Roundup

Drugstores and the Color Line: Remembering Pharmacies as Sites of the Civil Rights Movement

by Greg Bond

Drug stores and pharmacies have been important sites of civil rights struggle – as local businesses that have provided vital services to a broad clientele, equal service at the pharmacy has been a material and symbolic demand of Black freedom advocates dating to the late 19th century. 

Obama Embraced ‘Endless Wars.’ Biden Probably Will, Too

by Samuel Moyn

Will Joe Biden's shift in tone from Trump's belligerence paper over many continuities in 21st-century American empire? 

My Great-Grandmother Ida B. Wells Left a Legacy of Activism in Education. We Need that Now

by Michelle Duster

Activists like Ida B. Wells understood that access to education was critical to all other missions of African American advancement, but systemic inequality has persisted since emancipation.

The Problem of Environmental Racism in Mexico Today is Rooted in History

by Jayson Maurice Porter

The marginalization of Afro-Mexican history in the state of Guerrero is product of a history of government-sanctioned development that harmed marginalized communities; ignorance of that history prevents considering policy solutions that could advance environmental justice in areas harmed by tourism development and deforestation. 

Empire Shaped Ireland's Past. A Century After Partition, It Still Shapes Our Present

by Michael D. Higgins

The Irish President argues for a full reckoning with the difficult aspects of imperialism and sectarian violence in Ireland's history, by recognizing that a singular unifying narrative is an impossibility. 

The New Deal’s Capitalist Lessons for Joe Biden

by Louis Hyman

An economic historian argues that the greatest impact of the New Deal came from programs that guided the investment of private capital to social ends, rather than direct expenditure on public works. 

Black Women have Shaped Politics in Boston for Centuries

by Kabria Baumgartner

From free speech to educational equity to fair housing, Black women in Boston have been at the front lines of challenging the city's political establishment to live up to ideals of democracy associated with the city. The presumptive mayor-elect Kim Janey will carry on that tradition. 

How Will Jeff Bezos Spend His Billions Now?

by Margaret O'Mara

John D. Rockefeller used philanthropy to blunt harsh criticism of his business practices and the social dysfunction represented by his immense wealth. What will his 21st-century analogue Jeff Bezos do for an image-burnishing second act? And will it be about service to the public or service to Bezos? 

Goodbye to the Cult of SoulCycle

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

The attachment of deep spiritual meaning to commercialized exercise brands creates a climate ripe for abuse and exploitation, writes a historian of fitness culture. 

What Kyle Rittenhouse's Fate Reveals about Law and Order

by Nicole Hemmer

Historically, white vigilantism, especially against the demands of minorities for civil and economic equality, has been a key component of the politics of "law and order."

Marjorie Taylor Greene is Just the Latest Radical White Woman Poisoning Politics

by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae

White women have been active participants in creating and advancing the politics of white supremacy and eliminationist conspiracy theorizing. Marjorie Taylor Greene's antics are nothing new. 

The Buccaneers Embody Tampa’s Love of Pirates. Is that a Problem?

by Jamie L.H. Goodall

  "Perhaps time has dulled us to the atrocities committed by these 17th and 18th century outlaws. Or perhaps it’s the fact that if pirates of the Golden Age were bloodthirsty, so too were the nations who opposed them."

History Reveals the Danger of Republicans Indulging Marjorie Taylor Greene

by Austin Nicholson

Allowing Marjorie Taylor Greene to accrue seniority and committee leadership will bring her dangerous, conspiratorial and bigoted thinking into the mainstream of policymaking. 

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Reminds Us of the Deep Costs of Inequality

by Dan Royles

"This history shows us that biomedical interventions such as antiretrovirals to treat HIV or the vaccine against the coronavirus yield some progress in the fight against epidemic disease, but do little to alter the underlying inequities that make some communities more vulnerable to illness in the first place."

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Challenge to Liberal Allies — And Why it Resonates Today

by Jeanne Theoharis

The present tendency to pigeonhole King's work as a challenge to southern Jim Crow obscures his demands for deep reform to national priorities, emphasis on economic justice, and insistence that liberalism live up to its creed of equality. 

Biden Has a Unique Opportunity to Undo Years of Education Inequality

by Crystal R. Sanders

Segregated state higher education systems long neglected the responsibility to support graduate and professional education for Black residents, to the point of funding scholarships to send Black students out of state rather than allow the growth of professional and graduate programs in their states. 

What ‘Defund the Police’ Really Means

by Simon Balto

The debate about "defunding police" must return to the community-driven vision of activists like assassinated Black Panther Fred Hampton, who envisioned a program of community empowerment that could divert the vast resources spent on policing toward other social ends. 

An Ode To Students

by Allison Raven

"Unfairness ran throughout my students’ educational experiences."

Henry Aaron and American Memory

by Robert Greene II

"The memories of Jackie Robinson and Henry Aaron, two Americans reviled by many of their compatriots during their playing days but embraced by virtually everyone now, are but the sports phase of a nationwide problem—the problem of properly remembering a painful past."

“White Fragility” Gets Jackie Robinson's Story Wrong

by Peter Dreier

In an effort to define the Major League Color Line as an artifact of white prejudice, Robin DiAngelo obscures the fact that Jackie Robinson was part of a broad protest movement by Black activists and some white allies to demand and achieve integration of professional baseball.