Stop Calling it ‘The Great Migration’

For people of color watching over their shoulder, the fear of police interference harkens back to a historical moment with a much-too-benign label.

Beyond the Middle Passage

Intra-American trafficking magnified slavery’s impact.

This Innovative Memorial Will Soon Honor Native American Veterans

The National Museum of the American Indian has reached a final decision on which design to implement.
Marsha Johnson

Deconstructing the Stonewall Myth (Brick by Brick)

Why it's important to know that Marsha P. Johnson did not start the riots at Stonewall.
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Librarians without Chests: A Response to the ALSC’s Denigration of Laura Ingalls Wilder

A network of professional librarians seeks to destroy a beloved literary heroine and malign her creator.

Where Does the War on History End?

Those who seek to hide the achievements of our greatest men and women are making a monumental mistake.

Well-Behaved Women Make History Too

What gets lost when it’s only the rebel girls who get lionized?

Jefferson’s Monticello Finally Gives Sally Hemings Her Place in Presidential History

New exhibits put slavery at the center of Monticello's story, and make it clear that Jefferson was the father of Hemings' children.

America's National Parks Were Never Wild and Untouched

Montana's emblematic Glacier National Park reveals the impact of human history and culture.
American Indians.

When, How Did the First Americans Arrive? It’s Complicated.

The first Americans weren't one group of people; they arrived at different times, and likely by different methods.

Ira Berlin, Transformative Historian of Slavery in America, Dies at 77

He “put the history of slavery at the center of our understanding of American history.”

Can History Avoid Conspiracy?

Historians still lack a good way to define, discuss, and address historical actions that appear to be "conspiracies."

Meet The Last Surviving Witness to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Olivia Hooker was 6 at the time of the riot, considered to be one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history.

The Persistence of Whitewashing

How can Americans have such different memories of slavery?
Cover of "First Martyr of Liberty," featuring a painting of Crispus Attucks facing a British soldier with a bayonet.

Crispus Attucks, American Revolutionary Hero

With so little documentary evidence about his life, he is a virtual blank slate upon which different people at different times have inscribed a variety of meanings.

Washington and Lee Confronts Its History

When a college is named for two slave owners, one of whom was a Confederate hero, history is complicated.

The Fading Battlefields of World War I

A collection of photographs that show nature retaking the battle-ravaged land along the Great War's Western Front.

New Memorial Day: Remembering Children Killed in School

It’s an exhaustive list. Far longer and deeper than you might suspect.
partner

How A Child Born More Than 400 Years Ago Became A Symbol of White Nationalism

Virginia Dare and the myth of American whiteness.

Mr. Jefferson’s Books & Mr. Madison’s War

The burning of Washington presented an opportunity for Jefferson’s books to educate the nation by becoming a national library.

The Liberal Delusion of #ResistanceGenealogy

The effort to dig up information about the immigrant ancestors of prominent Trumpsters is doing more harm than good.

Yes, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ is Racially Insensitive — But We Should Still Read It

Librarians are once again raising concerns over the book’s depiction of Native Americans.

Is Technology Bringing History to Life or Distorting It?

History is coming to life, and scholars are debating the merits of this wave of re-creation and manipulation.

What Happens When We Forget?

A documentary attempts to remember forgotten lynching victims.

Contraband Flesh

A reflection on Zora Neale Hurston’s newly-published book, "Barracoon."

The Role of Water in African American History

Have historians privileged land-based models and ignored how African Americans participated in aquatic activities?

Kanye’s Brand of “Freethinking” Has a Long, Awful History

His condemnation of enslaved people’s failure to rebel is drawn from a dangerous ideology that’s older than the United States.
Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, two non gender-conforming people in London, 1869.

What is Trans History?

From activist and academic roots, a field takes shape.

The Last Slave

In 1931, Zora Neale Hurston recorded the story of Cudjo Lewis, the last living slave-ship survivor. It languished in a vault... until now.

How American Racism Influenced Hitler

Scholars are mapping the international precursors of Nazism.