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Collage of civil rights lawyers and school segregation headlines.

In Search of the Broad Highway

Revisiting Meredith v. Fair, we get the inside story of how critical race theory was developed in the years after Brown v. Board of Education.
by Dave Tell via The Hedgehog Review on July 26, 2024
Martin Luther King, Jr. with hands raised in front of bookshelf

Martin Luther King, Critical Race Theorist

Republicans may claim otherwise, but the civil rights hero was no color-blind conservative.
by Sam Hoadley-Brill via The Nation on January 15, 2024
Cliff Joseph's art, Blackboard, 1969. One adult and one young Black person stand in front of a blackboard.

The Long War on Black Studies

It would be a mistake to think of the current wave of attacks on “critical race theory” as a culture war. This is a political battle.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via New York Review of Books on June 17, 2023
Illustration overlaying an image of Lucille Brown and a group of women over an image of Howard University

Higher Ed and the Policing of Memory

Why universities must help lead the battle to defend and expand critical race theory.
by Danielle Conway via The Forum on August 8, 2022
Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. lead a column of demonstrators as they attempt to march on Birmingham, Ala., city hall April 12, 1963. (AP Photo/Horace Cort)

King Was A Critical Race Theorist Before There Was a Name For It

When states ban antiracism history from schools, they're disavowing what King stood for.
by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw via Los Angeles Times on January 17, 2022
Compilation of images: signs at the 1963 March on Washington, poster about censorship, confederate flag, KKK members in hoods, drawing of overseer wielding whip, classroom with portrait of Lincoln on the wall.

Behind the Critical Race Theory Crackdown

Racial blamelessness and the politics of forgetting.
by Sam Adler-Bell via The Forum on January 13, 2022
Bell in 1980. He handled civil-rights cases, then came to question their impact.

The Man Behind Critical Race Theory

As an attorney, Derrick Bell worked on many civil-rights cases, but his doubts about their impact launched a groundbreaking school of thought.
by Jelani Cobb via The New Yorker on September 10, 2021
Charles Koch

The Radical Capitalist Behind the Critical Race Theory Furor

How a dark-money mogul bankrolled an astroturf backlash.
by Jasmine Banks via The Nation on August 13, 2021
Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and the Trouble with Critical Race Theory

A favorite icon of critical race theory proponents doesn’t say what they want him to say.
by Robert S. Levine via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 2, 2021
Man giving speech to White Citizens' Council
partner

Before the Anti-CRT Activists, There Were White Citizens’ Councils

Banning such teaching isn’t colorblind; it would erase Black people from history and maintain White cultural dominance.
by David A. Love via Made By History on July 28, 2021
Kimberlé Crenshaw

The Predictable Backlash to Critical Race Theory: A Q&A With Kimberlé Crenshaw

“Wherever there is race reform, there’s inevitably retrenchment.”
by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Jon Wiener via The Nation on July 5, 2021
John Quincy Adams giving speech at U.S. House of Representatives
partner

Why a Culture War Over Critical Race Theory? Consider the Pro-Slavery Congressional "Gag Rule"

In 1836, the House passed a resolution that automatically tabled all petitions on slavery without a hearing.
by Frank Palmeri, Ted Wendelin via HNN on June 6, 2021
partner

What is Critical Race Theory and Why Did Oklahoma Just Ban It?

The theory, drawing the ire of the right, can help us understand our past.
by Kathryn Schumaker via Made By History on May 19, 2021
Graphic of white man with image of Derrick Bell superimposed

The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession

How conservative politicians and pundits became fixated on an academic approach.
by Adam Harris via The Atlantic on May 7, 2021
Freedom School students sitting in a circle on the ground.
partner

60 Years Later, Freedom Schools Are Still Radical—and Necessary

The Freedom Schools curriculums developed in 1964 remain urgently needed, especially in our era of book bans and backlash.
by Jon Hale via Made By History on July 8, 2024
A drawn portrait of James Baldwin in front of a line drawing of a classroom with desks.

