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Frederick Douglass

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Portrait photo of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
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Justice Jackson Offered Democrats a Road Map for Securing Equal Rights

Tying the fight for equal rights to the founders and the Constitution has worked before.
by Evan Turiano via Made By History on October 10, 2022
New York, 1929, men pointing to a sign reading "No Booze Sold Here"

Freedom From Liquor

Ken Burns’ account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering.
by Mark Lawrence Schrad via Aeon on September 6, 2022
A courtroom or public civic room full of people, with white and black people sitting on opposite sides of a railing.

When Tribal Nations Expel Their Black Members

Clashes between sovereignty rights and civil rights reveal an uncomfortable and complicated story about race and belonging in America.
by Philip J. Deloria via The New Yorker on July 14, 2022
A Denmark Vesey monument in Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina.

Denmark Vesey’s Bible

The leader of a would-be South Carolina slave rebellion was hanged 200 years ago. A new account is a must-read.
by Michael Henry Adams via The Guardian on July 2, 2022
Booker T. Washington addressing a laughing crowd of African American men in Lakeland, Tennessee, during his campaign promoting African American education. Ca. 1900.

Market Solutions to Ancient Sins

Freedom and prosperity are the most effective cure for the scars of slavery and racism.
by Jason Jewell via Law & Liberty on June 28, 2022
Members of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union break open barrels of liquor seized during Prohibition, 1929.

Roe Is the New Prohibition

The pro-life movement needs to know that such culture wars result not in outright victory for one side but in reaction and compromise.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on June 27, 2022
Harriet Tubman in the late 1860s.

When Harriet Tubman Met John Brown

Looking back at the short but deep friendship of John Brown and Harriet Tubman, who gave their lives to the abolitionist cause.
by Paul Bowers via Jacobin on June 19, 2022
Sheet music cover for "My Old Kentucky Home."

Emily Bingham on the Material Culture of White America’s Song to Itself: “My Old Kentucky Home”

A haunting exploration of “My Old Kentucky Home” reveals how a minstrel song rooted in slavery became a nostalgic American icon embedded in consumer culture.
by Emily Bingham via Literary Hub on May 16, 2022
Horses and carriages in front of funeral home

Report of Action Not Received

An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.
by Stephen Berry via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 11, 2022
U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.

"A Man of His Time": From Patrick Henry to Samuel Alito in U.S. History

The struggle for progress is always two steps forward and at least one step back.
by Thomas Lecaque via Age of Revolutions on May 5, 2022
A horse and jockey race by the crowd at the Kentucky Derby.

The Complicated Story Behind The Kentucky Derby’s Opening Song

Emily Bingham’s new book explores the roots of the Kentucky Derby’s anthem. It may not be pretty, but it’s important to know.
by Rebecca Gayle Howell via Washington Post on May 3, 2022
Florida Governor Rob DeSantis addresses a crowd behind a podium reading "freedom from indoctrination"
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Too Many White Parents Don’t Understand The True Purpose of Public Schools

Black Americans continue to fight for access to the public school systems their forebears created, against a history of white backlash and appropriation.
by Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz via Made By History on May 3, 2022
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.
by Sarah J. Purcell via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 13, 2022
African-American man holding a medical bag, posing behind horse-drawn carriage.

Doctors Without Borders

On the Black doctors who received their medical degrees and a new sort of freedom in Europe.
by Deirdre Mask via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 7, 2022
A Denmark Vesey monument is seen in Hampton Park in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.
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The Formerly Enslaved Man Whose Faith Inspired a Slave Revolt

Denmark Vesey expressed the Bible’s anti-slavery messages.
by Jeremy Schipper via Made By History on April 7, 2022
Workers working on ruins after the US Civil War, circa 1865.

The Abolitionist Legacy of the Civil War Belongs to the Left

The US Civil War was a revolutionary upheaval that crushed slavery and stoked hopes of a broader emancipation against the rule of property.
by Dale Kretz via Jacobin on April 6, 2022
Painting of George Washington in New York, 1783, surrounded by a crowd.

The Many American Revolutions

Woody Holton’s "Liberty is Sweet" charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home. 
by Eric Foner via The Nation on April 4, 2022
Three versions of quote from "Appeal"
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Comparing Editions of David Walker's Abolitionist Appeal

Digitization allows researchers to trace editorial and authorial changes in archival content. Both are central to the study of this famous abolitionist pamphlet.
by Dorothy Berry via JSTOR Daily on March 31, 2022
Cartoon illustration featuring Pauline Hopkins (center), Booker T. Washington (left), and John C. Freund (right)

Contending Forces

Pauline Hopkins, Booker T. Washington, and the Fight for The Colored American Magazine.
by Tarisai Ngangura via The Believer on March 29, 2022
Illustration of Abraham Lincoln getting ready to give a speech.

Re-imagining the Great Emancipator

How shall a generation know its story, if it will know no other?
by Ralph Lerner via National Affairs on March 21, 2022
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