Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) wears a traditional Afghani burqa while giving a speech in support of Afghan women's rights and American involvement against Taliban in the United States House of Representatives, October 16, 2001

A War of Liberation for Afghan Women?

The Taliban's gender-based repression was part of the US argument for invading Afghanistan.
A disappearing Roman emperor with a lictor (left) and nobleman (right)

Latin Literature’s Problem with Invisibility

Ancient Romans saw the rituals of professional sorcerers as foreign and suspicious. But how else were you supposed to become invisible?
Berea College sends its extension workers into remote communities

How a Southern College Tried to Resist Segregation

The founder of Kentucky's Berea College was an abolitionist. While he was alive, the school offered a free education for both Black and white students.
Dr. Schreiber of San Augustine giving a typhoid innoculation at a rural school

Do Schools Make Good Vaccination Sites?

The influenza virus is a problem student, but vaccinations get extra credit.
Walter Rubusana

How Walter Rubusana Paved the Way for Nelson Mandela

Rubusana was the first Black politician elected to office in colonial South Africa.
James McCune Smith

For James McCune Smith, Racism Was All Over Anthropology

What if the creation story of anthropology isn't exclusively about white men classifying people as primitive?
Damien Hooper of Australia listens to advice from his corner during the bout with Juan Carlos Carrillo of Colombia in the Boxing Men's Middle 75kg division on day 11 of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics at the International Convention Centre on August 25, 2010 in Singapore

How Do Indigenous Athletes Fit into the Olympics?

Olympic athletes are divided into teams of nations. To Indigenous competitors, though, that can mean representing oppressive settler-colonial states.
Blind men working on boxes for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics at the Lighthouse, an institution for the blind in New York

How Blind Activists Fought for Blind Workers

The National Federation of the Blind was the first major group of its kind to be led by visually impaired people.
Captain Misson, described by Captain Charles Johnson as the founder of a fictional "pirate utopia" called Libertalia or Libertatia.

Return to Pirate Island

The history of piracy illustrates a surprising connection to democratic Utopian radicalism—and, of course, stolen treasure.
Bob Moses at Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964

How the Freedom Vote Mobilized Black Mississippians

When civil rights activists needed new tactics, they came up with a strategy that would get national and international attention.