National civil rights leaders (L-R) John Lewis, Whitney Young Jr, A. Philip Randolph, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, James Farmer, and Roy Wilkins pose behind a banquet table at the Hotel Roosevelt as they meet to formulate plans for the March on Washington and to bring about the passage of civil rights legislation, on July 2, 1963 in New York City. (Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

The Emancipatory Past and Future of Black Politics

75 years ago, black leaders and activists shared a consensus around the importance of the labor movement and multiracial class organizing for black liberation.
Parade of women suffragists, holding signs, dressed in white.

When Lesbians Led the Women's Suffrage Movement

In 1911, lesbians led the nation’s largest feminist organization. They promoted a diverse and inclusive women’s rights movement.

Rosa Parks on Police Brutality: The Speech We Never Heard

The Northern Student Movement considered inviting Rosa Parks to give a speech on police brutality, but ultimately decided against it.
Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court holding signs for and against abortion rights.
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What Antiabortion Advocates Get Wrong About the Women Who Secured the Right to Vote

The most famous suffragists largely weren't anti-abortion and wanted women to have more control over their bodies.

The Legal Fight That Ended the Unjust Confinement of Mental Health Patients

Ayelet Waldman on the landmark case O’Connor v. Donaldson.

Professional Motherhood: A New Interpretation of Women in the Early Republic

Guest poster C.C. Borzilleri writes about professional motherhood in the early American republic.

Inventing Freedom

Using manumission to disentangle blackness and enslavement in Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia.
Martin Luther King Jr. with children.

Martin Luther King Jr. on Making America Great Again

Applying King to our contemporary moment.

It’s Time We Celebrate Ella Baker Day

Honoring Baker alongside Martin Luther King would highlight the long and patient work of building a social movement.
Martin Luther King Jr. giving a speech.

Martin Luther King and the 'Polite’ Racism of White Liberals

Many of King’s words about allies ring true today.

‘A Doubtful Freedom’

Andrew Delbanco's new book positions the debate over fugitive slaves as a central factor in the nation's slide toward disunion.
Men fighting outdoors, one pointing a gun.

On the Antifascist Activists Who Fought in the Streets Long Before Antifa

The rich American history of Nazi-punching.

The Broken Road of Peggy Wallace Kennedy

All white Southerners live with the sins of their fathers. But what if your dad was one of the most famous segregationists in history?

Why We Should Remember William Monroe Trotter

A pioneering black editor, he worked closely with African-American workers to advance a liberatory black politics.
A man shovels out the parking lot of an old factory buildingcovered in graffiti.
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How a 50-Year-Old Study Was Misconstrued to Create Destructive Broken-Windows Policing

The harmful policy was built on a shaky foundation.
The candidates for Miss America 2020 walk in dresses and heels.
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Why We Should Say Goodbye to the Miss America Pageant

The event originally borrowed sashes and pageantry from suffragists — whose vision for women we should honor instead.

Occupy Wall Street’s Legacy Runs Deeper Than You Think

Former occupiers are working to transform the system from inside and out.

A Personal Act of Reparation

The long aftermath of a North Carolina man’s decision to deed a plot of land to his former slaves.
An young African American man speaking at a podium with a sign "SDS: Black Power and Change"

Friends of SNCC and The Birth of The Movement

The Friends of the SNCC published the story of the struggle for freedom in the 1960s.

RIP Fred Hampton: a Black Visionary Assassinated by the FBI

Fifty years ago this week, a squad of Chicago police officers killed Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
A woman walking toward an isolated house on the Navajo reservation.

The Native American Women Who Fought Mass Sterilization

Over a six-year period in the 1970s, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age.
Enslaved men in chains, from the cover of "Williams' Gang" by Jeff Forret.
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The History of Black Incarceration Is Longer Than You May Think

Enslaved woman Charlotte thought she was "free" from the slaveowner. She was wrong.

The Tortured Logic of #ADOS

The American Descendants of Slavery movement combines a left-wing critique of America’s founding with a distinctly right-wing strain of xenophobia.
Police body cam

The American Tradition of Anti-Black Vigilantism

The history of patrols, body cams, and more.
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Why Forbidding Asylum Seekers From Working Undermines the Right to Seek Asylum

A new Trump administration proposal would undermine the rights of all workers and harm asylum seekers.

Why Do Police Drive Cars?

Since the invention of the automobile, police have used the dangers of America's roads to justify their growing oversight of motorists.

Frederick Douglass’s Vision for a Reborn America

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, he dreamed of a pluralist utopia.

What the Reconstruction Meant for Women

Southern legal codes included parallel language pairing “master and slave” and “husband and wife.”

When America Tried to Deport Its Radicals

A hundred years ago, the Palmer Raids imperilled thousands of immigrants. Then a wily official got in the way.

The Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right

Forty years ago, a gang of Klansmen and Nazis murdered five communists in broad daylight. America has never been the same.