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Martin Luther King Jr.

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Black and white photo of two African American men standing in front of March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom sign.

The Obamas’ “Rustin”: Fun Tricks You Can Do on the Past

The project of “reclamation and celebration” proceeds from an impulse to rediscover black Greats who by force of their own will make “change.”
by Adolph Reed Jr. via Nonsite on December 16, 2023
Students on a field trip threw boxes of mock tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party Museum in Boston.

The Boston Tea Party Was a Crime

Opposition to British policy was justified. Destroying 342 crates of tea worth nearly $2 million in today’s money wasn’t.
by Jeff Jacoby via Boston Globe Magazine
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on December 14, 2023
A scene from the film Orphans of the Storm depicting a group carrying a sign bearing the slogan “Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité,” 1921.

The History of Equality: It’s Complicated

The strange and contradicting development of the liberal version of egalitarianism.
by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Darrin M. McMahon via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 16, 2023
Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

How Christianity Influenced America’s Notions of Equality

'All men are created equal' coexisted with the understanding that not all were meant to be treated equally in life.
by Darrin M. McMahon via TIME on November 15, 2023

The Men Who Started the War

John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 13, 2023
Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust in 2009.

The Bleak, All But-Forgotten World of Segregated Virginia

Former Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust’s extraordinary memoir recalls painful memories for her--and me.
by Garrett Epps via Washington Monthly on November 8, 2023
Bayard Rustin speaking at an event.

Eclipsed in His Era, Bayard Rustin Gets to Shine in Ours

The civil-rights mastermind was sidelined by his own movement. Now he’s back in the spotlight. What can we learn from his strategies of resistance?
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 6, 2023
George C. Wolfe.

George C. Wolfe Would Not Be Dismissed

A conversation with the longtime director about “Rustin,” growing up in Kentucky, and putting on a show.
by Vinson Cunningham, George C. Wolfe via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 5, 2023
Still from "Rustin" film, on steps of Lincoln Memorial.

The Real History Behind Netflix's 'Rustin' Movie

A new film finally spotlights Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian Magazine on November 2, 2023
Martin Luther King, Jr. at podium, with three men sitting behind him
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Tuskegee University’s Audio Collections

The archives of the historically Black Tuskegee University recently released recordings from 1957 to 1971, with a number by powerful civil rights leaders.
by Evan Towle, Karyn Anonia, Dana Chandler via JSTOR Daily on October 5, 2023
Group portrait of the first African-American legislators in Congress, 1872.

Reclaiming the American Story

To Heather Cox Richardson, the battle for our history is the battle for our democracy. And we may be nearing the endgame.
by Peniel E. Joseph via Democracy Journal on September 18, 2023
Frank Church.

The Senator Who Took On the CIA

Frank Church and the committee that investigated the US intelligence agencies.
by Adam Hochschild via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 5, 2023
Daisy Bates speaking at the March on Washington.

How Might the Civil Rights Movement Looked Different With Women at the Forefront?

Why women civil rights organizers marginalized at this event, and how that affects our collective memory of the struggle.
via Here & Now on August 23, 2023
American blues singer and guitarist Leadbelly performs for a room full of people, 1940.

Is the History of American Art a History of Failure?

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.
by Lynne Feeley via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on July 31, 2023
Black Panther Party members demonstrating outside the New York County Criminal Court, April 11, 1969.

The Black Radical Tradition Can Guide Our Struggles Against Oppression

Uncovering a tradition of African American radicalism that was—and is—a crucial part of the American left’s history.
by Robin D. G. Kelley, Daniel Denvir via Jacobin
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on July 6, 2023
The Way of Improvement Leads Home
Podcast
The Way of Improvement Leads Home

The Search for God in a New York Publishing House

Have you ever heard someone say that they were "spiritual," but not "religious?" In this episode, Stephen Prothero, offers a "pre-history" of this idea. According to Prothero, the move from traditional/institutional/confessional "religion" to seeker "spirituality" runs through the Eugene Exman, the religion editor at Harper Brothers from 1928-1965. Throughout his long career, Exman published Harry Emerson Fosdick, Howard Thurman, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., and others.
June 18, 2023
Cliff Joseph's art, Blackboard, 1969. One adult and one young Black person stand in front of a blackboard.

The Long War on Black Studies

It would be a mistake to think of the current wave of attacks on “critical race theory” as a culture war. This is a political battle.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on June 17, 2023
Sedat Pakay, James Baldwin, Istanbul, 1966.

James Baldwin in Turkey

How Istanbul changed his career—and his life.
by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi via The Yale Review on June 12, 2023
Ron DeSantis's head photoshopped onto the body of a revolutionary war soldier.

Ron DeSantis’s Context-Free History Book Vanished Online. We Got A Copy.

Ron DeSantis, who has attacked Florida history lessons and aims to run for president, dismisses slavery in his 2011 book as a “personal flaw” of the Founding Fathers.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on May 21, 2023
A microphone animated as a black snake.

The Dark Side of Defamation Law

A revered Supreme Court ruling protected the robust debate vital to democracy—but made it harder to constrain misinformation. Can we do better?
by Jeannie Suk Gersen via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on May 11, 2023
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