The women of the Combahee River Collective.

“If Black Women Were Free”: An Oral History of the Combahee River Collective

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”
Team photo of the Pacesetters in their uniforms.

How One Women’s Football Team Took Control Away From the Men

The Columbus Pacesetters weren’t satisfied being an afterthought or a gimmick, so they bought their franchise and the ability to make decisions for themselves.
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan wave at inauguration in 1981
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Reagan’s War on Drugs Also Waged War on Immigrants

Lawmakers are undoing the worst parts of 1980s drug legislation, but they have forgotten its ties to immigration enforcement.
Picture of Claudette Colvin

Before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin Refused to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus. She’s Still on Probation.

Colvin, 82, is headed to court in Montgomery, Ala., to petition for her record to be cleared.
Cori Bush outside the Capitol holding a sign that says "housing is a human right"

Anti-Rent Wars, Then and Now

During the 1840s, landlords tried to drive out tenants in default. The movement that rose to challenge evictions can be a model for today’s housing activists.
A woman in a horse-drawn wagon in the American west.

For Me, but Not for Thee

How white feminism failed Native Americans in the late-19th century.
Fannie Lou Hamer.

Why Fannie Lou Hamer’s Definition of "Freedom" Still Matters

The human rights activist and former sharecropper once said that “you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free.”
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.
Statue of missionary Marcus Whitman in a park.
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The Nomination of Chuck Sams to Lead the Park Service is Already Changing History

The NPS is working with Cayuse historians and students to correct a historical lie that shaped the West.
Woman with fist raised and logo for "Mapping the Movimiento" project.

Mapping the Movimiento

Places and people in the struggle for Mexican American Civil Rights in San Antonio.
A black and white photo of historian Mae Ngai.

“We’ve Always Had Activists in Our Communities”

May Ngai uses her experiences as an activist in the 1980s and her research on the 19th century Chinese diaspora to debunk stereotypes about Chinese Americans.

The Hospital Occupation That Changed Public Health Care

The Young Lords took over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx on July 14, 1970. Their demand? Accessible, quality health care for all.
Clay Shaw and two aides, holding up the newspaper announcing his acquittal. Copyright AP 1969.

The Homophobic Backdrop to Garrison’s Persecution of Clay Shaw

A review of "Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime."
Illustration of armed men in a large mob surrounding Orleans Parish Prison

The First Columbus Day Was Born of Violence — And Political Calculation

President Benjamin Harrison promoted the holiday after a mob killed 11 Italian Americans and set off a diplomatic crisis.
Jesse Jackson talking to a Black woman and her children, surrounded by supporters and the press.

The Locked Out

Understanding Jesse Jackson and the radicalism of 1980s Black presidential politics.
African American Women in Industry, 1939-1945.

Black Women, Sanderson Farms, and the Strike for Better Conditions

Derrion Arrington explains the strike against Sanderson Farms in Laurel, Mississippi.
African Americans boarding an integrated bus, following the Supreme Court ruling ending the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. The boycott inspired many US socialists to throw themselves wholeheartedly into the civil rights struggle.

Socialists Organized in the 1950s Civil Rights Movement

In 1950s America, the Cold War was raging, but socialists were playing key roles in the early civil rights movement.
Demonstrators supporting immigration reform.
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Avoiding Past Mistakes is Key to Congress Passing Immigration Reform That Works

Updating the Registry Act and uncoupling legalization from punitive measures could be first steps.
Picture of a young woman with cannabis leaves.

The Pot to Prison Pipeline

How does a plant become a crime?
Howard Fuller outside Malcolm X Liberation University

The Lost Promise of Black Study

Even as they carve out space for Black scholarship, established universities remain deeply complicit in racial capitalism. We must think beyond them.
A tent with “the 99%” written on it

Occupy Wall Street at 10: What It Taught Us, and Why It Mattered

It basically started the wave of activism that revived the left—and taught people to get serious about power.
Drawing of girl raising American flag by Molly Crabapple

Occupy Memory

In 2011, a grassroots anticapitalist movement galvanized people with its slogan “We are the 99 percent.” It changed me, and others, but did it change the world?
Garbage in street

When the Young Lords Put Garbage on Display to Demand Change

In 1969, a group of Puerto Rican youth in East Harlem leveraged a garbage problem to demand reform.
Yumi Doi, an activist with Group of Fighting Women, at a protest against sexual discrimination, Tokyo, June 1972

A Work in Progress

Two new books on the history of feminism emphasize global grassroots efforts and the influence of American women labor leaders on international agreements.
MLK in a police station

Martin Luther King Knew That Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality

Critics of Black Lives Matter have held up King as a foil to the movement’s criticisms of law enforcement, but those are views that King himself shared.
Prisoners and guards in Attica State Prison

Honoring Attica After Half a Century

It’s time to demand law enforcement accountability for the death of unarmed citizens not just on America’s streets but also in our prisons.
A police officer stands with another officer in front of a house, as a hand holding a speculum appears in the foreground.

How Women Were Made to Suffer for Their Abortions Before Roe v. Wade

Interrogated, examined, blackmailed: how law enforcement treated abortion-seeking women before Roe.
Bell in 1980. He handled civil-rights cases, then came to question their impact.

The Man Behind Critical Race Theory

As an attorney, Derrick Bell worked on many civil-rights cases, but his doubts about their impact launched a groundbreaking school of thought.
Demonstrators outside the New York City offices of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Aug. 31.
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The Supreme Court Ended The Eviction Ban But Not The Fight Against Evictions

Historically, the failures and limitations of federal policy have emboldened activists.

50 Years After Attica, Prisoners Protest Brutal Conditions

If this nation hopes to achieve a justice system that is just, it must remain ever vigilant for any echo from Attica.