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George Holliday's footage of Rodney King being beaten by police in 1991

The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion: “No Justice, No Peace”

… the case of four police officers charged in the beating of African American motorist Rodney King to a packed courtroom … in a firestorm of anti-police protest. Looting, burning, and violence lasted six days in what became the largest … verdicts, thousands of residents took to the streets of South Central Los Angeles and in front of LAPD headquarters …
The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard (1833).

When Free Trade Meant Something Else

Review of Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition, by Bronwen Everill (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020)
… capitalism. 1619 saw the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the Virginia colony, marking the beginning of a … Hannah-Jones, has brought public attention to how slavery and American capitalism grew up together and alongside the … consumption. Additionally, she highlights the role of West Africa in shaping these ideals, which makes a stark contrast …
Tilden illustration - a hand on another hand that is on a gun on a table with papers

Top Ten Origins: Other “Unprecedented” Elections in American History

… something completely new in American political history, and not always because of what the issues were or who the … border between Oregon and Canada. Expansion for the slave south, expansion for the free-labor north. Polk won the … together northern supporters of the war effort with African-American voters and southern white opponents of …
The theatrical poster for Birth of a Nation.

3/25/2015: At the Movies: "Birth of a Nation" After 100 Years

… of a Nation  was the first 12-reel film in movie history and the first movie to be screened at the White House where … Klan (KKK) as an avenging force, hooded heroes saving the South from newly freed and empowered black citizens. For example, the African American Silas Lynch is a scheming, power-hungry, …
An integrated classroom in Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C., in 1957.

The Unfinished Business of School Desegregation

… The 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education has come and gone. But in celebrating its achievements we have once … a dangerous myth about race relations outside the South. Northern parents demanding educational equality have … schools is an issue that will not go away. The prominent African-American psychologist Kenneth Clark knew this when, …

Updating ‘No Child Left Behind:’ Change, or More of the Same

… because it promised to measure student achievement in math and reading, through regular standardized tests, and to use … developed during that time between public education and the African-American civil rights agenda. First, black … to be seriously limited. In the North as well as the South, many attended segregated schools, which, contrary to …
Statue of Samuel J. Tilden in New York City.

Presidential Electoral Controversy Nothing New in Florida

… as it did during the election of 1876. As the news media and lawyers from the Gore and the Bush campaigns converged … to contest other issues, the attention of the nation turned south. The story was much the same in 1876, when Florida was … The issue of a remedy remains unresolved. In the end, the African-American vote may again be one of the first …
A rendering of the Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, which was fought on April 12, 1864 in Tennessee.  It ended with a massacre by Confederate soldiers of at least one hundred surrendered black troops serving the Union, exemplifying one of the Civil War's transgressions of the norms of warfare.

The American Civil War, Then and Now

Review of The War that Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters, by James McPherson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015)
… over state sovereignty, unresolved regional rivalries, and enduring questions of race and citizenship. James … exploring the role of the 1846-1848 Mexican War in the South's eventual secession and another examining the continuing paramilitary and terrorist violence in the South after the Civil War, 1861-1865 seems narrow indeed. …

We Won’t Shut up and Dribble: A Short History of Black Athletic Protest

… man fr ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!" LeBron James in his Cleveland Cavaliers uniform, 2008. James was reacting to a … their disgust. Former WNBA star and current University of South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley tweeted, … opportunities. For example, between 1875 and 1902, eleven African American jockeys, led by Isaac Murphy, won the …
Two women in black hijab in Yemen

Yemen: Inside The Forgotten War

… ongoing conflict, with millions more threatened by disease and famine. Yet for many in the West, Yemen remains a … continue to deploy weapons produced in the United States and in Europe with devastating effect. This month, History Talk explores the current conflict in Yemen and its historical antecedents with two experts on the …
DC Police Car in the snow

A Long View of Policing in America

… How we understand policing in the United States depends not only on what … In this episode of History Talk , hosts Leticia Wiggins and Patrick Potyondy sit down with the historians Marcus Nevius , Lilia Fernández , and Clay Howard to take a longer and broader view of the …
voting button by Steve Rainwater, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0

Race and Voting, Past and Present

… Suppose an African American goes to the polls on Election Day. Although … workers turn her away. "You're black," they tell her, "and blacks can't vote." The following year, the same voter … black freedoms — especially the right to vote. "The whole South is in the hands of the very men that held us as …
W.E.B. Du Bois c. 1911

150 Years Since the Birth of W. E. B. Du Bois

… Du Bois. Although he died more than 50 years ago, his life and work command more attention now than ever before. Many … first page of Du Bois' dissertation "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade in the United States: 1638–1871" ( left … who had killed his employer in an act of self-defense just southwest of Atlanta, caused Du Bois to think about …
Glacial melt from Myrdalsjökull glacier in the south (jökull means glacier in Icelandic). Note the alluvial cones formed by volcanic ash and sediment.

A Postcard from Reykjavik: Iceland’s Volcanic History

… Humans weren’t around when volcanoes formed Iceland’s unique island landscapes some 20 million years ago. … within the last 100 years.  Glacier flowing down Iceland's southern coast;  Volcanic landscape. Recently, the … Katla sits underneath the Mýrdalsjökull glacier in the south and will trigger massive flooding when it resumes …
Colin Kaepernick and teammates kneeling

The Long View of Sports Protests

… in by condemning such actions, the focus dramatically expanded to questions of free speech, patriotism, and respecting the flag. While many lament the entrance of … into their Sunday football, we speak with three historians and sports fans— Hasan Jeffries , Robert Bennett , and Marc …
1864 depiction of the Fort Pillow Massacre in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

Ten Moments of White Supremacist Violence in U.S. History

… Trump’s failure to immediately condemn the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis following the events in Charlottesville, VA by … elections that fall, which led to federal occupation of the South and measures to allow black voting rights. 3. Colfax … and killed roughly 60 black Wilmingtonians. Over 2,100 African-Americans left the city during the carnage and did …
L to R - Indigenous, African American, and Jewish Peoples

Ideas of Race and Racism in History

… The issues of race and racism remain as urgent as ever to our national … does not exist as a biological reality, what then is race and where did the idea develop from? What is racism? How have race and racism been used by societies to justify discrimination, … principal legacy of the institution of slavery, North and South was the persistence in the belief in of white …

Re-mapping American Politics: The Redistricting Revolution Fifty Years Later

… about efforts across the United States to draw new state and federal legislative districts following the 2010 Census. … not just in the mostly one-party, racially segregated South of that day. Many of the states of the North and West … a redistricting scheme that seriously under-represented African-American residents' voting power, the Court would …
President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton in 1993.

Why Clinton Will Survive

… The specter of Watergate has hovered over the Clinton scandal. Yet overlooked in the stampede to compare Bill … of the Radical Republicans, who wanted to reconstruct the South by making African Americans citizens and creating an interracial …

An Enemy Until You Need A Friend: The Role of "Big Government" in American History

… has never been more anger directed toward “big government,” and that anger has boiled over during the last several … American life: 1) At a town hall meeting in Simpsonville, South Carolina hosted by Republican Congressman Robert … them, among other things, that “big government” had failed African Americans. 3) In July 2008 David Koch, billionaire …
An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, March 1, 1780. Pennsylvania State Archives.

The Forgotten First Step Toward Freedom

… in the United States can explain the neglect of this landmark law. The American Revolution had provided the … compelled to check the felonious dispatch of slaves to the South. The successes of these measures removed the incubus … slaves to liberate themselves by escaping to the North. New African-American churches, schools and mutual help …