Eartha Kitt engaged in conversation with Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House

When Eartha Kitt Disrupted the Ladies Who Lunch

The documentary short “Catwoman vs. the White House” reconstructs an unexpected moment of activism during the Vietnam War.
Picture of Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande river.
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Enslaved Black Americans Crossed Borders to Find Freedom. Today’s Asylum Seekers Want the Same.

Restriction and deportation exist in opposition to the political traditions of the African American freedom struggle.
A line of black civil war soldiers holding their rifles.

Black Soldier Desertion in the Civil War

The reasons Black Union soldiers left their army during the Civil war were varied, with poor pay, family needs and racism among them.
A political cartoon in which a king sitting on a litter carried by enslaved men rests his elbow on three skulls labeled Fugitive Slave Bill.

Transcendentalists Against Slavery

Why have historians overlooked the connections between abolitionism and the famous New England cultural movement?
Copies of the graphic novel "Maus" by Art Spiegelman on bookshelf
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Ensuring White Children’s Happiness Has Long Involved Racist Double Standards

What prioritizing white happiness tells us about race and K-12 education.
Picture of the U.S. Supreme Court

Reading the 14th Amendment

A review of three books about Abraham Lincoln, the 14th Amendment, and Reconstruction.
Cartoon animation of Beecher with his hand up with a man next to him holding a Holy Bible

When Forgiveness Enables Tyranny: The Unbearable Lightness of Henry Ward Beecher

The most influential preacher in the country, Beecher aggressively agitated for the Union to extend complete forgiveness to Confederates.
African American students and teacher in a classroom, Henderson, KY, 1916.

The Origin Story of Black Education

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.”
Colorful portrait collage of Harriet Tubman with stars in the background

The Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project

The Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project explores the meaning of freedom through the example of one extraordinary life.
Logo of AT&T used from 1969-1982.

The Breakup of "Ma Bell": United States v. AT&T

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 speaking outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA, 1974.

Damn Hard Work

Clyde Bellecourt taught Native people that colonizing society is weak because of its sense of superiority.
Photograph of prison warden T. M. Osborne and two other men in a penitentiary hallway.

Were Early American Prisons Similar to Today's?

A correctional officer’s history of 19th century prisons and modern-day parallels. From Sing Sing to suicide watch, torture treads a fine line.
Demonstrators holding signs during a student walkout over coronavirus pandemic safety measures at Chicago Public Schools.
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Students Are Protesting Covid Policies — And the Adults Who Won’t Listen to Them

For a century, student activists have demanded a say in their schools.
MLK receiving an honorary degree from the Free University, Amsterdam, October 20, 1956.

The International MLK

“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.”
A mother and daughter attend a candlelight vigil
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The Deadly Bronx Fire Exposes the Perils and Politics of Heating One’s Home

For less fortunate New Yorkers, access to safe, adequate heating has never been assured.
Drawing of a spiral bound notebook with pen markings.

Fighting Racial Bias With an Unlikely Weapon: Footnotes

A collaborative project by legal scholars sets out to make visible the vast array of legal precedents based on cases involving enslaved people.
White police officers arresting Black children, 1963

Rescuing MLK and His Children's Crusade

A new book traces the tactics of groundbreaking lawyer Constance Baker Motley amid pivotal protests in Birmingham.
Anto-CRT protestors at the Pennsylvania state Capitol.

Teaching (amid a) White Backlash

A brief scholarly overview to understand the contours of white backlashes, their historical impact, and the ways they shape the world we inherit.
A bus, and a Black man at the bus stop standing under a sign for a "Colored Waiting Room."

Homer Plessy Was Never a Criminal. Now His Record Reflects That.

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.”
The picture is a photo collage of three men against the background of an atomic bomb explosion. Pictured from left to right is Ed Hall, Ted Hall, and former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal.

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.
Black and white photograph of four men standing amongst barrels of alcohol.

The Truth About Prohibition

The temperance movement wasn’t an example of American exceptionalism; it was a globe-spanning network of activists and politicians against economic exploitation.
Paul Robeson and other members of the Civil Rights Congress submit a report on police brutality and systemic racism against Black people, accusing the U.S. of genocide, to the United Nations.

70 Years Ago Black Activists Accused the U.S. of Genocide. They Should Have Been Taken Seriously.

The charges, while provocative, offer a framework to reckon with systemic racial injustice — past and present.
A picture of armed militias

What the Term “Gun Culture” Misses About White Supremacy

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.
birds eye view of an intersecting highway with a speeding car

How America Broke the Speed Limit

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.
Colorful illustration of two groups of people in pink boxes. The people on the left have brown skin, and those on the right have lighter skin.

Inventing the “Model Minority”: A Critical Timeline and Reading List

The idea of Asian Americans as a “model minority” has a long and complicated history.
Abortion advocates marching in protest with signs

What Feminists Did the Last Time Abortion Was Illegal

How abortion activists responded in the wake of the 1989 Webster decision and what we can learn from their efforts.
Brett Kavanaugh
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What Justice Kavanaugh Gets Wrong About Abortion and Neutrality

Calls for the court to remain neutral have long been tools for denying Americans rights.
The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children Program in action, New York, 1969. Photo by Bev Grant/Getty Images

The Black Panthers Fed More Hungry Kids Than the State of California

It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California.
Japanese migrants gather in Lima, Peru, in December 1941

America’s Forgotten Internment

The United States confined 2,200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. They’re still pushing for redress.
Lithograph of the waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia 1836.

The Life and Death of an All-American Slave Ship

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