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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.
People looking at the Tops grocery store where police are in the parking lot after a mass shooting.

Making Sense of the Racist Mass Shooting in Buffalo

An expert on the white-power movement and the “great replacement” theory puts the act of terror in context.
Vintage stereogram of Chinatown, San Francisco, ca. 1920s-30s.

How a California Archive Reconnected a New Mexico Family with its Chinese Roots

Aimee Towi Mae Tang’s Chinese American family never talked about the past. She decided to change that.
Comic of a boy inside an atom structure while a man looks on.

The Surprising History of the Comic Book

Since their initial popularity during World War II, comic books have always been a medium for American counterculture and for nativism and empire. 
Know-Nothing flag
Exhibit

The Many Faces of Nativism

As this exhibit shows, anti-immigrant sentiment has been a throughline of American history.

Ballots in sealed envelopes, in a plastic box with a sticker that reads "Vote NYC."
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You Didn’t Always Have to Be a Citizen to Vote in America

The electorate has consistently changed over time as politicians seek to shape it in their favor.
A picture of armed militias

What the Term “Gun Culture” Misses About White Supremacy

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.
Protesters holding flags of the US and Mexico.
partner

How Prop. 187 Transformed the Immigration Debate and California Politics

Much of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy in the news today is similar to a movement that swept the country 20 years ago.
logo for the website, a clouded background and the words Law and Political Economy Project.

The Long History of Anti-CRT Politics

The history of anti-racial justice rhetoric.
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan wave at inauguration in 1981
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Reagan’s War on Drugs Also Waged War on Immigrants

Lawmakers are undoing the worst parts of 1980s drug legislation, but they have forgotten its ties to immigration enforcement.
Lithograph of an armed mob attacking another group in the street.

The Philadelphia Bible Riots

The debate regarding which Bible kids should read in school was about whether Catholic immigrants should have the full rights of American citizenship.
Demonstrators supporting immigration reform.
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Avoiding Past Mistakes is Key to Congress Passing Immigration Reform That Works

Updating the Registry Act and uncoupling legalization from punitive measures could be first steps.

9/11 Forever

Far from a relic of the past, September 11 continues to normalize previously unimaginable forms of state-sanctioned barbarity.
Donald Trump and Greg Abbott on a stage.
partner

The GOP is Reviving the Old History of Blaming Outsiders for Disease

But the evidence never backed it up before, and it doesn’t support such claims today either.
Chinese miners in California

The Anti-Asian Roots of Today’s Anti-Immigrant Politics

Long before Trump, politicians on the country’s West Coast mobilized a white working-class base through violent hate of Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
Document from the first session of Congress

California’s Vigilante Tradition

The far-right protestors in Huntington Beach aren’t as novel as they seem.
German American Bund members
partner

The Long History of American Nazism — And Why We Can’t Forget it Today

Even as the United States mobilized to defeat Nazi Germany, anti-democratic forces simmered at home.
Graphic of Earth surrounded by red and white squiggles

What Is the Most Damaging Conspiracy Theory in History?

"What makes this conspiracy theory so damaging is its adaptability."
Immigrant mother and child embracing

As American as Family Separation

Though the cruelties of the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy were unique, they were part of an American tradition of taking children from parents.
Image of 1896 $1 silver certificate.

Can the 'Tubman Twenty' Help Bring Americans Together?

The new note comes 125 years after the free silver movement tried—and failed—to use currency to forge a national identity.
Undocumented students in support of DACA
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Biden Will Allow Undocumented Students To Access Pandemic Relief

For decades, policymakers have debated who may access public education and the social safety net.
Flyer for debate over New York hyphen

New York's Hyphenated History

Hyphenation became a complex issue of identity, assimilation, and xenophobia amid anti-immigration movements at the turn of the twentieth century.
partner

Tucker Carlson’s Cries About Immigrants Have a Disturbing 19th-Century Parallel

The “great replacement theory” is nothing new.

The Bloody History of Anti-Asian Violence in the West

One of the largest mass lynchings in the United States targeted Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles.
Asian-American men waiting to be questioned by white police officers

Racism Has Always Been Part of the Asian American Experience

If we don’t understand the history of Asian exclusion, we cannot understand the racist hatred of the present.
A Border Patrol agent stands by an opening in the U.S. Mexico Border wall.
partner

Trump’s Border Wall Belongs to Biden Now

A border policy divorced from history can’t do what policymakers want.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Trouble with Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman authored the beloved short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," but also supported eugenics and nativism.
James Weldon Johnson.

James Weldon Johnson’s Ode to the “Deep River” of American History

What an old poem says about the search for justice following the Capitol riot.
This 1856 political cartoon depicts the responses of the three candidates to the results of the election. Winning Democrat James Buchanan sits reading the returns of the election while newspaper editors approach from the left. Behind them the defeated Republican candidate John C. Fremont rides off into the West. To the right the second defeated candidate, Millard Fillmore, laments his fall into the “caverns of Know-Nothingism.”

Here’s What Happens to a Conspiracy-Driven Party

The modern GOP isn't the first party to embrace huge conspiracies. But the lessons should be sobering.

The Deportation Machine

A new book documents the history of three specific mechanisms of expulsion: formal deportation, voluntary departure, and "self-deportation."
Painting of a worried child and a despairing mother.

With Friends Like These

On early American attempts to kick out foreigners.

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