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Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation

President Trump has called on supporters, including law enforcement officers, to monitor election sites. Voter intimidation tactics have a long history.
Police Officers observing and guarding.

Trump's War on Election Integrity Follows a Racist Playbook Used in 1980s Orange County

As Trump calls for legions to, as he proclaimed, 'go into the polls,' we should recall the sordid episode of voter intimidation that happened in Orange County.
James Baldwin

Freedom Day, 1963: A Lost Interview with James Baldwin

After Baldwin’s biographer died, her niece opened an old desk drawer and discovered a trove of interview material, some of it unpublished.
Part of the pedestal of a monument, inscribed with the words "Bright angels come and guard our sleeping heroes."

The Even Uglier Truth Behind Athens Confederate Monument

It was intended to be a tool of political power, sending a message against Black voting and serving as a gathering point for the Ku Klux Klan.

Terrorized African-Americans Found Their Champion in Civil War Hero Robert Smalls

The congressman and former slave claimed whites had killed 53,000 African-Americans. Few took him seriously—until now.
Wilmington after the massacre.
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The Troubling Consequence of State Takeovers of Local Government

State efforts to usurp local government power over schools, elections, and police tend to diminish Black political power.
JD Vance, along with characters from the Scorsese movie "Gangs of New York," shown over a background of a map of New York City

JD Vance is Just Another Know Nothing Nativist

MAGA has been a largely white movement of non-urban people who seem to think that people unlike them are scary and that there is only safety in homogeneity.
A white mob poses for a photograph in front of the charred remains of the Daily Record building they burned.

Majority-Black Wilmington, N.C., Fell to White Mob’s Coup 125 Years Ago

The 1898 Wilmington massacre overthrew the elected government in the majority-Black city, killed many Black residents and torched a Black-run newspaper.
Demonstrators hold Confederate flags near the monument for Confederacy President Jefferson Davis  in Richmond, Va., after it was spray-painted with the phrase "Black Lives Matter."

Confederate Monuments Caused Voting Decline In Black Areas

As Confederate monuments were erected, people turned out to vote in lower numbers in predominantly Black areas.
Former President Donald Trump with his attorneys inside the courtroom during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.

A Brief History of the Ku Klux Klan Acts

These 1870s laws to protect Black voters, ignored for decades, now being used against Trump.
4 photo collage illustrating the partnership between the White League and the Ku Klux Klan in engaging in vigilante terrorism and racial violence

Colfax, Cruikshank, and the Latter-Day War on Reconstruction

Unearthing the deep roots of racialized voter suppression—and explaining how they shape ballot access today.
A 1939 photo of Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo (D) of Mississippi. (Harris & Ewing Collection/Library of Congress)

The Roots of the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ Believed to Fuel Buffalo Suspect

The white supremacist conspiracy theory that has inspired horrific violence in the past five years dates back to Mississippi Sen. Theodore Bilbo.
Illustration of the 1878 Potter Investigation

Challenging Exceptionalism

The 1876 presidential election, Potter Committee, and European perceptions.
Sketch of late 19th century political rally in NYC

The Forgotten Precedent for Our ‘Unprecedented’ Political Insanity

The decades after the Civil War saw mass participation and mass outrage, followed by a period of orderly reform. What can we learn from that era today?
Illustration of the Reconstruction era, with black men waving flags and listening to a speech in front of a governmet building while a white mob comes to attack them with clubs

America’s Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama

When I think about the 1870 riot, I remember how the country rejected the opportunity it had.
Civil rights era photo of young people protesting for voting rights in between black and white photos of black people lined up to vote

American Democracy Is Only 55 Years Old—And Hanging by a Thread

Black civil-rights activists—and especially Black women—delivered on the promise of the Founding. Their victories are in peril.
A man during the Capitol Siege holding a Confederate flag.

The Case for a Third Reconstruction

The enduring lesson of American history is that the republic is always in danger when white supremacist sedition and violence escape justice.
Ulysses S. Grant statue in front of the capitol
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Grant — Not Lincoln or Roosevelt — May Hold the Key to Biden’s Success

Biden needs to stare down White supremacy, which requires strenuous enforcement of the laws.
A crowd of people with one person waving the Confederate flag

Learning from the Failure of Reconstruction

The storming of the Capitol was an expression of the antidemocratic strands in American history.
Side-by-side of Josh Hawley and David Atchison

Josh Hawley Is Not the First Missouri Senator with Blood on His Hands

The Bleeding Kansas parallels with our current moment get weirder and darker.
Man walks through the U.S. Capitol holding a confederate flag on Jan 6, 2021.
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1871 Provides A Road Map for Addressing the Pro-Trump Attempted Insurrection

Commitment to racial justice, not conciliation, is needed to save democracy.
Illustration of a black man laying on the ground while three men step on him, 1868.

Echoes of the Reconstruction Era: The Political Violence of 1868

The 1868 Election was the first one in which hundreds of thousands of African American men voted. It also began an unfortunate history of voter suppression.
Photo of people protesting and demanding all votes are counted the day after Election Day at McPherson Square, near the White House.
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President Trump’s False Claims About Election Fraud Are Dangerous

Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the vote has a familiar ring. It evokes an egregious example of election fraud in the 1890s.
A black and white photo of an African American man.

A White Mob Unleashed the Worst Election Day Violence in U.S. History in Florida a Century Ago

In the small town of Ocoee, Fla., a racist mob went on a rampage after a Black man tried to cast his ballot on Nov. 2, 1920.
Donald Trump at a rally
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Trump’s Rhetoric About the Election Channels a Dark Episode From Our Past

The only coup in American history came after scare-mongering that wouldn't sound out of place in 2020.
People holding protest signs

On the Fight for Black Voting Rights at the Turn of the 20th-Century

A rally at Faneuil Hall in support of the Fourteenth Amendment and congressional investigation of southern disfranchisement.
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Contested Elections Can Unleash Violent White Supremacy. We Have Seen It Before.

Why President Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the election results is so dangerous.

Fannie Lou Hamer's Dauntless Fight for Black Americans' Right to Vote

The activist did not learn about her right to vote until she was 44, but once she did, she vigorously fought for black voting rights
Women around a table of papers and forms, with a League of Women Voters banner on the wall.

What the First Women Voters Experienced When Registering for the 1920 Election

The process varied by state, with some making accommodations for the new voting bloc and others creating additional obstacles.
A statue of a woman and two children, with the photo taken at twilight with the moon in the background.

Mary McLeod Bethune Was at the Vanguard of More Than 50 Years of Black Progress

Winning the vote for women was a mighty struggle. Securing full liberation for women of color was no less daunting

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