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Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson at his desk in November 1957.

When Lyndon B. Johnson Chose the Middle Ground on Civil Rights—and Disappointed Everyone

Always a dealmaker, then-senator LBJ negotiated with segregationists to pass a bill that cautiously advanced racial equality.
Image of the conservative's idelic white nuclear family, wearing red baseball caps.

Why Conservatism Can Never Be “Populist”

Conservative “populism” has never been about egalitarianism, but about mobilizing support for traditional hierarchies.
Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court holding signs that read "People Over Politics."
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A Post-Reconstruction Proposal That Would Have Restored Power to the People

Largely forgotten today, Albion W. Tourgée’s legislation could have prevented Moore v. Harper.
Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Failure of Reconstruction Is to Blame for the Weakness of American Democracy

A new book argues that the American right emerged out of a backlash to multiracial democracy following the Civil War.
Exhibit

Voting Rights: A Retrospective

Voting, a right not initially enshrined in the Constitution, has been secured, revoked, and contested since the nation's founding era.

The Supreme Court in 1904.

The Insular Cases Survive Because the American Legal System Keeps Them Safe

The justices’ decision not to hear challenges to the explicitly racist Insular Cases is part of a long tradition of favoring process over substance.
illustration of a hand with a shredded ballot

John Roberts’s Long Game

Is this the end of the Voting Rights Act?
Wilma Mankiller on a quarter

Reconsidering Wilma Mankiller

As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief’s image is minted onto a coin, her full humanity should be examined.
After his shooting, a hospitalized Wallace holds up a newspaper touting his victories in the Maryland and Michigan Democratic presidential primaries.

How a Failed Assassination Attempt Pushed George Wallace to Reconsider His Segregationist Views

Fifty years ago, a fame-seeker shot the polarizing politician five times, paralyzing him from the waist down.
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.
Hands holding a sign in that reads "DC statehood is racial justice."
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Republicans’ Anti-Democratic, Anti-Black Plans for D.C. Are a 19th-Century Throwback

The same ideas that have harmed D.C. for more than a century are again rearing their ugly head.

Republicans Are Moving Rapidly to Cement Minority Rule. Blame the Constitution.

Democracy is in trouble, but a lawless coup isn’t the real threat.
Black and white photograph of Harold Washington, 1980s.

A 1980s Blueprint on How to Be a Leader

A new film shows how Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, stood up to a majority-white city council to push through infrastructure improvements for all.
Three black students holding hands though the smoke during the Children's Crusade

The Authoritarian Right’s 1877 Project

As the GOP undermines Black political rights in the present, some right-wing intellectuals are rationalizing Black disenfranchisement in the past.
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.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs state legislation on voting rights.

The Strange Career of Voting Rights in Texas

Republicans in Texas, and indeed around the country, remain hell-bent on going back to the future.
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Gerrymandering's Surprising History and Uncertain Future

Both parties play the redistricting game, redrawing electoral boundaries to lock down power.
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.
Isaac Woodard, an African American army veteran, with his mother after being blinded by a South Carolina police chief in 1946.

After Victory in World War II, Black Veterans Continued the Fight for Freedom at Home

These men, who had sacrificed so much for the country, faced racist attacks in 1946 as they laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement to come.
Picketers from National Women's Party

She Asked President Woodrow Wilson For 22 Suffrage "Favors." She Got 21.

Wilson became a great supporter of the 19th Amendment, but only because he worked alongside a woman who spoke his language.
Pennsylvania Avenue

A City-State for The Nation

The fallout of the January 6th riot and its effect on D.C. statehood.
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.
Elephant trunk holding the D.C. flag.

There Once Was a Republican Fight for D.C. Statehood

From 1956–1978, Republicans backed D.C. representation, but now oppose it, reflecting a broader GOP shift against voting rights and toward partisan control.
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.
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?
Protesters marching with a sign in support of the Twenty-sixth Amendment
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Americans Can Vote at 18 Because of Congressional Action 50 Years Ago

A brief history of the Twenty-sixth Amendment.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.

The 16-Year-Old Chinese Immigrant Who Helped Lead a 1912 US Suffrage March

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee fought for the rights of women on two sides of the world.
James Baker and Jimmy Carter.

Why Republicans Won’t Shut Up About a 16-Year-Old Bipartisan Report on Election Reform

The Carter-Baker report was intended to strengthen Americans’ trust in the electoral process. It’s become a weapon for right-wing attacks on voting rights.
Rev. Timothy McDonald III in First Iconium Baptist Church
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Attacking Sunday Voting is Part of a Long Tradition of Controlling Black Americans

The centuries-long battle over Sunday activities is really about African Americans' freedom and agency.
Recruiting poster for USCT featuring a lithograph of African American soldiers.

In 1868, Black Suffrage Was on the Ballot

At the height of the Reconstruction, the pressing issue of the election was Black male suffrage.
Ulysses S. Grant statue in front of the capitol
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Grant — Not Lincoln or Roosevelt — May Hold the Key to Biden’s Success

Biden needs to stare down White supremacy, which requires strenuous enforcement of the laws.

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