Race, Prison, and the Thirteenth Amendment
Critiques of the Thirteenth Amendment have roots in a long history of activists who understood the imprisonment of Black people as a type of slavery.
Poison and Magic in Caribbean Uprisings
Witchcraft and poisoning were closely connected for both West Africans and the Europeans who enslaved them in the eighteenth-century Caribbean.
How the Black Press Helped Integrate Baseball
In the 1930s and ’40s, Black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier used their platform to help break the sport’s color line.
The Price of Plenty: Should Food Be Cheap?
The supermarket revolution made food more affordable and accessible than ever. But do the hidden costs of food feed into our illusions of justice and progress?
The Incredible Versatility of Adrienne Rich
Rich challenged the language of the past in poetry and prose while not quite embracing a fully inclusive future.
“A Time To Speak”: Annotated
On September 15, 1963, a bomb killed four Black children in Birmingham, Alabama. Who threw that bomb? Each of us, argued Birmingham lawyer Charles Morgan, Jr.
How Plate Tectonics Shook Life into Existence
The cycles of life all rely on the dynamism of the Earth’s crust.
Vanillagate? Ice Cream Parlors and White Slavery
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was no more dangerous place for a young white woman than the ice cream parlor.
Electrifying the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Jewish immigrants and British authorities tried to sell electrification as a matter of business while Palestinian Arabs viewed it as a Zionist nation-building project.
Shine On You Eagle Diamond
The year 1893 was a big one for Eagle, Wisconsin. Workers found a huge diamond on the Devereaux farm: sixteen carats, uncut, and now, all these years later, missing.