Cornel West: Neoliberalism Has Failed Us
West speaks on Obama’s legacy, the failures of American empire, and the role of race in Trump’s election.
Early America’s Troubled Relationship With Monkeys
The real and supposed resemblances between humans and non-human primates shaped American conversations about race and society.
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.
What Can Tiffany’s Mosaics Teach us about Stereotypes?
Tiffany’s glass mosaics can teach us a lot about stereotypes and nineteenth-century ideologies, particularly in the Marquette Buildings mosaic friezes.
Black Organizing and White Violence
In 1919, armed posses and federal troops killed as many as one hundred African-Americans in one of the worst instances of mass violence in U.S. history.
The Dangers of Gone With The Wind‘s Romantic Vision of the Old South
Writer Margaret Mitchell was born on November 8th, 1900, at the beginning of a new century. Her novel Gone ...
Ralph Ellison on Race
Ralph Ellison believed fiercely in the American project and in the centrality of black people to it.
Jane Addams’s Crusade Against Victorian “Dancing Girls”
Jane Addams, a leading Victorian-era reformer, believed dance halls were “one of the great pitfalls of the city.”
How 19th Century Women Were Taught to Think About Native Americans
In nineteenth-century American women's magazines, Native American women were depicted as attractive, desirable, and pious.
Glenn Ligon’s “Blue Black” Exhibits the History of Race in America
Artist Glenn Ligon grounds his work in American history, addressing the inextricable link between history of slavery and the black experience in the U.S.