White Women and the Mahjong Craze
Travelers brought the Chinese game to American shores in the early 1920s. Why was it such a hit?
How Civil Rights Groups Used Photography for Change
As one activist said, “If our story is to be told, we will have to write it and photograph it and disseminate it ourselves.”
The “Scientific” Antifeminists of Victorian England
Nineteenth-century biologists employed some outrageous arguments in order to keep women confined to the home.
The Meaning of Racist Place Names
In one river town in central Illinois, a wetlands called N— Lake was scapegoated for destructive flooding.
Zora Neale Hurston
In a controversial letter, the versatile author expressed frustration with critics of segregation.
How Rock against Racism Fought the Right
A rising tide of violence and bigotry in the 1970s infected the British music scene. A group of musicians organized to resist.
How St. Louis Domestic Workers Fought Exploitation
Without many legal protections under the New Deal, Black women organized through the local Urban League.
How One Household Avoided Emancipation Laws
The Volunbruns enslaved twenty people and moved relentlessly between empires and states as more jurisdictions outlawed slavery.
The New Negro and the Dawn of the Harlem Renaissance
In 1925, an anthology of Black creative work heralded the arrival of a movement that had been years in the making.