The Fire This Time

How James Baldwin speaks to lethal myths of white innocence—and why his work belongs in public-school classrooms.
by Sana Hashmi via The Forum on August 30, 2022
Illustration of a classroom by Joan Yang.

Why Teachers Are Afraid to Teach History

The attacks on CRT have terrified our educators. But the public school system has always made it hard to teach controversial subjects.
by Rachel Cohen via The New Republic on March 28, 2022
Left: stacks of The 1619 Project books; right: Daryl Michael Scott.

Grievance History

Historian Daryl Scott weighs in on the 1619 Project and the "possibility that we rend ourselves on the question of race."
by Daryl Michael Scott, Kevin Mahnken via The 74 on March 22, 2022
Image of a social studies book coming to visual life with edits to the content.

Revising America's Racist Past

How the 'critical race theory' debate is crashing headlong into efforts to update social studies standards.
by Stephen Sawchuk via Education Week on January 18, 2022
Black Americans picketing for equal wages and improved working conditions during WWII.

We Need “CRT” to Understand the Midwest, Too

You can't tell the story of Midwestern cities like Toledo without being honest about their white supremacy problems.
by Bradley J. Sommer via The Activist History Review on January 13, 2022
James H. Sweet

From Inclusive Public Schools to Divisive Concepts

Some personal reflections from American Historical Association president James H. Sweet on the recent wave of "divisive concepts" laws.
by James H. Sweet via Perspectives on History on December 15, 2021
logo for the website, a clouded background and the words Law and Political Economy Project.

The Long History of Anti-CRT Politics

The history of anti-racial justice rhetoric.
by Aziz Rana via LPE Project on November 30, 2021
Statue of Robert E. Lee on his horse.

Reëxamining the Legacy of Race and Robert E. Lee

The historian Allen C. Guelzo believes that the Confederate general deserves a more compassionate reading.
by Allen C. Guelzo, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on November 24, 2021
Angela Davis speaking at the Birmingham Committee for Truth and Reconciliation event at the Boutwell Auditorium on Feb. 16, 2019 in Birmingham, Ala. (Andi(cq)Rice/The Washington Post)
partner

Thanks to Conservative Politicans and the Media, the Education Wars Echo the 1960s

The debate once again centers on — and stokes — White parents’ anxieties.
by Kate L. Flach via Made By History on November 19, 2021
The Legacy Museum shows visitors elements of America’s long history of racial injustice – slavery, lynching, segregation, police killings of Black teens and the societal addiction to putting Black people behind bars. Photograph: Courtesy of Equal Justice Initiative/Human Pictures

‘Truth-Telling Has to Happen’: The Museum of America’s Racist History

The Legacy Museum lands at a time when racial violence is on the rise and critical race theory is used to prevent America’s racist past being taught in schools.
by Ed Pilkington via The Guardian on September 19, 2021
Anti-evolution books for sale in Dayton, Tenn.

Why the Culture Wars in Schools Are Worse Than Ever Before

The history of education battles — from fights over evolution to critical race theory — shows why the country’s divisions are growing sharper.
by Jonathan Zimmerman via Politico Magazine on September 19, 2021
Collage of strips of famous African American faces in a mechanical press.

Afropessimism and Its Discontents

A guide for the perplexed, the puzzled, and the politically confused.
by Greg Tate via The Nation on September 17, 2021
Cutouts of black children reading

Today It’s Critical Race Theory. 200 Years Ago It Was Abolitionist Literature.

The common denominator? Fear of Black liberation.
by Anthony Conwright via Mother Jones on July 22, 2021
Cover of TIME magazine featuring a redacted textbook and the title "The History Wars"

Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America's History

The debate over how to teach the history of race in the U.S. is entangling local school boards and engulfing national politics.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on July 16, 2021
Facade at the Alamo

'The Myth Itself Becomes a Stand-in.' What Can the Alamo's History Teach Us About Teaching History?

What’s new about the controversy over the Alamo’s history, and how the way Texans tell its story relates to how Americans see each other.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on July 13, 2021
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