Martin Luther King in 1957

The African Roots of MLK’s Vision

“Ghana tells us that the forces of the universe are on the side of justice… An old order of colonialism, of segregation, discrimination is passing away now.”
Memphis bridge

The People’s Grocery Lynching, Memphis, Tennessee

On March 2, 1892, in Memphis, Tennessee, a racially charged mob grew out of a fight between a black and a white youth near People’s Grocery.
enslaved women illustration

Two Women of the African Slave Resistance

African women, always a minority in the slave trade, often had to find their own ways of rebellion against slavery if they could.
Women's March

How Women’s Studies Erased Black Women

The founders of Women’s Studies were overwhelmingly white, and focused on the experiences of white, heterosexual women.
Bobby Seale and Cesar Chavez

The Black Panthers’ Unlikely Ally

Cesar Chavez's non-violent United Farm Workers and the militant Black Panthers aligned politically throughout the 60s and 70s.
Philando Castile shooting video

Viral Black Death: Why We Must Watch Citizen Videos of Police Violence

We should acknowledge and absorb the pain captured in videos of police violence, just as antiracist activists bore witness in the past to lynchings.
Black and white photograph of “369th 15th New York” from World War I

World War I Vets as the Vanguard of the ‘New Negro’

World War I saw several hundred thousand African-American soldiers discharged from a virulently segregated U.S. military into a virulently segregated society
Album cover of Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly"

Butterfly Flow: Tupac, Kendrick Lamar, and the Resurrection of New Black Godz

A look at mythic themes in Kendrick Lamar's recent #1 album To Pimp a Butterfly.
Josephine Baker laying on top of a tiger rug in black and white

The Fuss About Josephine Baker

 A new one-woman Broadway show puts Josephine Baker back in the public consciousness.
William P. Jones

Labor Unions, Public Employees, and Race: An Interview with William P. Jones

An interview with scholar William P. Jones on labor unions, public employees, and race.