Photograph of Pauli Murray mural.

How Pauli Murray Masterminded Brown v. Board

Without Murray’s intense commitment to the freedom struggle, the more famous civil rights leaders would not have had the successes they did.
Photograph of Felix Frankfurter opening a briefcase.

A Prisoner of His Own Restraint

Felix Frankfurter was renowned as a liberal lawyer and advocate. Why did he turn out to be such a conservative Supreme Court justice?
Black and white photo of Lydia Maria Child reading a book

Living in Words

A new biography explores the work of the influential abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, who wrote about the social, political, and cultural issues of her time.
Portrait photo of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
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Justice Jackson Offered Democrats a Road Map for Securing Equal Rights

Tying the fight for equal rights to the founders and the Constitution has worked before.
"Home of Fannie Lou Hamer" sign

The Local Politics of Fannie Lou Hamer

By age 44, most people are figuring out how to live and die peacefully. That was certainly not the case with sharecropper and hero Fannie Lou Hamer.
Group of seated Black soldiers listening to staff sergeant explain G.I. Bill of Rights

How a Hostile America Undermined Its Black World War II Veterans

Service members were attacked, discredited, and shortchanged on GI benefits—with lasting implications.
Lithograph of Aaron Burr
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The Case of Aaron Burr Suggests Donald Trump Won’t Face Consequences

Despite several new lawsuits, investigations, and the bombshell revelations, Trump’s fate will be like that of the former vice president.
An 1886 illustration of a cowboy and cow camp.

When Texas Cowboys Fought Private Property

When cattle barons carved up Texas with barbed wire in the late 19th century, cowboys formed fence-cutting gangs to preserve the open range.
Map of Beaufort, South Carolina during the time of Rose Goethe's life.

“They Cleaned Me Out Entirely”

An enslaved woman’s experience with General Sherman’s army.

"Until I Am Free"

An online roundtable on a new biography of Fannie Lou Hamer.
A group of the newly emancipated working with the US army, 1862.

The Promise of Freedom

A new history of the Civil War and Reconstruction examines the ways in which Black Americans formed networks of self-reliance in their pursuit of emancipation.
Abolitionist broadside from 1854 calling out the fugitive slave bill commissioner

An Angry Mob Broke Into A Jail Looking For A Black Man—Then Freed Him

How Oct. 1 came to be celebrated as “Jerry Rescue Day” in abolitionist Syracuse.
A high school yearbook photo of Elizabeth Prewitt.

I Never Saw the System

As a white teenager in Charlotte, Elizabeth Prewitt saw mandatory school busing as a personal annoyance. Going to an integrated high school changed that.
Photo of E.P.A Headquarters, shot through a bush

How Government Ends

Through an assault on administrative agencies, the Supreme Court is systematically eroding the legal basis of effective governance.
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington on June 25, 2017.
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Far-Right Views in Law Enforcement are Not New

65 years ago this week, Edwin Walker helped enforce Little Rock integration. Then he devoted himself to segregation.
Black Americans getting off a bus during a "reverse freedom ride."

Racist Busing Rides Again

Moving migrants from Texas to Democratic strongholds is not new. The Reverse Freedom Rides of the 1960s hold lessons for activists of today.
Portrait of Aaron Burr, an American politician and lawyer who was the third vice president of the United States, serving during Thomas Jefferson's first term (1801-1805).

A Former Vice President Was Tried For Treason For an Insurrection Plot

Aaron Burr was the highest-ranking official to stand trial for treason, which some people have invoked now amid probes into ex-president Donald Trump.
illustration of a hand with a shredded ballot

John Roberts’s Long Game

Is this the end of the Voting Rights Act?
Photograph shows two white men overseeing African American men hammering boulders as others walk with wheelbarrows.

Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires

Companies across the South profited off the forced labor of people in prison after the Civil War – a racist system known as convict leasing.
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.
Black and white photo of African American girl attending a white segregated school

A Powerful, Forgotten Dissent

Among the thousands of cases the Supreme Court has decided, only a handful of dissenting opinions stand out.
Abortion opponents hold signs reading "I Vote Pro-life First" outside Supreme Court

Abortion and Partisan Entrenchment

The modern Republican Party has tied itself to Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, the party is vulnerable to new issues.
Illustrative grid rid of students with the faces represented by various colors, fabric patterns, and textures.

How Affirmative Action Was Derailed by Diversity

The Supreme Court has watered down the policy’s core justification: justice.
Headshot illustration of Angela Davis

‘Hell, Yes, We Are Subversive’

For all her influence as an activist, intellectual, and writer, Angela Davis has not always been taken as seriously as her peers. Why not?
Black and white photo of communists marching in front of the White House to demand the release of the Scottsboro Boys.

The Civil Rights Movement Was Radical to Its Core

The Civil Rights Movement was a radical struggle against Jim Crow tyranny whose early foot soldiers were Communists and labor militants.
Photograph of protesters at the 1963 March on Washington. Pictured are black and white protesters holding signs with messages about racial and economic justice.

You’ve Been Lied to About the 1963 March on Washington

It’s popularly remembered as a moderate demonstration. In fact, it was the culmination of a mass, working-class movement against racial and economic injustice.
Black and white side profile of Felix Frankfurter reading.

The Justice Who Wanted the Supreme Court to Get Out of the Way

Felix Frankfurter warned that politicians, not the courts, should make policy.
Painting of a stylized explosion and the silhouettes of African American soldiers.

A Deadly World War II Explosion Sparked Black Soldiers to Fight for Equal Treatment

After the deadliest home-front disaster of the war, African Americans throughout the military took action to transform the nation's armed forces.
Sillhouettes of incarcerated men preparing for a graduation ceremony.
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Educational Aid for Prisoners Works. Yet It’s Politically Precarious.

Why all Americans benefit from higher education for those incarcerated.
Four new Army brassiere designs modeled by servicewomen.
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A New Bra Reveals That the Military is Moving Toward Gender Equality

Women’s military uniforms were once about making soldiers look feminine. Now they’re about enhancing performance.