Frederick Douglass

The United States’ unofficial anthem, a hymn of love of country.

History suggests that what you see on the campaign trail, or even in a candidate’s past record, is not always what you get from a president once in power.

On the aesthetics and history of the Freedman’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.

A state with an often-overlooked history of enslavement demonstrates the lasting significance and geographic reach of the Haitian Revolution.

Revisionist biographers have given us countless perspectives, from Honest Abe to Killer Lincoln. Is there a version that’s true to his time and attuned to ours?

As Lincoln recognized, it's not enough to question the decisions, justices, or even the structure of the Court. We need to challenge the foundation of its power.

Moral complexity may be an argument against unthinking iconoclasm. It is not, however, an argument for never taking down statues.

Racism — not reformers demanding redress — is the source of American strife.

Not since Reconstruction has there been such an opportunity for the advancement of racial justice.

The Great Emancipator's character and anti-slavery legacy has been questioned by Black Americans for over a century.

Dorsey and Thomas amassed important collections at a time when the future of chattel slavery and Black life hung in the balance of a national quarrel.

Who tells our stories has always mattered.

The movement for racial equality echoes the vision of the “August First Day” holiday.

Black people suffer disproportionately from police violence. But white skin does not provide immunity.

The long history behind the Army's Jim Crow forts.

Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.

It is fair to ask whether Grant’s prewar experiences define the entirety of his character, and who sets the bar for which public figures deserve commemoration.

Photographer Drew Gardner painstakingly recreates the images with the notable figures' descendants.

How a monument that championed black sacrifice in the name of emancipation was forgotten.

The Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., has become a flashpoint in today’s reckoning with racist statues.