Abolitionist broadside from 1854 calling out the fugitive slave bill commissioner

An Angry Mob Broke Into A Jail Looking For A Black Man—Then Freed Him

How Oct. 1 came to be celebrated as “Jerry Rescue Day” in abolitionist Syracuse.
A high school yearbook photo of Elizabeth Prewitt.

I Never Saw the System

As a white teenager in Charlotte, Elizabeth Prewitt saw mandatory school busing as a personal annoyance. Going to an integrated high school changed that.
Photo of E.P.A Headquarters, shot through a bush

How Government Ends

Through an assault on administrative agencies, the Supreme Court is systematically eroding the legal basis of effective governance.
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington on June 25, 2017.
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Far-Right Views in Law Enforcement are Not New

65 years ago this week, Edwin Walker helped enforce Little Rock integration. Then he devoted himself to segregation.
Black Americans getting off a bus during a "reverse freedom ride."

Racist Busing Rides Again

Moving migrants from Texas to Democratic strongholds is not new. The Reverse Freedom Rides of the 1960s hold lessons for activists of today.
Portrait of Aaron Burr, an American politician and lawyer who was the third vice president of the United States, serving during Thomas Jefferson's first term (1801-1805).

A Former Vice President Was Tried For Treason For an Insurrection Plot

Aaron Burr was the highest-ranking official to stand trial for treason, which some people have invoked now amid probes into ex-president Donald Trump.
illustration of a hand with a shredded ballot

John Roberts’s Long Game

Is this the end of the Voting Rights Act?
Photograph shows two white men overseeing African American men hammering boulders as others walk with wheelbarrows.

Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires

Companies across the South profited off the forced labor of people in prison after the Civil War – a racist system known as convict leasing.
Image of army soldiers and weapons facing crowd of protestors holding signs

A Theater of State Panic

Beginning in 1967, the Army built fake towns to train police and military officers in counterinsurgency.
Black and white photo of African American girl attending a white segregated school

A Powerful, Forgotten Dissent

Among the thousands of cases the Supreme Court has decided, only a handful of dissenting opinions stand out.
Abortion opponents hold signs reading "I Vote Pro-life First" outside Supreme Court

Abortion and Partisan Entrenchment

The modern Republican Party has tied itself to Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, the party is vulnerable to new issues.
Illustrative grid rid of students with the faces represented by various colors, fabric patterns, and textures.

How Affirmative Action Was Derailed by Diversity

The Supreme Court has watered down the policy’s core justification: justice.
Headshot illustration of Angela Davis

‘Hell, Yes, We Are Subversive’

For all her influence as an activist, intellectual, and writer, Angela Davis has not always been taken as seriously as her peers. Why not?
Black and white photo of communists marching in front of the White House to demand the release of the Scottsboro Boys.

The Civil Rights Movement Was Radical to Its Core

The Civil Rights Movement was a radical struggle against Jim Crow tyranny whose early foot soldiers were Communists and labor militants.
Photograph of protesters at the 1963 March on Washington. Pictured are black and white protesters holding signs with messages about racial and economic justice.

You’ve Been Lied to About the 1963 March on Washington

It’s popularly remembered as a moderate demonstration. In fact, it was the culmination of a mass, working-class movement against racial and economic injustice.
Black and white side profile of Felix Frankfurter reading.

The Justice Who Wanted the Supreme Court to Get Out of the Way

Felix Frankfurter warned that politicians, not the courts, should make policy.
Painting of a stylized explosion and the silhouettes of African American soldiers.

A Deadly World War II Explosion Sparked Black Soldiers to Fight for Equal Treatment

After the deadliest home-front disaster of the war, African Americans throughout the military took action to transform the nation's armed forces.
Sillhouettes of incarcerated men preparing for a graduation ceremony.
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Educational Aid for Prisoners Works. Yet It’s Politically Precarious.

Why all Americans benefit from higher education for those incarcerated.
Four new Army brassiere designs modeled by servicewomen.
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A New Bra Reveals That the Military is Moving Toward Gender Equality

Women’s military uniforms were once about making soldiers look feminine. Now they’re about enhancing performance.
A protest sign raised in front of the Supreme Court, reading, "Keep abortion safe, legal, & accessible!"

The History of Abortion Law in the United States

The right to abortion has been both supported and contested throughout history.  When banned, abortions still occur, but legal restrictions make them less safe.
Mural of Black Panthers with raised fists.

Earl Anthony and the Black Panther Party

“I came to the realization that taking to the streets to fight social revolution in this country is like ‘spitting in the wind; it will fly back into your face.”
US Airforce nurses treating patients.

The Better Roe: The Case of Struck v. Secretary of Defense

When Susan Struck fought being discharged for pregnancy from the US Air Force, it brought the right to choose into a different light.
Black and white photo of San Francisco's chinatown in 1960s.

“Making It” in America: Vanessa Hua Addresses the Myth of the Model Minority

My Chinese-immigrant parents dreamed big for me, their American-born daughter whom they raised in the suburbs east of San Francisco.
Black and white photo of a 1920s flapper girl.
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Flappers: Precursors to Modern-Day Social Media Influencers?

A 1923 article in a fashion magazine shows the connection between flappers and social media youth organizers today.
Erick Cedeño on a bicycle and map of a route through the west.

Following the Black Soldiers who Biked Across America

Bikepacking historian Erick Cedeño retraces the Buffalo soldiers' legendary journey from Montana to Missouri to rethink it and its place in American history.
Map showing allotments to tribal citizens.

Sovereignty Is Not So Fragile

McGirt v. Oklahoma and the failure of denationalization.
Lithograph of a town street with a printing press on the corner.

To Remember or to Forget

The story of philanthropists Catherine Williams Ferguson and Isabella Marshall Graham’s unlikely interracial collaboration.
Person typing on keyboard at computer decorated with pro-choice pins.

A Forgotten 1990s Law Could Make It Illegal to Discuss Abortion Online

The provision, which makes it a felony to talk about abortion online, has been on hold since the Clinton administration. Could it be enforced in the future?
Black and white photo of Inez Milholland leading the National American Woman Suffrage Association parade on a white horse, Washington, D.C

What We Want Is to Start a Revolution

Formed in 1912 for “women who did things—and did them openly,” the Heterodoxy Club laid the groundwork for a century of American feminism.
Black and white photo of pedestrian and vehicle traffic in Los Angeles

When Cities Treated Cars as Dangerous Intruders

To many urban Americans in the 1920s, the car and its driver were tyrants that deprived others of their freedom.