Photograph: Gloria Reynolds, a shop assistant in London's King's Road. 

Source: Graham Wood/Getty

Why Black Women Activists Started Wearing Denim

Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee adopted denim clothing for activist work. This had special significance for Black women.
Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

The Legacy of Racial Hatred in the January 6 Insurrection

The U.S.’s politics of racial hatred are sustained by a culture of making political compromises when bold action is required.
City Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of Jacksonville, State Meeting, Palatka, Florida

Women’s Clubs and the “Lost Cause”

Women's clubs were popular after the Civil War among white and Black women. But white clubwomen used their influence to ingrain racist curriculum in schools.
Scene in The Bahamas, 1884

The Saltwater Railroad

Throughout the 19th century, enslaved people attempted to escape from the U.S. to the Bahamas, across what became known as the "Saltwater Railroad."
A camper van parked beside some trees in the fog

The New Nomads of #VanLife Reflect an Enduring Divide

A distinctly American restlessness is inspiring some to abandon the idea of a permanent home, while others are displaced by harsh realities.
Kimpa Vita and a map of Kongo

Did Kongolese Catholicism Lead to Slave Revolutions?

The legacy of Kimpa Vita, a Kongolese Catholic mystic, was felt from the U.S. to Haiti.
Photo by _HealthyMond . on Unsplash

Autism Education, “Silent Sam,” and Regulating TV

New books and scholarship from UNC Press, The University of Texas Press, and Oxford University Press.
Alex Haley Roots

How Alex Haley Popularized Ancestral Searching

Today it's easy to have DNA tested. But before that technology was available, Alex Haley's Roots inspired generations to trace their families' histories.
Arlington Confederate Monument

The History of the History of American Slavery

In an age when the White House is being asked if slavery was a good or bad thing, perhaps we should take a look at the history of the history of slavery.