A cartoon depicting Charles Guiteau.

Echoes of Rage

Our new age of violence looks a lot like the Gilded Age.
Photo illustration of Luigi Mangione and John Dillinger.

Why the CEO Shooter Makes the Perfect American Folk Hero

Our country has a long history of admiring particular acts of violence.
Adolphe Duperly’s painting depicting the destruction of the Roehampton Estate in Jamaica during the Baptist War in January 1832.

For Enslaved People, the Holiday Season Was a Brief Window to Fight Back

The week between Christmas and the new year offered a rare opportunity for enslaved people to reclaim their humanity.
A line of workmen drilling.

A Prison the Size of the State, A Police to Control the World

Two new books examine how colonial logic has long been embedded within US carceral systems.
A large crowd of women marching in New York City for the Women's Strike for Equality in 1970.

When the Personal Was Political

Second-wave feminists meant business—but they had a lot of fun at it, too.
Photo of men holding sign that says "end token equality draft women."
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The Debate About Men Being Left Behind Is Decades Old

It's crucial to understand the real history behind claims that men are being marginalized.
Kash Patel photographed in profile.

How Would Kash Patel Compare to J. Edgar Hoover?

If Trump’s pick to lead the F.B.I. gets confirmed, the Bureau could be politicized in ways that even its notorious first director would have rejected.
Students at an Indian boarding school.

Acknowledgment as Denialism: The Myth of Reparations in the US

What is an apology from the President of the United States worth if reparations do not include cessation of settler colonial violence?
Kimonos hanging on a clothes line at an internment camp.

The Secret History

An investigation of the US’s mass internment of Japanese Americans.
Group of doctors in lab coats holding pro-choice signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Abortion Is More Than Health Care

Across the history of the U.S. abortion-rights movement, it has also been a matter of equality.
Burglar sneaking into the bedroom of a sleeping woman.

True Crime: Allan Pinkerton’s “Thirty Years a Detective”

Am 1884 guide to vice and crime by the founder of the world’s largest private detective agency.
A member of the Michigan National Guard stands at the ready as firemen battle a blaze in Detroit in July 1967.

White and Black Activists Worked Strategically in Parallel in Detroit 50 Years Ago for Civil Rights

Since George Floyd’s murder, some white allies seek ways to fight racial inequality. Detroit’s 1960s "racially parallel organizing" offers insights.
Protest encampment at University of California Berkeley.

The Free Speech Movement at Sixty and Today’s Unfree Universities

Can speech be free when billionaires buy influence on campus?
A ticket to the 1854 Anti-Slavery Bazaar for 1854-1855.

Women’s Work: The Anti-Slavery Fairs of the 1800s

Women abolitionists held annual Christmas bazaars to raise money for the cause; these fairs sold everything from needlework to books to Parisian dresses.
A 1905 photo of a Cincinnati, Ohio, home that once functioned as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
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Abolitionism Shows How One Person Can Help Spark a Movement

Rankin's 'Letters on American Slavery' set out a moral argument for abolition that resonated across the nation.
Political cartoon depicting contrabands carrying cannons, oblivious to their exploitation by the U.S. Army.

Racism and the Limits of Imagination in the United States and the Confederacy

Why did it take so long for the U.S. Army to authorize the enlistment of Black men as soldiers?
A sign reading "Ladies" above a doorway.

“The Relationship Between Public Morals and Public Toilets”

Christine Jorgensen and the birth of trans bathroom panic.
Birthright citizenship form, with infant footprints stamped in black ink, on fire.

The Plot Against Birthright Citizenship

The incoming Trump administration wants to take away citizenship for the US-born children of undocumented immigrants. Here’s how.
Alice Rhinelander surrounded by well-dressed family members awaiting the jury verdict in Rhinelander v. Rhinelander.

How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties

Under pressure from his wealthy family, Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white.
Photo of Galveston County Jail, 1929.

How Texas Jails Built Migrant Incarceration

Following a 1925 investigation, immigrant detention in the Galveston County Jail was declared “a crime against humanity.”
Men sitting in a bar, drinking and smoking in suits, implied to be members of the Mafia.

How Black Workers Challenged the Mafia

A story of intrigue and power involving union organizers, Black laundry workers, the Mafia, and the FBI in 1980s Detroit.
Berkeley students and protesters gather during a protest and celebration at Berkeley, California in 1969.

The Left’s Reversal on Free Speech

Historically, liberals defended the First Amendment and our free speech rights. Now, too many on the left seek to undermine constitutional protections.
Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennet

The Frenemies Who Fought to Bring Birth Control to the U.S.

Though Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett shared a mission, they took very different approaches. Their rivalry was political, sometimes even personal.
College students studying in a campus lounge.

What the New Right Learned in School

Many of today's most influential right-wing tactics and arguments have their roots in 1960s-era college campuses.
Supreme Court justices William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Owen J. Roberts at the White House.

FDR’s Compliant Justices

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.
A standardized test and a pencil, with answers bubbled in.

The Rotting of the College Board

Testing is necessary. The SAT’s creator is not.
Strom Thurmond speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of Ed Carnes' confirmation to the bench.

The Fight for Justice Starts with Blocking Judges Who Are “Tough on Crime”

The story of how Ed Carnes became a judge offers crucial lessons for those who hope to unwind the policies of mass incarceration.
"The Underground Railroad" (1893) by Charles T. Webber depicts a fugitive slave reaching the North.

The Abolitionist Titan You’ve Never Heard Of

John Rankin, minister and fierce abolitionist, is a man worth remembering in our moment.
Annie Mae Edwards and her children—Helen, Barbara, Johnnie Ruth, and Gene, with an unidentified woman.

A Forgotten Eyewitness to Civil-Rights-Era Mississippi

As resistance to integration mounted, Florence Mars bought a camera and began to photograph many subjects, including the trial of the killers of Emmett Till.
"Stayed on Freedom" book cover

A History of Black Power We Need and Deserve

A history that is as tactical as it is analytical, as global as it is local, and as based in love as it is in politics.