Barrett Doesn’t Want to Talk About

Barrett thinks transgender people have experienced “relatively little” discrimination. A brief filed in the trans sports cases aims to set the record straight.
Illustration of a slave rebellion.

The New History of Fighting Slavery

What we learn by tracing rebellions from Africa to the Americas.

The Brazen Illegality of Trump’s Venezuela Operation

A scholar of international law on the implications of the U.S. arrest of President Nicolás Maduro.
Albert Einstein collage photo with scientific diagrams.

Albert Einstein’s Brilliant Politics

The physicist fought for the promise of a diverse, meritocratic America. We need his optimism today.
Illustration of young white people smoking weed.

Donald Trump Just Brought a Long-Sought Policy Goal Closer Than Ever

It all might have been different without one night in 1977. A scandal followed—and, five decades later, no one agrees on what happened.
"We The People" Constitution on top of many folders of paper.

Conservatives Want the Antebellum Constitution Back

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are in trouble.
A jury box in a courtroom.
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Does a Jury Need to Have 12 Members?

Why jury size matters.
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin) laughing with guns.

Remembering Imam Jamil al-Amin

How the modern Left can carry his radical legacy forward.
Disability rights demonstrators, some in wheelchairs, one with a seeing-eye dog
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How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law

The long struggle for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Screenshot of a family hug from 'It's a Wonderful Life'

When 'It's a Wonderful Life' Came Under FBI Scrutiny

During the Red Scare, a 1947 FBI report alleged the beloved holiday film contained subtly subversive anti-American propaganda.
Miami in the 1950s.

Enemies of the People

A forgotten race war in McCarthy-era Miami.
Collage of John Roberts, Ronald Reagan, and a voting booth.

John Roberts’s Dream Is Finally Coming True

The chief justice has been working to neuter the Voting Rights Act since the beginning of his career.
African Americans walk to boycott the segregated bus system in Birmingham, Alabama.

What We Get Wrong About the Montgomery Bus Boycott – and What We Can Learn from It

The movement’s success was never a given. It took much longer and required tremendous sacrifice without certainty it would work
William Goodell in a suit.

William Goodell and the Science of Human Rights

William Goodell was praised by Frederick Douglass for being among the most important opponents of slavery in his time.
Collage of Bush, Gore, an electoral map 0f the 2000 election, and a picket sign reading "ALL WE ARE SAYING IS LET THE VOTE COUNT."

Bush v. Gore Twenty-Five Years Later

The unintended consequences of the 20th amendment.