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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators holding signs

A ‘Black-Jewish Alliance’ in the US? Israel-Gaza War Shows It’s More Myth Than Special Relationship

It has been an article of faith that Jews and Black Americans have a natural bond, but a ‘Black-Jewish alliance’ is not, or at least not reliably, a thing.
A modern paper map of Boston, marked with Sharpie lines.

Boston's Map, Explained

Boston has more "made" land than any other American city.
Mabel E. Macomber

The Neighborhood Nuisance: One Woman’s Crusade to Shape Brooklyn

“It is true that my life has been threatened as the leader of this playground campaign,” wrote Mabel E. Macomber in 1929 from Brooklyn’s Bedford neighborhood.
Ron DeSantis

DeSantis, Trump and The History of Treating D.C. Residents Like They Aren’t Americans

A history as intertwined with race as with partisanship.
Shadow of Jason Aldean performing on stage.

Jason Aldean's 'Small Town' Is Part of a Long Legacy with a Very Dark Side

The country song that pits idyllic country life against the corruption of the city is a well-worn trope. Aldean's song reveals the dark heart of the tradition.
A police dog attacks 15-year-old Walter Gadsden during a civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, May 3, 1963.

Birmingham’s Use of Dogs on Civil Rights Protesters Shocked Liberal Onlookers

But the backstory was all-American.

Anatomy of an ‘American Transit Disaster’

In his new book, historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom chronicles the collapse of public transportation in US cities — and explains who really deserves the blame.
Mexican American men standing near a mural and a low rider car in Chicago in 1987.

The Past and Future of Mexican Chicago

From the machine politicians in La Villita to the radicals in Pilsen, Mexican Chicagoans have played a central role in defining their city. 
Black and white photo of Pruitt-Igoe buildings being destroyed.

Pruitt-Igoe: A Black Community Under the "Atomic Cloud"

In the 1950s, the U.S. military conducted unethical radiological experiments on Black communities, including the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex.
Painting of a plantation.

The Old South Shall Rise Again

On the economic system of Silicon Valley.
Kids splash at the Rec pool on June 30, 2022. Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer.

Philadelphia Had a Radical Vision for Its Public Pools. What Happened?

A century of battles over a neighborhood pool reveal a complicated picture, about who matters, and who gets the chance to live well in a segregated city.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) listens to former president Donald Trump as they speak during a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Pharr, Tex. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
partner

The New Threat to Good Schooling for Minority Americans

The right might be targeting a seminal Supreme Court case that protects educational fairness.
Grid of black and white photos of various homes with different architectural styles.

Explore Milwaukee's History Through Its Many Home Styles

Interactive map shows Milwaukee’s housing patterns reflect not only aesthetic trends but also how historical events like immigration, war and civil rights shaped the city.

Reston’s Roots: Black Activism in Virginia's New Town

In the 1960s, a man named Robert E. Simon Jr. dreamed of a city that would be open to all, regardless of race or income: Reston, VA.
A crowd watches a roller skater dance at block party in the Bronx.

The Stories of the Bronx

"Urban Legends: The South Bronx in Representation and Ruin" is a vibrant cultural history that looks beyond pervasive narratives of cultural renaissance and urban neglect.
Collage of a residential security map.

The Lasting Legacy Of Redlining

We looked at 138 formerly redlined cities and found most were still segregated — just like they were designed to be.
Residential Security map of central Chicago, sourced from "Mapping Inequality"

How Academia Laid the Groundwork for Redlining

The connections between private industry and government were much more fluid than was previously imagined.
Tent next to a camper vehicle
partner

Solving Homelessness Requires Getting the Problem Right

Decades of stigmatizing and trying to police the homeless have perpetuated the problem.
A highway sign on Route 1 points the way to Soul City.

The Lost Plan for a Black Utopian Town

Soul City in North Carolina was designed to build Black wealth and address racial injustice. Then its opponents lined up.
Residential Security Map for Fresno, CA
partner

How Decades of Housing Discrimination Hurts Fresno in the Pandemic

Decades of discrimination in Fresno laid the groundwork for a housing crisis today.

The Dark History of School Choice

How an argument for segregated schools became a rallying cry for privatizing public education.

The Civil Rights Era was Supposed to Drastically Change America. It Didn’t.

From covid-19 to the 2020 election, the specter of America’s racist history influences many aspects of our lives.
Two kids sitting outside

Georgia On My Mind

The suburbs of Atlanta, where I grew up in an era still scarred by segregation, have transformed in ways that helped deliver Joe Biden the presidency.
Ruby Bridges

Is the Public Education That Ruby Bridges Fought to Integrate a Relic of the Past?

Once a symbol of desegregation, Ruby Bridges’ school now reflects another battle engulfing public education.
A picture of Boston being modernized through urban development, construction is happening on several buildings.

How Did American Cities Become So Unequal?

A new history of Ed Logue and his vision of urban renewal documents the broken promises of midcentury liberalism.
A sign that reads "We Want White Tenants in Our White Community." Two American flags are on top of the sign.

Highway Robbery

How Detroit cops and courts steer segregation and drive incarceration.
A photo of murder victim Etan Patz.

How the Disappearance of Etan Patz Changed the Face of New York City Forever

Stranger danger and the specter of childhood.

COVID-19 and the Color Line

Due to racist policies, Black Americans are dying of COVID-19 at much higher rates than whites, and nowhere more so than in St. Louis.

Everything You Know About Mass Incarceration Is Wrong

The US carceral state is a monstrosity with few parallels in history. But most accounts fail to understand how it was created, and how we can dismantle it.
An illustration from a book of homes published by a Pennsylvania lumber company in 1920

The Latent Racism of the Better Homes in America Program

How Better Homes in America—a collaboration between Herbert Hoover and the editor of a conservative women’s magazine—promoted idealized whiteness.

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