Person

Matt Delmont

Bylines

What the Conventional Narrative Gets Wrong About the Civil Rights Movement

A new book illuminates how Black Americans used property ownership, common law and other methods to assert their rights.

by Matt Delmont via Washington Post on September 26, 2023
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Pearl Harbor was the Site of Black Heroism and Protests Against Racism

The history of segregation in the Navy — and its abolition — show how to combat institutionalized bigotry.

by Matt Delmont via Made by History on December 7, 2022
Reading Langston Hughes’s Wartime Reporting From the Spanish Civil War

Several years before the United States officially entered World War II, Black Americans were tracking the international spread of fascism.

by Matt Delmont via Literary Hub on November 2, 2022
How a Hostile America Undermined Its Black World War II Veterans

Service members were attacked, discredited, and shortchanged on GI benefits—with lasting implications.

by Matt Delmont via Mother Jones on October 6, 2022
A Deadly World War II Explosion Sparked Black Soldiers to Fight for Equal Treatment

After the deadliest home-front disaster of the war, African Americans throughout the military took action to transform the nation's armed forces.

by Matt Delmont via Smithsonian on August 24, 2022
Why the Confederate Flag Flew During World War II

As white, southern troops raised the battle flag, they showed that they were fighting for change abroad—but the status quo at home.

by Matt Delmont via The Atlantic on June 14, 2020
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Changing Hearts and Minds Won’t Stop Police Violence

The way Americans have long discussed racism is a huge part of the problem.

by Matt Delmont via Made by History on June 5, 2020
10 Experts on Where the George Floyd Protests Fit Into American History

Many are looking to history for clues about how to understand the evolving moment. Here's what to know.

by Matt Delmont, Kellie Carter Jackson, Olivia B. Waxman, Simon Balto, Duchess Harris, Tyran K. Steward, Greg Carr, Ashley Howard, Jamila Michener, Philip A. Klinkner via Time on June 4, 2020
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How School Desegregation Became the Third Rail of Democratic Politics

White liberals opposed segregation in the South, but fought tooth-and-nail to keep it in the North.

by Matt Delmont, Jeanne Theoharis via Made by History on July 8, 2019
How Jackie Robinson Helped Defeat a Trump-Like Candidate

The baseball great warned of lasting repercussion for black voters during Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign.

by Matt Delmont via The Atlantic on March 19, 2016
Why Busing Failed

Getting the history of “busing” right enables us to see more clearly how school segregation and educational inequality continued in the decades after Brown.

by Matt Delmont via Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation on March 6, 2016
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Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad

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Tuskegee Airmen, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945; photograph by Toni Frissell. From left to right: Richard S. ‘Rip’ Harder, unidentified airman, Thurston L. Gaines Jr., Newman C. Golden, and Wendell M. Lucas.

‘We Return Fighting’

The ambivalence many Black soldiers felt toward the U.S. in WWII was matched only by the ambivalence the U.S. showed toward principles on which WWII was fought.

by Gary Younge via New York Review of Books on September 28, 2023

Black soldiers in battle.

Double V: Military Racism

Today, the military is perhaps the largest integrated institution in the US. But how it came to be this way reveals a history of racism and resistance.

by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on February 22, 2023

The Utter Inadequacy of America’s Efforts to Desegregate Schools

In 1966, a group of Boston-area parents and administrators created a busing program called METCO to help desegregate schools.

by Alana Semuels via The Atlantic on April 11, 2019

Bright apocalyptic explosion over a city.

Is 2016 the Worst Year in History?

Is 2016 worse than 1348? And 1836? And 1919?

by Rebecca Onion via Slate on July 22, 2016

Two young women holding up protest signs.

Demand for School Integration Leads to Massive 1964 Boycott — In New York City

The largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history was not in Little Rock. Or Selma. Or Montgomery. It happened in New York City.

by Yasmeen Khan via WNYC on February 3, 2016

Black man making V symbol near posters for war bonds.

Beyond the Battlefield: Double V and Black Americans’ Fight for Equality

A civil rights initiative during World War II known as the Double V campaign advocated for dual victories: over fascism abroad, and racial injustice in the U.S.

via Retro Report on March 7, 2024

People standing in the National WWII Museum

What Should You Do With a Captured Nazi Flag?

During WWII, American soldiers brought the flags home as a remembrance. Now, family members and historians must decide what should become of them.

by Reina Gattuso via Atlas Obscura on July 19, 2021

Protestors standing on a bridge, holding signs.

Why 45% of NYC Public School Students Stayed Home in Protest

Historians say that a major milestone in the history of school integration is often left out of the civil rights story.

by Olivia B. Waxman, Arpita Aneja via Time on September 22, 2020

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