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Curated stories from around the web.
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Why Would Anyone Collect Nazi?

Neo-Nazis aren't the only ones collecting Nazi memorabilia.
Photos of the March on Washington.

The Struggle in Black and White: Activist Photographers Who Fought for Civil Rights

None of these iconic photographs would exist without the brave photographers documenting the civil rights movement.

Straight Razors and Social Justice: The Empowering Evolution of Black Barbershops

Black barbershops are a symbol of community, and they provide a window into our nation's complicated racial dynamics.

Black Is Beautiful: Why Black Dolls Matter

"Why do you have black dolls?"

Victorian Moustache Cup

Victorian "Moustache Cups" ensure that one can drink while keeping their mustache dry.
Map of slave trade in Virginia.
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The Forced Migration of Enslaved People

An interactive set of maps and narratives of the forced migration of approximately 850,000 enslaved people from 1810-1860.

How America’s Obsession With Hula Girls Almost Wrecked Hawai’i

Popularized images of female hula dancers have deviated far from their origins and perpetuated stereotypes.
Aerial view of Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Why Are America’s Most Innovative Companies Still Stuck in 1950s Suburbia?

Suburban corporate campuses have isolated themselves by design from the communities their products were supposed to impact.

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.

Hillary Clinton Goes Back to the Dunning School

How do you diagnose the problem of racism in America without understanding its actual history?
LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom

A Library of Congress exhibit on the context, passage, and significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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The History of Black Women Championing Demands for Reparations

It's a struggle that's been waged for centuries.
Psychedelic swirling bright colors.

The Fascinating History of Mescaline, the OG Psychedelic

From prehistoric caves, through Aztecs, Mormons, Beat poets, Jean-Paul Sartre and a British MP.
New York Marathon runners on the Verrazano Bridge.

Rat Race

Why are young professionals crazy for marathons?
North Street, Boston, in 1894.

Secrets of a Brothel Privy

An archaeologist reconstructs the daily lives of 19th-century sex workers in Boston.

The Unlikely Pulp Fiction Illustrations of Edward Hopper

When the iconic painter drew cowboys for the pulp-fiction magazine, 'Adventure.'
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.

The Last Temptation

How evangelicals became an anxious minority seeking political protection from a not traditionally religious president.

The Strange Ratio of Treasure Island

The perfect correspondence of landscape and information can be seen in Ruth Taylor’s 1939 map.

Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller

Was the 2008 Heller decision a victory for originalism or a living Constitution?

James Madison Understood Religious Freedom Better than Jefferson Did

One emphasized the freedom to think; the other, in effect, the freedom to pray.
Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis and Abache in 1914.

The 'Clotilda,' the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found

The discovery carries intense, personal meaning for an Alabama community of descendants of the ship's survivors.

The Twin Insurgency

The postmodern state is under siege from plutocrats and criminals who unknowingly compound each other’s insidiousness.

Dred Scott Strains the Mystic Chords

Dred Scott was an opportunity to settle what the South had previously been unable to achieve either legislatively or judicially.
Sphinx statue in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

American Sphinx

Civil War monuments erased an emancipated Black population, but the Sphinx looked to an integrated Africa and America.

The Kerner Omission

How a landmark report on the 1960s race riots fell short on police reform.

Introducing the Brand-New Historic District

A company hopes its construction of a Historic District will satisfy those who are upset with its demolition of historic sites.

Want to Save the Humanities? Make College Free

It's time to shift the social contract of education away from short-term job training toward long-term development.
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The Mob Violence of the Red Summer

In 1919, a brutal outburst of mob violence was directed against African Americans across the United States. White, uniformed servicemen led the charge.

Slavery and the Family Tree

How do you make a family tree when you may not know your family history?

Muslims of Early America

Muslims came to America more than a century before Protestants, and in great numbers. How was their history forgotten?
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Betsy DeVos Wants to Resurrect an Old — and Failed — Model of Public Education

Government-funded schools evolved from a broader system of public education that couldn't provide what students needed.
Battle in the Haitian Revolution.

Julius Scott’s Epic About Black Resistance in the Age of Revolution

"The Common Wind" covers the radical world of black mariners, rebels, and runaways banding together to realize their freedom.

Charleston-Area Residents Remember the First Time They Ate in White-Owned Restaurants

Their experiences help explain why segregated spaces persist in Charleston's restaurants today.

Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia

A conversation with the curator of an exhibit about the oft-overlooked lives of women in early colonial Virginia.

Simply Elegant, Morse Code Marks 175 Years and Counting

The code has undergone minor changes since its creation, but its use persists to this day.

‘Orientalism,’ Then and Now

Edward Said's Orientalism is still with us forty years after his influential book’s publication, but it is not the same as it was.

How the Daughters and Granddaughters of Former Slaves Secured Voting Rights for All

A look at the question of race versus gender in the quest for universal suffrage.
Nurse administering electroshock therapy to a patient.

The Troubled History of Psychiatry

Challenges to the legitimacy of the profession have forced it to examine itself. What, exactly, constitutes a mental disorder?
Traffic in an intersection in Los Angeles in 1922.
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Why We Can — and Must — Create a Fairer System of Traffic Enforcement

The discretionary nature of traffic enforcement has left it ripe for abuse.
Anti-abortion protest in front of the Supreme Court in 1996.

Abortion's Past

Before Roe, abortion providers operated on the margins of medicine. They still do.
Teenage students in a classroom.

What It Felt Like

If “living history” role-plays in the classroom can so easily go wrong, why do teachers keep assigning them?

Bernie, the Sandinistas, and America's Long Crisis of Impunity

Or, the pros and Contras of relying on political reporters.

The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage

The “Anthony Amendment” was introduced with no luck for 41 years. And even then, it wasn’t for everyone.
Lizzie Halliday

‘Bad Bridgets’: The Criminal and Deviant Irish Women Convicted in America

Irish-born women were disproportionately imprisoned in America for most of the nineteenth century.

Antislavery Wasn’t Mainstream, Until It Was

After Republicans lost their first election in 1856, Democrats declared slavery opposition radical and fringe. Then came 1860.
Assessment map of Chicago

All Stick No Carrot: Racism, Property Tax Assessments, and Neoliberalism Post 1945 Chicago

Black homeowners have been an oft ignored actor in metropolitan history despite playing a central role.
Internet Archive servers.

Data Overload

How will the historians of the future manage the massive archival data our society has begun to compile on the internet?
Map of Tongva villages in the area that is now Los Angeles.

Mapping the Tongva Villages of L.A.'s Past

The original people of Los Angeles, the Tongva, defined their world as Tovaangar.

When Betty Ford Had Her Ears On

A strong woman using a new tool to talk to people who were otherwise overlooked played as a joke for some. But was it effective?
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