Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama (2nd R) stands with Congressman Jerrold Nadler at a dedication ceremony officially designating the Stonewall Inn as a national monument to gay rights on June 27, 2016 in New York City.

Stonewall National Monument Declaration: Annotated

...to demand equal rights. More to Explore Webster’s Dictionary 1828: Annotated Liz Tracey April 19, 2024 Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny...
An abolitionist poster from Massachusetts which condemns the Fugitive Slave Law and the Massachusetts politicians who voted for it, 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: Annotated

The five bills collectively known as The Compromise of 1850 were signed into law by US President Millard Fillmore in an effort to continue the union of the states in...
Anna May Wong

Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

...the San Fernando Valley teaches us about public space in America. The Chinese Exclusion Act: Annotated Liz Tracey May 19, 2022 The passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882...
Enemy aliens on way to detention camp, Gloucester, NJ, 1918

The Alien Enemies Act: Annotated

...The Fourteenth Amendment: Annotated Liz Tracey January 22, 2024 Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution addresses citizenship rights, due process, and equal protection under the law....
Watercolor painting of the earth by Martin Eklund

On Earth Day

...Agreement: Annotated Liz Tracey April 22, 2023 Adopted by almost 200 parties at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference, the Paris Agreement captures international ambitions for cooperative climate action. Planetary...
Attendees of the joint meeting of the ASWPL and African American members of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation at Tuskegee Institute, 1938

How White Women Organized Against Lynching

...towns where lynchings had taken place, interviewed local judges and sheriffs, and studied public attitudes. More to Explore “Lynch Law in America”: Annotated Liz Tracey February 21, 2025 Ida B....
American politician Joseph McCarthy (1908 ? 1957), Republican senator from Wisconsin, testifies against the US Army during the Army-McCarthy hearings, Washington, DC, June 9, 1954. McCarthy stands before a map which charts Communist activity in the United States.

Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated

At the time of this writing, there have been two Red Scares in America. The first began in 1918 in response to heightened fears after the Russian Revolution, the increasing...
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31886897

“Lynch Law in America”: Annotated

The origins of “lynch law” in the United States are not definitive, but its use to punish those loyal to the British king during the American Revolution (or horse thieves,...
George Washington portrait

A Presidents’ Day Roundup

...its authorship. The Declaration of Independence: Annotated Liz Tracey December 9, 2021 Related links to free scholarly context on JSTOR for the foundational document in American government. Were George Washington’s...
A handbag with a United States flag coloring

The Power of the Purse

On January 27, 2025, a week into the second Trump administration, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo announcing that all federal financial assistance was being paused...