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Martin Luther King Jr.

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The Longest March

In August 1966, the Chicago Freedom Movement, Martin Luther King’s campaign to break the grip of segregation, reached its violent culmination.
by David Bernstein via Chicago Magazine on July 25, 2016
Public opinion poll data showing high disapproval of civil rights protests.

Black Lives Matter and America’s Long History of Resisting Civil Rights Protesters

The civil rights movement was not nearly as admired by white Americans in its own time as we imagine it being.
by Elahe Izadi via Washington Post
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on April 19, 2016

Fifty Years After Bloody Sunday in Selma, Everything and Nothing Has Changed

Racism, segregation and inequality persist in this civil-rights battleground.
by Ari Berman via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on February 25, 2015
Malcolm X sitting on a couch

A Rare Interview with Malcolm X

On the religion, segregation, the civil rights movement, violence, and hypocrisy.
by Eleanor Fischer, Stephen Nessen via WNYC on February 4, 2015
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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
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

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

Their Own Talking

Reconsidering Septima Clark’s life challenges many of our ideas about the Civil Rights Movement and women's roles in it.
by David P. Cline, Septima Poinsette Clark, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Eugene P. Walker, Katherine Mellon Charron via Southern Cultures on June 1, 2010
John Lewis

John Lewis's American Odyssey

The congressman is the strongest link in American politics between the early 1960s--the glory days of the civil rights movement--and the 1990s.
by Sean Wilentz via The New Republic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on July 1, 1996
Ticket for Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral service at Morehouse College, April 9, 1968.

The Shot That Echoes Still

James Baldwin's dispatch from MLK's funeral foreshadowed an America we may never escape.
by James Baldwin, Michael Eric Dyson via Esquire
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on April 4, 1972

The Selma March

On the trail to Montgomery.
by Renata Adler via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on April 10, 1965
Collage of significant political figures representative of the past 50 years.

Exploding Cars, Office Monkeys, Watergate: The Origins of Mother Jones

Fifty years of journalism by and for “the rest of us.”
by Monika Bauerlein via Mother Jones on June 25, 2026
Collage of men including MLK with the Supreme Court in the background.

Their Loved Ones Died for the Voting Rights Act

Relatives of voting-rights activists warn that the recent Callais v. Louisiana decision risks undoing hard-fought civil-rights victories.
by Josh Kovensky, Khaya Himmelman via Talking Points Memo on May 22, 2026
We The People written on a tattered American flag.

The American Revolution in Global Retreat

More so than at any point in the last century, U.S. independence now seems like a parochial affair.
by Aziz Rana via Dissent on May 18, 2026
Jesse Jackson speaking at a podium

Jesse Jackson’s Crossover Moment and the Dilettantish Turn in the Postwar U.S. Left

Jesse Jackson’s campaigns replaced mass organizing with brokerage politics and accelerated the Democratic left’s neoliberal turn.
by Adolph Reed Jr. via Nonsite on April 14, 2026
Collage of photographs of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

My Childhood in the Weather Underground

My parents founded the radical revolutionary group, then became fugitives. I was born in hiding, and spent my early years on the run.
by Zayd Ayers Dohrn via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 28, 2026
Anti-Vietnam War Protest in a city.

Sectarianism Has Never Ended a War

Antiwar movements succeed through broad, focused mass action, not sectarian rhetoric or liberal compromise, using Vietnam-era lessons for today.
by Eric Blanc via Jacobin
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 18, 2026
Clergy members kneel as they take part in the general strike in Minneapolis to protest ICE.

Christian Abolitionists Have Always Disobeyed Laws

Have you heard the story about a Christian abolitionist “de-arresting” someone?
by Michael Woolf via Sojourners on February 27, 2026
Black Panthers stand with arms folded during a demonstration in New York City, on April 11, 1969.

The Long Civil Rights Movement

The traditional narrative of an integrationist vs. Black Power binary fades in the context of global movements for self-determination.
by Shehryar Fazli via The Ideas Letter on February 19, 2026
Jesse Jackson

The Left Owes a Lot to Jesse Jackson

As a movement builder, spokesperson, and candidate for the presidency, Jesse Jackson was a towering figure of progressive politics in his era — or any era.
by Peter Dreier via Jacobin
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on February 18, 2026
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