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The Lincoln Memorial with a crowd of people in front attending its dedication.

A Century Ago, the Lincoln Memorial's Dedication Underscored the Nation's Racial Divide

Seating was segregated, and the ceremony's only Black speaker was forced to drastically revise his speech to avoid spreading "propaganda."
Odetta sitting on a park bench playing a guitar.

How Odetta Revolutionized Folk Music

She animated the horror and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer.
MLK in a police station

Martin Luther King Knew That Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality

Critics of Black Lives Matter have held up King as a foil to the movement’s criticisms of law enforcement, but those are views that King himself shared.
A cover of the newspaper Muhammad Speaks

Muhammad Speaks for Freedom, Justice, and Equality

The official newspaper of the Nation of Islam—published from 1960-1975—combined investigative journalism and Black Nationalist views on racial uplift.
A line of Black men sit and stand in a half circle. They all where Pullman Porter uniforms.

How Black Pullman Porters Waged a Struggle for “Civil Rights Unionism”

Led by A. Philip Randolph, Black Pullman porters secured dignity on the job — and laid the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement.
Photo of an elderly African American man seated on a wicker chair in front of a porch trellis..

The Living Son of a Slave

The child of someone once considered a piece of property instead of a human being, Daniel Smith is a flesh-and-blood reminder that slavery wasn't that long ago
A photograph of Congressman John Lewis.

The Way of John Lewis

Cynthia Tucker shares her hope that a new generation of activists can learn from Lewis' courageous and peaceful fight for “beloved community.”
A group of men gather at a headquarters of the Communist Party USA following a protest demanding pay raise and an end to police brutality, US, circa 1920. Hirz / Archive Photos / Getty

How McCarthyism and the Red Scare Hurt the Black Freedom Struggle

Union activists linked the struggle for black equality in housing, employment, and at the ballot box, to the broader struggle against capitalist domination.

Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand

Odetta’s artistry was a weapon in the Civil Rights struggle, and was crucial to the era’s politics.

The Gay, Black Civil Rights Hero Opposed to Affirmative Action

How would Bayard Rustin be judged today?
Josepine Baker vaudeville cartoon

Josephine Baker: Dancer. Icon. Spy.

The Vaudeville star was at the height of her fame in Europe when WWII struck, and used her status for the allies.

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Meaning of Emancipation

He was a revolutionary, if one committed to nonviolence. But nonviolence does not exhaust his philosophy.

In Found Audio, a Forgotten Civil Rights Leader Says Coming Out Was an Absolute Necessity

Though Bayard Rustin, close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr., was gay, his legacy is not well known in the queer community.

A Century of American Protest

A side-by-side look at some of the political protests that have shaped American politics over the past hundred years.
partner

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Fight for American Democracy

With democracy in peril, Du Bois reminds us of the long fight to protect it.
James Baldwin.

The Forgotten Baldwin

Baldwin demands that the Atlanta child murders be more than a mere media spectacle or crime story, and that black lives matter.

80 Days That Changed America

Fifty years later, Bobby Kennedy’s passionate, inspiring, and tragic presidential campaign still fascinates.

Martin Luther King: How a Rebel Leader Was Lost to History

Fifty years after his death, King is a national treasure in the US. But what happened to his revolutionary legacy?
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.

Baldwin’s Lonely Country

After MLK's assassination, James Baldwin attempted to reconcile the divide between the civil rights movement and Black Power.

Restoring King

There is no figure in recent American history whose memory is more distorted than Martin Luther King Jr.

Memories of Mississippi

SNCC staff photographer Danny Lyon recounts his experiences in the early days of the civil rights movement.

The New York Times and the Movement for Integrated Education in New York City

When covering the struggle against school segregation in its own backyard, the paper of record came up short.

What the Civil Rights Movement Has to Do With Denim

The history of blue jeans has been whitewashed.
Reagan signing the bill establishing Martin Luther King Day.

The Sanitizing of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

On the uses and abuses of civil rights heroes.

Why Students Are Ignorant About The Civil Rights Movement

Mississippi’s outdated textbooks teach an abbreviated version of civil rights, undermining the state’s new ‘innovative’ standards.

The NFL Has Officially Whitewashed Colin Kaepernick’s Protest

The co-opting of protests against racism has a storied history in our country.

The Incredible Lost History of How “Civil Rights Plus Full Employment Equals Freedom”

Why the policies of the Federal Reserve were a central focus for the civil rights movement.
Louis Farrakhan walking with group

The Charmer

Louis Farrakhan and the Black Lives Matter protests.
Demonstrators in the June 1968 Poor People's March in Washington, DC.

Why Liberals Separate Race from Class

The tendency to divorce racial disparities from economic inequality has a long liberal lineage.

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