W.E.B. Du Bois

Woodrow Wilson arrived at the White House determined to eliminate the gains African-Americans made during Reconstruction.

The National Parks Service, which preserves many Civil War sites, is finally looking for a way to mark the struggles that defined its legacy.

The two men met at Appomattox. The loser would become a role model, the victor an embarrassment.

How the fight to ban "The Birth of a Nation" shaped the nascent civil rights movement.

David Brion Davis’s philosophical history.

The Civil Rights movement ignored one very important, very difficult question. It’s time to answer it.

W.E.B. Du Bois on the beauty of sorrow songs.

The rise of a violent authoritarian state under Trump unveils a deep uncertainty over what America is.

The physicist fought for the promise of a diverse, meritocratic America. We need his optimism today.

A close examination of the writings of Wisconsin's Victor Berger shows that his views on race changed dramatically over time.

Doctor, writer, musician, and orator: Rudolph Fisher was a scientist and an artist whose métier was Harlem.

The history of a single photograph reveals how an atrocity in the Philippines was forgotten by its American perpetrators.

A Black socialist magazine urges solidarity and action in 1919.

Lionel Trilling defends humanism amid crisis culture, warning that obsessing over evil can erode the self and our capacity for moral and creative agency.

Six decades of civil-rights efforts haven’t budged the racial wealth gap, and the usual prescriptions—including reparations—offer no lasting solutions.

Correspondence about writing, travel, and friendship, from 1926 through 1929.

The unique brutality of the US capitalist class bred a labor movement that has often limited itself to being a private insurance provider.

At the Met, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" shows how clothing became a way for Black men to assert presence and push back against control.

Under the Trump administration's book police, Jackie Robinson’s life and actions are considered dangerous memories.

Since Trump took office, the park service — charged with preserving American history — has changed how it describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow.