The Newport Rebels and Jazz as Protest
In 1960 a group of jazz musicians organized an alternative to the Newport Jazz Festival, which they saw as too pop and too white.
The Detroit Rebellion
From 1964 to 1972, at least 300 U.S. cities faced violent upheavals, the biggest led by the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, in Detroit.
The Sorry State of Apologies
"Sorry" can be more than a mere word when it has real-world consequences.
The Black Mathematician Who Resisted Nuclear War
J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. worked on the Manhattan Project and signed a petition that the bomb not be used before Japan was offered terms of surrender.
Black English Matters
People who criticize African American Vernacular English don't see that it shares grammatical structures with more "prestigious" languages.
Ditch the Smartphone and Smell the Roses This Valentine’s Day
Digital detox services may be just as important for your health as a chemical detoxification
African American Studies: Foundations and Key Concepts
This non-exhaustive list of readings in African American Studies highlights the vibrant history of the discipline and introduces the field.
The Science of Baby-Name Trends
What makes a name suddenly pop—and then die? Social scientists and historians have been puzzling over this for decades.
The Rhythms of Shaker Dance Marked the Shakers as “Other”
The name Shaker originally comes from the insult “Shaking Quakers,” which mocked the sect’s use of their bodies in worship.
W.E.B. DuBois Fought “Scientific” Racism
Early 20th century intellectual W.E.B. DuBois countered the then-popular idea that African-Americans could be scientifically proven to be inferior.