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A drawing of a variety of social movements protesting.

Peaceable Revolutions

Linda Gordon argues that social movements are vital partnerships that, by challenging the status quo, are indispensable to the health of the nation.
by Brenda Wineapple via New York Review of Books on March 20, 2025
San Diego Postcard.

San Diego—A Green(Er) City: Six Decades Of Environmental Activism In A Biodiversity Hotspot

San Diego's city-wide mission to promote sustainability, combat climate change, and reduce environmental health disparities.
by Andrew Wiese via The Metropole on February 13, 2024
Close-up of the safety trigger on a handgun

“Come and Take It”: How the Aftermath of Sandy Hook Led to More AR-15s Being Sold Than Ever Before

Chris Waltz was appalled. He felt Democrats were using the Sandy Hook tragedy to tell him he wasn’t responsible enough to own an AR-15.
by Cameron McWhirter, Zusha Elinson via Literary Hub on October 2, 2023
A women's liberation group marches in Boston on April 17, 1971.

The Reproductive Rights Movement Has Radical Roots

Abortion rights in the US were won in the 1970s thanks to militant feminist groups. As those rights are repealed, the fight must return to the streets.
by Nancy Rosenstock, Anne Rumberger via Jacobin on May 11, 2023
Photographs of a family sitting at table, a woman in a crowd, and parents holding signs of support at a pride parade.

How One Mother’s Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolution

In the sixties and seventies, fighting for the rights of queer people was considered radical activism. To Jeanne Manford, it was just part of being a parent.
by Kathryn Schulz via The New Yorker on April 10, 2023
Polar bear walks across melting ice in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
partner

Did One Photograph Change the Fate of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge?

What the political fight over a photo teaches us about the power of art, grassroots activism and images.
by Finis Dunaway via Made By History on March 3, 2023
Beatrice Cogan, center, representing a criminal defendant in court.

The Grassroots of 'Roe'

My mother’s part in the 1970 repeal of New York’s abortion law is a lesson for today’s activists: all politics is local.
by Felicia Kornbluh via New York Review of Books on January 16, 2023
POW/MIA flag draped over an empty chair with a photo of a soldier.

Have You Forgotten Him?

The “forgotten American” mythology of the POW/MIA movement continues to haunt our politics today.
by John Thomason via The Baffler on December 14, 2022
Abortion rights advocates protest near the Supreme Court building in Washington on June 24.
partner

The 1960s Provide a Path For Securing Legal Abortion in 2022

How activists can secure legal abortion with a diverse all-of-the-above movement.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on June 25, 2022
Heather Booth playing guitar for Fannie Lou Hamer.

Why Fannie Lou Hamer Endures

She’s mostly remembered for one famous speech. Her actual legacy is far greater than that.
by Claire Bond Potter via Democracy Journal on March 9, 2022
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.
by Nick Estes via The Baffler on January 21, 2022
Bob Moses at SNCC

The Quiet Courage of Bob Moses

The late civil-rights leader understood that grassroots organizing was key to delivering political power to Black Americans in the South.
by William Sturkey via The Atlantic on July 28, 2021

A Chorus of Defiance

Fifty years after the Vietnam War’s end, lessons from the peace movement on mobilizing resistance.
by David Cortright via Boston Review on April 24, 2025
Revolutionary War reenactors near Lexington, Massachusetts.

The King We Overthrew — and the King Some Now Want

Americans need to reconnect with their innate dislike of arbitrary rule.
by Philip Bump via Washington Post on April 17, 2025

Queer Activists and the Struggle for AIDS Education

Queer resistance to state-sponsored oppression campaigns, from Reagan to Trump.
by Lucy Kelly via History Workshop on March 6, 2025
A young boy stares at the camera while members of the Black Panther Party distribute free clothing to the public.
partner

The Black Panther Party's Under-Appreciated Legacy of Love

The Black Panther Party illustrated how communal love can be a powerful agent for change and empowerment.
by Mickell Carter via Made By History on February 19, 2025
A moving truck on cinder blocks.

How Progressives Froze the American Dream

The U.S. was once the world’s most geographically mobile society. Now we’re stuck in place—and that’s a very big problem.
by Yoni Appelbaum via The Atlantic on February 10, 2025
Cha Cha Jiménez with his arms crossed and a cigarette in his mouth, crossing his arms and looking at the camera.

From Street Gang to Revolutionaries

José ‘Cha Cha’ Jiménez and the Young Lords laid the groundwork for radical racial justice movements.
by Felipe Hinojosa via Religion Dispatches on February 4, 2025
Demonstrators in 1977 hold signs protesting a treaty returning control of the Panama Canal to Panama.
partner

The Panama Canal Could Help Unify Trump's Fractious Movement

In the 1970s, a conservative coalition came together to fight ceding control of the Panama Canal—proving the political potency of the issue.
by Aaron Coy Moulton via Made By History on January 16, 2025
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.
by Jill Filipovic via Democracy Journal on December 17, 2024
Run on a bank during the Great Depression.

The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance

The deep roots of debt relief activism in the United States.
by Astra Taylor via The Nation on September 25, 2024
People holding signs for Trump and for deportation, in front of an American Flag.

How Immigration Became a Lightning Rod in American Politics

Anti-immigrant think tanks and advocacy groups operated on the margins until Trump became president. Now they have molded not only the GOP but also Democrats.
by Gaby del Valle via The Nation on September 25, 2024
Crowd marching on Wall Street.

Nationalize the Banks

Grassroots support for public banks early in the 20th century revealed the popularity of socialism-aligned economic ideas.
by Christopher W. Shaw via Catalyst on September 20, 2024
A drawing of a naked woman standing in front of a crowd of Anabaptists and Quakers.

The Naked Quakers

Today, the international feminist group FEMEN uses nudity as part of its protests. But appearing naked in public was also a tactic used by early dissenters.
by Katrina Gulliver, Jean-Pierre Cavaillé via JSTOR Daily on September 9, 2024
A crowd of Feminist protestors marching in New York.

A New Look at the Feminist Earthquake

How women's liberation transformed America and why our understanding of 1963-1973 needs to include more voices.
by Sara Bhatia via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024
A collage of newspaper articles discussing the possibility of Absaroka becoming the 49th state.

How the Depression Fueled a Movement to Create a New State Called Absaroka

In the 1930s, disillusioned farmers and ranchers fought to carve a 49th state out of northern Wyoming, southeastern Montana and western South Dakota.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian on August 14, 2024
Eugene V. Debs giving a speech on an American flag themed stage.

Did ‘Churchianity’ Sink American Socialism?

A new book blames institutional Protestantism for undermining a vibrant strain of Christian radicalism that swirled through the Gilded Age.
by Heath W. Carter via Commonweal on July 26, 2024
Barbara Ransby speaks to protesters at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, March 20, 1987.

My Time Organizing on Campus Against Apartheid in South Africa

Black internationalism broadened our politics of solidarity.
by Barbara Ransby via Hammer & Hope on July 23, 2024
WTO protestors in 1999.

How Activists Across the Pacific Northwest Planned the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests

Looking back on the environmentalist and anti-globalization movements of the 1990s.
by D. W. Gibson via Literary Hub on June 21, 2024
Tourists at the Trinity site in New Mexico.

Trinity Fallout

The U.S. government’s failure to recognize nuclear Downwinders in New Mexico is part of a broader failure to reckon with the legacies of the Manhattan Project.
by Nora Wendl via Places Journal on June 18, 2024
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