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Illustration of T. Thomas Fortune

Abolition Democracy’s Forgotten Founder

While W. E. B. Du Bois praised an expanding penitentiary system, T. Thomas Fortune called for investment in education and a multiracial, working-class movement.
Cover of "The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution" by Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath.

American Social Democracy and Its Imperial Roots

This post is part of a symposium on “The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution,” a new book by Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath.
Lithograph of African Americans in prayer as Liberty lays a wreath on Charles Sumner’s casket. By Matt Morgan, from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1874.

Reconciliation Process

When Charles Sumner died in 1874, a bill he had sponsored two years earlier threatened to overshadow his legacy.
At the filling station and garage at Pie Town, New Mexico, in October 1940. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA/Library of Congress.

Cowboy Progressives

You likely think of the American West as deeply conservative and rural. Yet history shows this politics is very new indeed.
“Dressing for the Carnival” painting, featuring colorfully dressed character Jonkonnu surrounded by Black women and children.

Race, War, and Winslow Homer

The artist’s experiences in the Civil War and after helped him transcend stereotypes in portraying Black experience.
A picture of an eerie dark house.

This House Is Still Haunted: An Essay In Seven Gables

A spectre is haunting houses—the spectre of possession.
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.
Ballots in sealed envelopes, in a plastic box with a sticker that reads "Vote NYC."
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You Didn’t Always Have to Be a Citizen to Vote in America

The electorate has consistently changed over time as politicians seek to shape it in their favor.
Formal portrait photo of Destin Jenkins.

Public Thinker: Destin Jenkins on Breaking Bonds

“What if we identified the politics of municipal debt as circumscribing political horizons and futures?”
Person filling out Florida voter registration application

Democracy Dies in Silence

Florida’s move to silence expert criticism of its disenfranchisement campaign echoes its Redemption-era assault on civil rights.
Shot full of bullet holes, a sign marking where police recovered the body of Emmett Till.
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Excluding Black Americans From Our History Has Proved Deadly

Why it's so important to remember even our ugliest and most racist chapters.
The Electoral Commission of 1877 holding a secret session by candle-light.
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The Electoral Count Act Is Broken. Fixing It Requires Knowing How It Became Law.

Trump tried to exploit flaws that were embedded in the law from the start.
Painting of Lincoln and his cabinet by M.S. Carpenter, 1863.

Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation?

In his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes argues that the Constitution was an antislavery document.
Two artifacts: a firefighting badge from 1861, and a silver speaking trumpet.

Two Objects Bring the History of African American Firefighting to Light

The story played out very differently in Philadelphia and Charleston, and not in the way you might expect.

The South’s Resistance to Vaccination Is Not As Incomprehensible As It Seems

The psychological forces driving “red COVID” have deep historical roots.
The 1906 Atlanta massacre, as depicted on the front page of the newspaper Le Petit Journal in 1906.

The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence

As African Americans achieved economic success in Atlanta in the early 1900s, the city simmered with racial strife that was further spread by yellow journalism.
A group of freedpeople with tools

What Is Owed

William Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen’s case for reparations.
Photo of Union commanders.

The Anti-Lee

George Henry Thomas, southerner in blue.
Removal of graffitied Stonewall Jackson statue

The Fate of Confederate Monuments Should Be Clear

We know why they were built and why they have to come down.
A supporter of US President Donald Trump holds a Confederate flag outside the Senate Chamber during a protest after breaching the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6, 2021. - The demonstrators breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification.

Jan. 6 Was a "Turning Point" in American History

Pulitzer-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed reflects on the battle for the past and the fragile state of American democracy.
Restaurant with 'Help Wanted' sign
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‘Help Wanted’ Signs Indicate Lack of Decent Job Offers, Not People Unwilling to Work

The 19th-century antecedent to today’s complaints of labor shortage.
Black men and women in Hilton Head, South Carolina, after the Civil War.

The United States' First Civil Rights Movement

A new history charts the radical agitation around Black rights and freedom back to the early nineteenth century. 
Engraving of freedmen voting in New Orleans, 1867

Forging an Early Black Politics

The pre-Civil War North was a landscape not of unremitting white supremacy but of persistent struggles over racial justice by both Blacks and whites.
The city of Tulsa, with smoke billowing above the Black neighborhood of Greenwood

Burned from the Land: How 60 Years of Racial Violence Shaped America

The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. It was also part of a larger pattern across the country.
The word slavery in a dictionary crossed out

We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes Sense

To our surprise, most received a well-rounded education on the history of Black people in America. Just kidding.
Worshipers at a Pentecostal church, Chicago, 1941

A Praise House of Many Mansions

In a book and documentary series, Henry Louis Gates Jr. offers a wide-ranging tour of Black religion in America.
Sketch of late 19th century political rally in NYC

The Forgotten Precedent for Our ‘Unprecedented’ Political Insanity

The decades after the Civil War saw mass participation and mass outrage, followed by a period of orderly reform. What can we learn from that era today?
Chinese immigrants working in a market stop to pose for a photo

The California Klan’s Anti-Asian Crusade

Whereas southern Klansmen assaulted Black Americans and their white allies, western vigilantes targeted those they deemed a greater threat: Chinese immigrants.
NEW ORLEANS, LA - DECEMBER 16: Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective and participants hold an unveiling ceremony of the 1900 Mass Lynching in New Orleans historical marker on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in New Orleans, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Reckoning With Our Past Means Commemorating Violent Histories

The history of resistance to racial oppression includes armed, violent resistance.
Artwork depicting two people with shovels and a machette, entitled “Broken Skies: Nou poko fini” (We aren't done yet), 2019, by Didier William

Tarry with Me

Reclaiming sweetness in an anti-Black world.

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