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Justice

On the struggles to achieve and maintain it.
Painting by Chima Ikegwuonu depicting the Igbo Landing mass suicide, with a slave trader standing over handcuffed Igbo men on a ship, while other Igbo men resolutely entering the water.

Igbo Landing Mass Suicide

In 1803 one of the largest mass suicides of enslaved people took place when Igbo captives from what is now Nigeria were taken to the Georgia coast.
by Samuel Momodu via BlackPast on October 25, 2016
lithograph of enslaved workers using a cotton gin.

To Remake the World: Slavery, Racial Capitalism, and Justice

What if we use the history of slavery as a standpoint from which to rethink our notion of justice today?
by Walter Johnson via Boston Review on October 19, 2016
Stylized graphic of black and white schools on fire.

Burning 'Brown' to the Ground

In many Southern states, "Brown v. Board of Education" fueled decades of resistance to school integration.
by Carol Anderson via Teaching Tolerance on October 1, 2016
Prisoners raise fists in solidarity during Attica prison rebellion.

Revisiting the Ghosts of Attica

A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.
by Tom Robbins via The Marshall Project on September 19, 2016
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Fair Housing

Has the government done enough to stop housing discrimination?
via Retro Report on September 18, 2016
Protestors marching with "I am Troy Davis" sign

The Execution That Birthed a Movement

Troy Davis' death at the hands of the state on Sept. 21, 2011, transformed Occupy and kindled Black Lives Matter.
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Jen Marlowe via In These Times on September 17, 2016
Image of enslaved man in chains, with the words "Remember Your Weekly Pledge"

Who Freed the Slaves?

For some time now, the answer has not been the abolitionists.
by Stephanie McCurry via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 13, 2016

A History and Future of Resistance

The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is part of a centuries-long indigenous struggle against dispossession.
by Julian Brave NoiseCat, Annie Spice via Jacobin
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 8, 2016

What White Catholics Owe Black Americans

It's time to acknowledge that White Catholics’ American dream was built on profits plundered from black women, men, and children.
by Matthew J. Cressler via Slate
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 2, 2016

Booked: The Origins of the Carceral State

Elizabeth Hinton discusses how twentieth-century policymakers anticipated the explosion of the prison population.
by Elizabeth Hinton, Timothy Shenk via Dissent on August 30, 2016
The inmates during a negotiating session on September 10, 1971. An uprising born of panic and confusion triggered a cascade of paranoia that extended to the Nixon White House.

Learning from the Slaughter in Attica

What the 1971 uprising and massacre reveal about our prison system and the liberal democratic state.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on August 22, 2016
Policemen with nightsticks dragging Black man down the street.
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The Reason in the Riot

Senator Fred Harris describes his experience on the Kerner Commission, tasked with explaining the causes of urban riots in 1967.
via BackStory on August 18, 2016

The Sissies, Hustlers, and Hair Fairies Whose Defiant Lives Paved the Way for Stonewall

In 1966, the queens had finally had enough with years of discriminatory treatment by the San Francisco police.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on August 15, 2016
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Podcast
More Perfect

Object Anyway

At the trial of James Batson in 1983, the prosecution eliminated all the black jurors from the jury pool. Batson objected, setting off a complicated discussion about jury selection that would make its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. On this episode of More Perfect, the Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to prevent race-based jury selection, but may have only made the problem worse.
July 16, 2016
A reporter interviewing another man near the wreckage from the Watts Rebellion.
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Did The 1965 Watts Riots Change Anything?

Sociological data from immediately after the riots in Watts, Los Angeles, in 1965 show major disparities in attitude by race.
by Livia Gershon, David O. Sears, T. M. Tomlinson via JSTOR Daily on July 13, 2016
W.E.B. Du Bois.

Racial Violence in Black and White

From lynching photos to Black Lives Matter – what does it mean to look at images of African Americans being murdered?
by Benjamin Balthaser via Boston Review on July 13, 2016
A line of prison laborers by a railroad.

“One Continuous Graveyard”: Emancipation and the Birth of the Professional Police Force

After emancipation, prison labor replaced slavery as a way for white Southerners to enforce a racial hierarchy.
by Keri Leigh Merritt via Black Perspectives on July 11, 2016

What Do You Do After Surviving Your Own Lynching?

On August 7, 1930, three black teenagers were lynched in Marion, Indiana. James Cameron was one of them.
by Syreeta McFadden via BuzzFeed News on June 23, 2016

From "War on Crime" to War on the Black Community

The enduring impact of President Johnson’s Crime Commission.
by Elizabeth Hinton via Boston Review on June 21, 2016
A book about black power lies next to a pair of running shoes, 1969.

A Black Power Method

Interrogating dominant white perspectives in mainstream media outlets, government records, and in the very definition of what constitutes a credible source.
by N. D. B. Connolly via Public Books on June 15, 2016
William Lloyd Garrison

What Gun Control Advocates Can Learn From Abolitionists

Slave ownership was once as entrenched in American life as gun ownership.
by Rebecca Onion, Manisha Sinha via Slate
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on June 14, 2016

Was 1960's Liberalism the Cause of Today's Overincarceration Crisis?

Today, nearly 2.2 million Americans are behind bars. Can contemporary mass incarceration's roots be traced to LBJ's Great Society?
by Lauren-Brooke Eisen via The National Book Review on June 4, 2016
Mural of Pauli Murray.

On Memorial Day, Weaponizing the American Flag

As a young woman, civil rights pioneer Pauli Murray discovered that the flag could be used as a symbol of defiance.
by Jedediah Britton-Purdy via Scalawag on May 30, 2016
An American flag flying in front of a large Christian cross.

The Religious-Liberty Attack on Transgender Rights

Conservative Christians are out to restore their historical legal privileges.
by David Sehat via Boston Review on May 27, 2016

The Canine Terror

Since slavery, dogs have been used to intimidate and control African Americans.
by Tyler D. Parry, Charlton W. Yingling via Jacobin
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on May 19, 2016
Policemen with nightsticks dragging Black man down the street.

What the Kerner Report Got Wrong about Policing

The Kerner report neglected that police were not simply careless with black lives; they deliberately sought to punish black lives.
by Daniel Geary via Boston Review on May 19, 2016
Demonstrators at a Black Lives Matter rally.

Fifty Years Ago, the Government Said Black Lives Matter

The conclusions of the 1968 Kerner Report portrayed race relations like no other report in history.
by Julian E. Zelizer via Boston Review on May 5, 2016
Carrie Buck with her mother Emma.

The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement

It's impossible to revisit the history of America's quest for racial purity without sometimes being reminded of the current public discourse.
by Andrea DenHoed via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on April 27, 2016

The Racist Roots of Virginia's Felon Disenfranchisement

A century ago, the commonwealth's leaders weren't circumspect about their motives.
by Matt Ford via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on April 27, 2016

Trump and the Mob

The budding mogul had a soft spot (but a short memory) for wiseguys.
by Tom Robbins via The Marshall Project on April 27, 2016
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