Demonstrators marching, holding an "End Racism" sign.
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The Freedom of Juneteenth Was Fleeting. This is What Came Next.

Black generosity has always been vital to the freedom struggle.
Harriet Tubman in the late 1860s.

When Harriet Tubman Met John Brown

Looking back at the short but deep friendship of John Brown and Harriet Tubman, who gave their lives to the abolitionist cause.

The Lesbian As Villain or Victim

In Oregon in the 1960s, the debate over capital punishment hinged on shifting interpretations of the gendered female body.
Photo of Vincent Chin superimposed on "Stop Anti-Asian Attacks" Protests.

Remembering Vincent Chin — And The Deep Roots of Anti-Asian Violence

40 years after Vincent Chin’s murder, the struggle against anti-Asian hate continues.
Picture of Senator Raphael G. Warnock

Sen. Raphael G. Warnock Remembers How the Police Killing of Amadou Diallo Sparked His Activism

"It didn’t make much sense for us to be talking about justice in the classroom if we weren’t willing to get in the struggle in the streets."
Two people wearing sunglasses peeking over a fence

Privacy Isn't in the Constitution – But It's Everywhere in Constitutional Law

The Supreme Court has found protections for people’s privacy in several constitutional amendments – and used it as a basis for some fundamental protections.
Kyle Rittenhouse waves to cheering fans as he appears at a panel discussion at a Turning Point USA America Fest event on Dec. 20, 2021.
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Bernhard Goetz and the Roots of Kyle Rittenhouse’s Celebrity on the Right

Why vigilante violence appeals politically.
Photo of Hispanic students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance

First Roe, Then Plyler? The GOP’s 40-Year Fight to Keep Undocumented Kids Out of Public School

“The schoolhouse door cannot be closed to one of modern society’s most marginalized, most vilified groups.”
Angela Davis meeting with Communist Party leader Valentina Tereshkova

Angela Davis, Charlene Mitchell, and the NAARPR

A Red-Black alliance defended political prisoners and drew attention to death and prison sentences disproportionately handed out to people of color.
6 African American's at an Emancipation Day celebration on June 19, 1900

The History of How Emancipated People Were Kept Unfree Needs To Be Remembered Too

Emancipation Days symbolized America’s attempt to free the enslaved across the nation. But those days were unable to prevent new forms of economic slavery.
Harvey Milk (left) at Gay Pride, San Jose, California 1978.

Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech

Five months before his assassination in 1978, Harvey Milk called on the president of the United States to defend the rights of gay and lesbian Americans.
Gun rights advocates holding Second Amendment rally at which police officer Dick Heller spoke, at the State Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky, January 31, 2020.

The Remaking of the Second Amendment

The Supreme Court’s expanding interpretation of the Second Amendment threatens longstanding democratic authority to enact gun safety measures.
People walking towards the vigil for mass shooting victims.

Hiding Buffalo’s History of Racism Behind a Cloak of Unity

Officials have described the recent shooting as an aberration in the “City of Good Neighbors.” But this conceals the city’s long-standing racial divisions.
Artwork of the Supreme Court but with chess pieces used as columns..

The Supreme Court Is Not Supposed to Have This Much Power

And Congress should claw it back.

Inventing Solitary

In 1790, Philadelphia opened the first American penitentiary, with the nation’s first solitary cells. Black people were disproportionately punished from the start.
Wilma Mankiller on a quarter

Reconsidering Wilma Mankiller

As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief’s image is minted onto a coin, her full humanity should be examined.
Lithograph depicting Margert Garner standing over the body of her dead daughter, to the shock of slave catchers.
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Discarding Legal Precedent to Control Women's Reproductive Rights is Rooted in Colonial Slavery

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made reference to the legal opinions of English jurist Henry de Bracton, foreshadowing the court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Illustration of Hubert Harrison by Joe Ciardiello.

Hubert Harrison, Giant of Harlem Radicalism

A two-volume biography tracks the life and times of one of Harlem’s leading socialists.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with backdrop of abortion protest posters

What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?

Contrary to contemporary claims, Susan B. Anthony and her peers rarely discussed abortion, which only emerged as a key political issue in the 1960s.
Box of Mifepristone tablets
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Tennessee Republicans Turn to Mail Regulation to Restrict Abortion

This isn’t the first time the U.S. Postal Service has played a role in curbing women’s reproductive rights.
Picture of Donna Murch and her new book. (Photo by Don J. Usner)

The Long History of Resistance That Birthed Black Lives Matter

A conversation with historian Donna Murch about the past, present, and future of Black radical organizing.
Guinan Phillips, 31, attends a candlelit memorial for victims of the mass shooting at Tops supermarket in Buffalo. (Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post)
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The Tie Between the Buffalo Shooting and Banning Abortion

The two may seem unconnected, but a centuries-long history of panic about White birth rates binds them together.
"IX" surrounded by female athletes

The Pursuit of Equal Play: Reflecting on 50 Years of Title IX

How a 37-word clause tucked inside a new education legislation reshape women’s sports forever.
Illustration of catcher Buck Ewing of the New York Giants

Baseball's Reserve Clause and the "Antitrust Exemption"

The controversy between players and owners frequently brought baseball into the federal courts between the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries.
Sarah L. Murphy teaches children in a two-room schoolhouse in Rockmart, Ga. on June 23, 1950.

The Ugly Backlash to Brown v. Board of Ed That No One Talks About

The 1954 Supreme Court ruling was hailed as a victory for desegregation. But protracted white resistance decimated the pipeline of Black principals and teachers.
Book cover for Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage," showing a photo of incarcerated men speaking to the media.

How Rikers Island Made New York

In “Captives,” former Rikers detainee Jarrod Shanahan traces the history of New York City’s sprawling jail complex, and its centrality to brutal class struggle.
"Stalls for All" sign with transgender flag hearts

Transgender Legal Battles: A Timeline

New laws regarding transgender youth are based on the assumption that the gender binary is natural.
Horses and carriages in front of funeral home

Report of Action Not Received

An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.
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Extremism in America: A Surge in Violence

During the 2010s, violent attacks by white supremacists and other extremists increased, including at a church in Charleston, S.C. and a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Elderly woman holding a Gray Panthers sign. (from Wikimedia Commons)

Gray Panthers: Bending Bureaucracy and Building Power

The Gray Panthers empowered elderly people to see themselves as experts capable of disentangling convoluted bureaucracies.