Justice

The most influential preacher in the country, Beecher aggressively agitated for the Union to extend complete forgiveness to Confederates.

As Frederick Douglass’s master put it, a slave who learned to read and write against the will of his master was tantamount to “running away with himself.”

The Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project explores the meaning of freedom through the example of one extraordinary life.

The US government broke up AT&T's monopoly over the telecom industry through an antitrust case in 1984, leading to a transformation of communication.

Clyde Bellecourt taught Native people that colonizing society is weak because of its sense of superiority.

A correctional officer’s history of 19th century prisons and modern-day parallels. From Sing Sing to suicide watch, torture treads a fine line.

For a century, student activists have demanded a say in their schools.

“The social revolution which is taking place in this country is not an isolated, detached phenomenon. It is part of a worldwide revolution that is taking place.”

For less fortunate New Yorkers, access to safe, adequate heating has never been assured.

A collaborative project by legal scholars sets out to make visible the vast array of legal precedents based on cases involving enslaved people.

A new book traces the tactics of groundbreaking lawyer Constance Baker Motley amid pivotal protests in Birmingham.

A brief scholarly overview to understand the contours of white backlashes, their historical impact, and the ways they shape the world we inherit.

In rejecting Plessy’s argument that the Jim Crow law implied Black people were inferior, the Supreme Court upheld the notion of “separate but equal.”

J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI.

The temperance movement wasn’t an example of American exceptionalism; it was a globe-spanning network of activists and politicians against economic exploitation.

The charges, while provocative, offer a framework to reckon with systemic racial injustice — past and present.

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.

How we wound up with the worst of both worlds: thousands of speed-related deaths, and a system of enforcement that is both ineffective and inescapable.

The idea of Asian Americans as a “model minority” has a long and complicated history.

How abortion activists responded in the wake of the 1989 Webster decision and what we can learn from their efforts.

Calls for the court to remain neutral have long been tools for denying Americans rights.

It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California.

The United States confined 2,200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. They’re still pushing for redress.

How 19th century slave traders used, and reused, the brig named Uncas.

"What the Catholic church wanted us to understand about women and anger—that we simply didn’t experience it—backfired spectacularly."

All roads lead to Larry Hammond, Justice Lewis Powell’s law clerk at the time.

With its doctrine of fairness, A Theory of Justice transformed political philosophy. But what did it leave out? 

How the self-proclaimed "First Widow" used her celebrity to influence public opinion.

Can a system built on racial violence actually deliver justice?

Pregnant and facing decades in prison, the mother of Tupac Shakur fought for her life — and triumphed — in the trial of the Panther 21.