Justice

From unjustified stops of Black teenagers to a device to torment people in custody, racist police brutality runs deep.

How calls for “real reforms” have resulted in measures that further shield police from real accountability.

To hold the police accountable for misconduct, data related to police violence must not only become more accessible, it must also become more reliable.

Generations of Asian Americans have struggled to prove an Americanness that should not need to be proven.

In 1932, the “Bonus Army” of jobless veterans staged a protest in Washington, DC. The government dispersed them with tear gas.

Cynthia Tucker shares her hope that a new generation of activists can learn from Lewis' courageous and peaceful fight for “beloved community.”

Decades before protests against mass incarceration galvanized the black freedom struggle, Malcolm indicted the entire justice system as racist.

Anger over policing and inequality boiled over more than 50 years ago, and a landmark report warned that it could happen again.

The restrictions imposed during recent racial justice protests have their roots in efforts to “contain” Black Americans. 

But today’s activism reflects longstanding commitments to freedom.

David Ruggles' fight against the "kidnapping club" in the 1830s shows that police violence has been part of America's DNA from its earliest days.

How the movement that’s changing America was built and where it goes next.

He forced the country to engage in a three-year conversation about the meaning of free speech that shaped policy and law after World War I.

How government commissions became alibis for inaction.

Amid calls to defund police, cops are framing themselves as victims. We must remember who is really being brutalized.

Protest slogans and the terms for debate.

There are superficial similarities, but what we’re seeing now is something completely new.

The present round of protest is different. The participants are people of every race, ethnicity, sex, age, and religion.

The Equal Rights Amendment sparked debate from its very beginning, even among many of the women who had worked together for suffrage.

Past network efforts to address racism faded as uprisings stopped dominating headlines.

The pursuit of justice has been defined by a rote binary of punished in a cage versus unpunished and free.

Prison and police abolition were key to the thinking of many midcentury civil rights activists. Understanding why can help us ask for change in our own time.

The controversial version of the U.S. flag has been hailed as a sign of police solidarity and criticized as a symbol of white supremacy.

"The problem is the way policing was built," historian Khalil Muhammad says.

Two dozen experts consider the George Floyd protests in light of protests past.

To understand the slogan's meaning, consider the words of Martin Luther King, who saw the riots of the 1960s as not revolutionary enough.

Many are looking to history for clues about how to understand the evolving moment. Here's what to know.

For two centuries, black women have linked their ballot access to the human rights of all.

Heather Ann Thompson explains what’s changed and what has stayed the same.

How activists fought to create LGBTQ+ pride.