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African American boy watches a parade of white people from a distance.

The Great Resegregation

The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil rights movement.
Federal employees wait for treatment at a public health dispensary.

Trump Isn’t the First to Upend the Federal Workforce Because of Race

President Woodrow Wilson presided over the segregation of government workers, putting Black people behind screens and in cages in 1913.
Woodrow Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson Should Stay Canceled

The 28th President of the United States enabled segregation and vile treatment of Black federal workers. He doesn’t deserve an image rehabilitation.
President John F. Kennedy meets with William Fitzjohn, Sierra Leone's charge d’affairs in Washington, in the Oval Office on April 27, 1961.

The African Diplomats Who Protested Segregation in the U.S.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy publicly apologized after restaurants refused to serve Black representatives of newly independent nations.
Newspaper headline reading: "Red Cross Says Refusal of Negro Blood is U.S. Order."

Good Blood, Bad Policy: The Red Cross and Jim Crow

A 1940s Red Cross rule, which racially segregated blood, propped up notions of racial difference and Black inferiority.
Brooklyn Bridge with the city skyline in the background.

When Panama Came to Brooklyn

“For those Afro-Caribbean Panamanian who had lived through Panama’s Canal Zone apartheid, Brooklyn segregation probably came as no surprise.”
Bus station with 'colored waiting room' sign.

Plessy v. Ferguson at 125

One hundred and twenty five years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, there are still lessons to be gleaned from the case.
Segregated airport terminal

What It Was Like to Fly as a Black Traveler in the Jim Crow Era

Airlines sometimes bumped Black passengers off of flights to make room for white travelers, even during refueling stops.
Segregated waiting room at Union Station railroad depot in Jacksonville, Florida.

Historian Mia Bay on ‘Traveling Black’

Bay’s new book explores the intertwined history of travel segregation and African American struggles for freedom of movement.

The Supreme Court Case That Enshrined White Supremacy in Law

How Plessy v. Ferguson shaped the history of racial discrimination in America.

The Rope: The Forgotten History of Segregated Rock & Roll Concerts

The Platters, the Flamingos, and other pioneering performers share stories of divided audiences and harrowing violence.

The Confederate Flag Largely Disappeared after the Civil War

The fight against civil rights brought it back.

The Roots of Segregation

"The Color of Law" offers an indicting critique of the progressive agenda.
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson Was Extremely Racist — Even By the Standards of His Time

He called black people "an ignorant and inferior race," and it gets worse.

Remembering President Wilson's Purge of Black Federal Workers

Woodrow Wilson arrived at the White House determined to eliminate the gains African-Americans made during Reconstruction.
Malcolm X sitting on a couch

Remembering Malcolm X: Rare Interviews and Audio

On the religion, segregation, the civil rights movement, violence, and hypocrisy.

The Case for Reparations

Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Children peering through the fence around the white community near Johannesburg, South Africa in 1973.

American Conservatism's Home Grown Defenses of Apartheid

A long and ugly history.
David Levering Lewis and his book overlaid on a stained glass window.

No Nation Under Their Feet

A historian explores his own family's history to understand the African-American community’s internal pigmentocracy and the absurdity of racial binaries.
Women adjusting their makeup and hair in a women's restroom in the 1940s.

In the Ladies’ Loo

Gender-segregated bathrooms tell a story about who is and who is not welcome in public life.
Home owners Loan Corporation map of Detroit.

Beyond Brown: The Failure of Desegregation in the North and America’s Lingering Racial Fault Lines

On the ongoing legal struggle for educational and racial equality across the United States.
Zora Neale Hurston.

Why Zora Neale Hurston Was Obsessed with the Jews

Her long-unpublished novel was the culmination of a years-long fascination. What does it reveal about her fraught views on civil rights?
Jimmy Carter waving and smiling at a crowd of supporters, surrounded by men in suits.

Jimmy Carter’s Improbable Road to the Presidency

The Southern president, who kept his head down following Brown v. Board of Education, would eventually declare that “the time for discrimination is over.”
Illustration of Willie Mayes holding a baseball bat, while men watch from the city.

A Giant of a Man

The legacy of Willie Mays and the Birmingham ballpark where he first made his mark.
A senior quote from Bookter T. Washington High School 1921 yearbook.

The Myth of the Christian State

When religion became the veil for racial violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
John Roberts, Lewis F. Powell Jr., and a statue of Lady Justice between them.

There’s a New Lewis Powell Memo, and It’s Wildly Racist

One young conservative lawyer would lead a determined fight to maintain Lewis Powell’s blindfolded race neutrality.

The Death of Jack Trice

On October 6, 1923, Iowa State tackle Jack Trice lined up for the second half of a college football game. No one’s sure what happened in that third quarter.
The Crawfords, a Negro League baseball team, 1932.

Josh Gibson Topples Ty Cobb?

The power of history, numbers, and nostalgia.
Mississippi Freedom Summer activists and contact list.

What the Civil Rights Act Really Meant

An overlooked effect of the legislation, passed 60 years ago this week, was its powerful message of hope for Black Americans.
Silhouette of baseball player swinging bat.

Negro-League Players Don’t Belong in the MLB Record Books

And neither do white players from the segregation era.

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