Frederick Douglass

In the first half of the 19th century, upstate New York was a hotbed of movements for reform. How visible is that history today?

Smith's influence on American politics, and the misunderstanding at the heart of our idea of the "champion of capitalism."

In the mid-19th century, a pro-slavery minority used violence to stifle a growing anti-slavery majority, spurring their opposition to respond in kind.

The bank’s history highlights flaws in using public-private partnerships to address racial inequality.

A new book explores Abraham Lincoln's interactions with African Americans during his presidency.

From MLK to Obama, advancers for civil rights were driven by their fatherhood and dreams of better life for their own children.

On Ian Tyrrell’s "American Exceptionalism: A New History of an Old Idea."

Lin­coln’s interactions with black Americans provides a valuable resource for understanding a more farseeing Lincoln than the voices of despair have described.

Will the Black body ever have the opportunity to rest in peace?

Time capsules unearthed at affordable housing sites offer alternative, lost, and otherwise obscured histories.

How African Americans came to Indian Territory after the Civil War.

An activist, writer, doctor and intellectual, James McCune Smith, born enslaved, directed his talents to the eradication of slavery.

We often think of the temperance movement as driven by white evangelicals set out to discipline Black Americans and immigrants. That history is wrong.

June, PTSD Awareness month, is a time to recognize how trauma has shaped our history.

Keep in mind what it meant to the people who created it.

How allies abroad help the fight against racism at home.

Contrary to the image of the kneeling slave, Black abolitionists did not wait passively for the "Day of Jubilee." They led the charge.

Lessons from Frederick Douglass on the tortured relationship between protest and change.

The overthrow of slavery in the US was a battle waged and won in the field of democratic mass politics; a battle that holds enormous lessons for radicals today.

Critics of the New York Times’s 1619 Project obscure a longstanding debate among historians over whether the American Revolution was a proslavery revolt.