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Lightning Struck

How an Atlanta neighborhood died on the altar of Super Bowl dreams.
The Rev. William Barber, the Rev. Liz Theoharis, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson gather outside of the U.S. Capitol during a Poor People’s Campaign rally in June, 2018.

The Social Gospel Roots of the American Religious Left

A review of Gary Dorrien's new book, “Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel.”
Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux.

New Documents Reveal How the FBI Deployed a Televangelist to Discredit Martin Luther King

Elder Michaux, a popular black evangelist, aided the bureau's campaign to destroy King's reputation.

Central Park Was Once Seneca Village, Home to a Thriving Free Black Community

A graphic history of the community displaced for the vast public park in 1857.

Soul Survivor

The revival and hidden treasure of Aretha Franklin.
C. L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha.

The Man with the Million Dollar Voice

The mighty but divided soul of C.L. Franklin.
Blair LM Kelley

Talking Black Joy and Black Freedom with Blair LM Kelley

“The world didn’t give It, but the world can’t take It away.”
Portrait of a Black woman; artist unknown, American, circa 1830–1835.

In Search of the Real Hannah Crafts

"The Bondwoman’s Narrative" is the first novel by a Black woman to describe slavery from the inside. Recently, scholars have discovered her true identity.
Billie Holiday singing in a recording studio.

Decades After Billie Holiday’s Death, ‘Strange Fruit’ is Still a Searing Testament to Injustice

Christian and Jewish themes influenced the world of art around one of jazz’s greatest singers.
Freedom School students sitting in a circle on the ground.
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60 Years Later, Freedom Schools Are Still Radical—and Necessary

The Freedom Schools curriculums developed in 1964 remain urgently needed, especially in our era of book bans and backlash.
Harriet Tubman.

How a Young Harriet Tubman Found Solace in Syncretic Religion

Childhood trauma led Minty Ross (Harriet Tubman) to seek divine intervention.
Juneteenth celebrations.

Before Juneteenth

A firsthand account of freedom’s earliest celebrations.
Spectators and witnesses at the trial for a case involving an automobile accident, Oxford, North Carolina, 1939.

A ‘Wary Faith’ in the Courts

A groundbreaking new book demonstrates that even during the days of slavery, African Americans knew a lot more about legal principles than has been imagined.
A Historic American Buildings Survey photograph of a house being demolished.

Before the Wrecking Ball Swung

The Historic American Building Survey's mission to photograph important architecture before its demolition.
Civil Rights march for jobs and freedom.

The Hidden Story of Black History and Black Lives Before the Civil Rights Movement

On upending the accepted narrative of the movement.
James Baldwin

Reading Baldwin After Kanye

A conversation about James Baldwin’s 1967 essay, “Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because They are Anti-White.”
A mother sits behind a sign reading, "I have a Bible, I don't need those dirty books."

The Great Textbook War

What should children learn in school? It's a question that's stirred debate for decades, and in 1974 it led to violent protests in West Virginia.
Painting by Beauford Delaney featuring white outlines of people in front of a red, yellow, orange, and white patterned background.

In Old Wilmington

How the failed search for a silent film uncovered a lost musician of the Harlem Renaissance.
Willie Mae Thornton

'Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters' Explores the Legacy of the Black Musician Who Made 'Hound Dog' a Hit

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton lived an unapologetic life that transcended genres and gender norms beyond her bluesy hit song and the “Elvis moment.”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe holding a guitar

Amazing Base: A Singer Wed in a D.C. Ballpark, and 19,000 Paid to Attend

Attendees packed D.C.’s Griffith Stadium in 1951 for the wedding spectacular of gospel singer Rosetta Tharpe, who’s now the subject of a show at Ford's Theatre.
Ferris wheel at the Chicago World Fair of 1893.

The Magic Lantern Man

At every stop, he enthralled audiences with a device called a “stereopticon.”
Jackie Robinson wearing his baseball uniform.

Revisiting the Legacy of Jackie Robinson

The Christian, the athlete, and the activist.
Charles Sherrod consulting advisors on courtroom strategy
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A Vital Civil Rights Activist You Never Heard of Has Died

Charles Sherrod wasn’t a big name, but his life has a lot to tell us about the civil rights movement.
partner

Extremism in America: A Surge in Violence

During the 2010s, violent attacks by white supremacists and other extremists increased, including at a church in Charleston, S.C. and a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Lumpkin’s Jail; engraving from A History of the Richmond Theological Seminary, 1895

A Fable of Agency

Kristen Green’s "The Devil’s Half Acre" recounts the story of a fugitive slave jail, and the enslaved woman, Mary Lumpkin, who came to own it.
Jackie Robinson addresses civil rights supporters protesting outside the 1964 GOP National Convention.

Jackie Robinson Was a Radical – Don't Listen to the Sanitized Version of History

Before Colin Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson wrote, ‘I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a Black man in a white world.’
Members of the Coloured Hockey League pose with hockey sticks and trophies.

The All-Black League That Invented Hockey As We Know It

The Coloured Hockey League doesn’t get a prominent place in most tellings of hockey’s story, but its legacy is undeniable.
Illustration of West Ford with laborers working fields in the background, by John P. Dessereau

Did George Washington Have an Enslaved Son?

West Ford’s descendants want to prove his parentage—and save the freedmen’s village he founded.
Map of Freedmans Village

The Long Afterlife of Freedman’s Village

Freedman's Village, created in Arlington, VA at the end of the Civil War, became a thriving community of Black residents as part of Reconstruction.
Map and photo of Seneca Village

Let’s Talk About the Taking of Black Land

From Seneca Village to “urban renewal,” the government has claimed Black property—rarely with the “just compensation” promised by the Fifth Amendment.

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