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Justice

On the struggles to achieve and maintain it.
LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

How LBJ Saved the Civil Rights Act

Fifty years later, new accounts of its fraught passage reveal the era's real hero—and it isn’t the Supreme Court.
by Michael O'Donnell via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 19, 2014

Modern Segregation

Policies of de jure racial segregation and a history of state-sponsored violence continue to have an impact on African Americans.
by Richard Rothstein via Economic Policy Institute on March 6, 2014

The Massive Liberal Failure on Race, Part III

The Civil Rights movement ignored one very important, very difficult question. It’s time to answer it.
by Tanner Colby via Slate
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on February 27, 2014
Gerry Studds faces reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 1983.

Gerry Studds: The Pioneer Gay Congressman Almost Nobody Remembers

His story of coming out was so shrouded in scandal, so drenched in professional embarrassment, that its broader significance may forever be overshadowed.
by Jennifer Bendery, Sam Stein via HuffPost on February 20, 2014
LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Massive Liberal Failure on Race, Part II

Affirmative action doesn't work. It never did. It's time for a new solution.
by Tanner Colby via Slate
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on February 10, 2014
Political cartoon from 1908 of women smoking in a bar.

Smoking, Women’s Rights, and a Really Great Fake Bar

The lady smoking caper of 1908.
by Livius Drusus via The Appendix on February 7, 2014

The Massive Liberal Failure on Race, Part I

How the liberal embrace of busing hurt the cause of integration.
by Tanner Colby via Slate
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on February 3, 2014
Painting of a mutiny aboard a ship.

Reading Melville in Post-9/11 America

The author's half-forgotten masterpiece, Benito Cereno, provides fascinating insight into issues of slavery, freedom, individualism—and Islamophobia.
by Greg Grandin via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on January 7, 2014
Linda Taylor walks out of a courtroom with her attorney.

The Real Story of Linda Taylor, America’s Original Welfare Queen

In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan villainized a Chicago woman for bilking the government. Her other sins were far worse.
by Josh Levin via Slate
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on December 19, 2013
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Wrongly Accused of Terrorism: The Sleeper Cell That Wasn't

Six days after 9/11, the FBI raided a Detroit sleeper cell. But, despite a celebrated conviction, there was one problem — they’d gotten it wrong.
via Retro Report on November 19, 2013

The Perfect Wife

How Edith Windsor fell in love, got married, and won a landmark case for gay marriage.
by Ariel Levy via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 30, 2013

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Footnote Four

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's solo dissent from an affirmative action case was inspired by a footnote.
by Lincoln Caplan via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 13, 2013
BackStory
Podcast
BackStory

Fierce Urgency of Now: The 1963 March on Washington

On its 50th anniversary, the hosts find the roots of the march in the radical labor politics of the 1940s, and farther back in the Emancipation Proclamation. Guests who helped organize or attended the march offer personal perspectives on the events and impact of the day. Have we achieved the marchers’ aims for “jobs and freedom”? What impact has King’s “I Have a Dream” speech had on race relations? Is King’s plea for action as necessary today as it was then?
August 23, 2013
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Fierce Urgency of Now

Exploring the origins and impacts of the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," on that event's 50th anniversary.
via BackStory on August 23, 2013

The Court & the Right to Vote: A Dissent

How the Supreme Court got it wrong.
by John Paul Stevens via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on August 15, 2013
Baby sleeping in a woman's arms.
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What’s the Definition of “Person”?

Two court cases that defined and changed the nature of personhood.
via BackStory on May 10, 2013

Activism in the US

The Civil Rights movement led the way, soon followed by anti-war protests and activism for women’s issues and gay rights.
via Digital Public Library of America on April 1, 2013
Ruth Bader Ginsburg sitting on a chair in a room with a fireplace

How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Moved the Supreme Court

Despite her path-braking work as a litigator before the Court, she doesn't believe that large-scale social change should come from the courts.
by Jeffrey Toobin via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 11, 2013

SNCC Digital Gateway

A documentary website that tells the story of how young activists united with local people in the Deep South to build a grassroots movement that transformed the nation.
by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee via SNCC Digital Gateway on January 1, 2013
Thaddeus Stevens imagined as a boxer.

Remarkable Radical: Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens was a fearsome reformer who never backed down from a fight.
by Steve Moyer via Humanities on November 1, 2012
Angry mob in Manhattan
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The Day Wall Street Exploded

On the spectacular act of terrorism that took place in Manhattan a century ago.
via BackStory on September 12, 2012

May Day's Radical History

The date of Occupy's strike has ties to the eight-hour day movement, immigrant workers and American anarchism.
by Jacob Remes via Salon on April 30, 2012

Battleground America

One nation, under the gun.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on April 23, 2012
Angela Davis.

An Angela Davis Interview

On revolution and violence.
via The Black Power Mixtape on February 9, 2012

The Caging of America

Why do we lock up so many people?
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on January 30, 2012

March of the Bonus Army

In 1932, twenty-thousand unemployed WWI veterans descended on Washington, DC to demand better treatment from the federal government.
by Radio Diaries via Radio Diaries on November 11, 2011
John Ridge

Cherokee Slaveholders and Radical Abolitionists

An unlikely alliance in antebellum America.
by Natalie Joy via Commonplace on July 1, 2011

Objection

Clarence Darrow’s unfinished work.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on May 23, 2011

How The 'Pox' Epidemic Changed Vaccination Rules

During the 1898-1904 pox epidemic, public health officials and policemen forced thousands of Americans to be vaccinated against their will.
by Fresh Air via NPR on April 5, 2011
African American soldier
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Fighting for Liberation

The important moral and tactical contributions of African-American soldiers in the Union Army.
via BackStory on March 31, 2011
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