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Fugitive slaves riding on horseback.

The Black Collectors Who Championed African-American Art during the U.S. Civil War

Dorsey and Thomas amassed important collections at a time when the future of chattel slavery and Black life hung in the balance of a national quarrel.
by Jordan McDonald via Artsy on August 11, 2020

Racism on the Road

In 1963, after Sam Cooke was turned away from a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana, because he was black, he wrote “A Change Is Gonna Come.” He was right.
by Sarah A. Seo via New York Review of Books on July 23, 2020

An Unreconstructed Nation: On Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “Stony the Road”

A new history of Reconstruction traces the roots of American “respectability” politics through artwork.
by Robert D. Bland via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 10, 2019
Image of Hassan, a Syrian-American man

Syrian in Sioux Falls

In the 1920s, Syrian-Americans were compelled to prove their worth in a society where nativism was on the rise and citizenship often meant being considered white.
by Chris Gratien via Ottoman History Podcast on November 5, 2018
Cover of the 1940 Negro Motorist Green Book.
partner

Traveling While Black

In 1936, Victor Green published a guide of restaurants, gas stations and lodgings that would accommodate African Americans travelling across the country.
via BackStory on June 1, 2018
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
A sign reading "Ladies" above a doorway.

“The Relationship Between Public Morals and Public Toilets”

Christine Jorgensen and the birth of trans bathroom panic.
by Nikita Shepard via Nursing Clio on November 27, 2024
A drawing of an angry, long-haired cat holding a sign that reads "Vote for Shes."

A Purrrrfect Political Storm

Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.
by Natalie Kinkade via JSTOR Daily on September 25, 2024
Wet-nurse strike in Chicago, 1937.

No Money, No Milk

Black wet nurses made a show of militance in 1937.
by Dana Frank via Hammer & Hope on July 23, 2024
A painting of a lively sermon in a Black church.

Respectability Be Damned: How the Harlem Renaissance Paved the Way for Art by Black Nonbelievers

How James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and others embraced a new Black humanism.
by Anthony B. Pinn via Literary Hub on May 24, 2024
A photograph of four children standing, one is slouching.

Are You Sitting Up Straight? America’s Obsession with Improving Posture

In Beth Linker’s new book, she applies a disability studies lens to the history of posture.
by Laura Ansley via Perspectives on History on May 9, 2024
Peanuts' Franklin as a flat two-dimensional character.

It’s Flagrant Tokenism, Charlie Brown!

Peanuts’ Franklin has been a controversial character for decades. A new special attempts reparations.
by Troy Patterson via Slate on February 16, 2024
Photo of "Madness: Race and insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum" with photo of author Antonia Hylton alongside it.

What It Was Like to Be a Black Patient in a Jim Crow Asylum?

In March 1911, the segregated Crownsville asylum opened outside Baltimore, Maryland, admitting only Black patients.
by Julia Métraux, Antonia Hylton via Mother Jones on January 10, 2024
Tupac shirtless in the shower, wearing gold chain and covered in soap suds

Why Tupac Never Died

It’s because the rapper’s life and work were a cascade of contradictions that we’re still trying to figure him out today.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on October 23, 2023
Collage of Ebony cover, makeup ad, and card catalogue.

Rebrand

"Ebony" strives to become a one-stop shop.
by Mary Retta via Columbia Journalism Review on October 16, 2023
Betty and Barney Hill praying.

From Civil Rights Liberals to New Age Conspiracy Theorists

What Betty and Barney Hill's alien abduction story reveals about America.
by Susannah Crockford via Religion Dispatches on September 12, 2023
An overhead view of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

An Oral History of the March on Washington, 60 Years After MLK’s Dream

The Post interviewed March on Washington participants and voices from younger generations to tell the story of Aug. 28, 1963 and what it means now.
by Clarence Williams via Retropolis on August 25, 2023
A woman shows off her pride-themed nails.
partner

Gay Bars Are Disappearing. Their Past Holds Keys To Their Future.

Live entertainment, all genders and straight people are back—and were here in the beginning
by Greggor Mattson via Made By History on June 2, 2023
Lebron James posing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Changed the Rules for Black Athletes

How Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's activism set the stage for Lebron James and twenty-first century Black professional athletes.
by Theresa Runstedtler via Humanities on March 22, 2023
Illustrated J. Crew cover, showing a blonde white couple wearing "preppy' clothing sitting by a river; a young man's khaki shorts, boat shoes, and school books on a campus; a crew team on the water. Illustration by Nada Hayek.

J. Crew and the Paradoxes of Prep

By mass-marketing social aspiration, the brand toed the line between exclusivity and accessibility—and established prep as America’s visual vernacular.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on March 20, 2023
Rosa Parks is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 22, 1956, two months after refusing to give up her seat in a bus for a White passenger.
partner

Pitting Rosa Parks Against Claudette Colvin Distorts History

A new documentary explores the origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott — with lessons on how we see movements.
by Jeanne Theoharis, Say Burgin via Made By History on October 19, 2022
Photograph of protesters at the 1963 March on Washington. Pictured are black and white protesters holding signs with messages about racial and economic justice.

You’ve Been Lied to About the 1963 March on Washington

It’s popularly remembered as a moderate demonstration. In fact, it was the culmination of a mass, working-class movement against racial and economic injustice.
by Shawn Gude, William P. Jones via Jacobin on August 28, 2022
Color block image of two people sharing a book.

Queer History Should Focus on Queer People

Sexless, impersonal academic approaches tell us little about the lived experiences of the LGBT community.
by Jim Downs via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 22, 2021
Children's coloring sheets of overturned police cars.

Magic Actions

Looking back on the George Floyd rebellion.
by Tobi Haslett via n+1 on July 21, 2021
Advertisement for Ethel Waters' record

The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records

The story of the first major black-owned record label and the mystery behind the man who created it.
by Joe Richman via Radio Diaries on June 25, 2021
Members of Mattachine Society

Harry Hay, John Cage, and the Birth of Gay Rights in Los Angeles

Five men sat together on a hillside in the late afternoon, imagining a world in which they did not have to hide.
by Alex Ross via The New Yorker on June 25, 2021
Protest for trans rights
partner

The New Wave of Anti-Trans Legislation is Based on Very Old Arguments and Ideas

Trans Americans have taken to the courts for decades to fight against the notion that they are a threat.
by Shay Ryan Olmstead via Made By History on June 14, 2021
black and white photos of children

The Magazine That Helped 1920s Kids Navigate Racism

Mainstream culture denied Black children their humanity—so W. E. B. Du Bois created The Brownies’ Book to assert it.
by Anna E. Holmes via The Atlantic on February 12, 2021

The Black Radical You’ve Never Heard Of

T. Thomas Fortune changed Black History, and seems to have been forgotten.
by Adam Serwer, Jasmine Walls via The Nib on February 22, 2019
Freed slaves Wilson, Charley, Rebecca, and Rosa, New Orleans, 1864.

The Origins of Birthright Citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment captures the idea that no people born in the United States should be forced to live in the shadows.
by Robert L. Tsai via Boston Review on November 9, 2018
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