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The Underground Network of Ministers and Rabbis Aiding Abortion Access Before Roe

Part of journalist Becca Andrews's new book looks at the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, which, before the religious right, offered a faith-based endorsement of abortion rights.

US Neglect of Puerto Rico is in the News, but the Main Historical Relationship has been Abuse

by Jaquira Diaz

From forced disruption of native industry through mass sterilization and forced austerity, one writer argues that the only escape from mainland abuse is full Puerto Rican independence. 

Evanston, Illinois Passed a Reparations Program. Can its Liberal Present Confront the Segregated Past?

by Kari Lydersen

The Chicago suburb has focused on progams to rectify the harms caused by discrete city actions, specifically generations of housing discrimination that limited Black wealth gains from real estate. Can it make a difference? Will local taxpayers support it? 

Texas Leading the Nation in Book Banning

Not suprisingly, books dealing with racism and LGBTQ themes are being targeted for removal from library and school shelves, even preventing them from being read voluntarily. 

At its 50th Reunion, La Raza Unida Asks How to Pass the Torch

La Raza Unida grew out of civil rights mobilization in the 1960s and worked to mobilize the large, complex, and internally divided communities of ethnic Mexican Texans, focusing on education and voting rights, and struggling to bridge radical and moderate political outlooks. 

Will SCOTUS Revisit the Second Class Citizenship of American Samoans?

Unique among non-state U.S. territories, people born in American Samoa are not granted citizenship by birth. This legal anomaly traces back to the acquisition of Pacific islands from Spain in a climate of American imperialism and white supremacy. 

The National Archives' Work to Recover Stolen History

Donald Trump wouldn't be the first person to face legal jeopardy for holding materials that belong to the national archives. 

New York Museums to Disclose Provenance of Pieces Looted by Nazis

The Metropolitan Museum has currently identified 53 works as seized or sold under duress by Nazis. It is unclear how many more it will identify in response to a new state law requiring the display of those pieces to disclose the conditions of acquisition. 

Partisan Attacks on Universities Show Administrators Need to Drop the Charade of Political Neutrality

by Holden Thorp

A veteral university administrator and scholarly journal editor says that the right is bound and determined to attack universities regardless of how much administrators proclaim their commitment to open debate. They need to embrace the role of truth-seeking instead. 

Canadian University Lifts Embargo on Doug Mastriano's Dissertation

As documented errors in a book Mastriano based on the dissertation became a campaign issue, the university reversed itself and lifted what was apparently an indefinite embargo on the thesis. 

American Library Association: Book Bans Accelerating

“It represents an escalation, and we’re truly fearful that at some point we will see a librarian arrested for providing constitutionally protected books on disfavored topics,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the office of intellectual freedom at the library association.

How True is the History in "The Woman King"?

"'The Woman King' chooses to make resistance to slavery its moral compass, then misrepresents a kingdom that trafficked tens of thousands as a vanguard in the struggle against it."

Economics is Power, not Math: Why the Dems Should Attack Monopoly

by Barry C. Lynn

Until the Reagan Revolution, American politics reflected the understanding that concentrated economic power was corrosive to democracy. Today, the Democrats need to revive that story as a political argument. 

Benin Bronzes Have Final German Exhibition Before Repatriation

"'The recognition of the colonial injustices and the subsequent return of the items “will continue to define our work in the future,' Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation."

"Independent State Legislature" Legal Theory Based in Fake History

Charles Pinckney's ideas for the Constitution were rejected by the framers. Years later, he produced fake documents to aggrandize his own role at the convention. Right-wing legal activists have used them to argue that state legislatures can decide election results however they want. 

Baldwin Lee's Rediscovered Photos Deepen Understanding of the South

Many white photographers documented the south with a paternalistic frame on their Black subjects. The New York-born son of Chinese immigrants, Lee proceeded from the premise that he knew nothing about the post-Jim Crow South and had to learn. 

UC's Initiative for Free Tuition to Members of Recognized California Tribes Opens Difficult Questions about Native Identity

Legally, the University of California system can only offer a tuition benefit to members of federally recognized tribes. But this runs afoul of historically complex issues of federal recognition, definitions of tribal membership based in race and ancestry, and the actions of tribes to manage their own membership rolls. 

Los Angeles to Memorialize 1871 Anti-Chinese Massacre

Architect Annie Chu describes the task of using design and space to evoke an emotional connection to the victims of mass violence whose identities and stories have been largely lost. 

David Frum: Who is Really Served by Repatriating Art?

It's worth asking whether the return of artifacts to Africa from European museums is anything but a public purification ritual, and whether the Euro-American art establishment has given consideration to the politically fraught question of who in present-day Nigeria would control the art. 

Does Disqualifying a January 6 Participant from Office Threaten Democracy?

Disqualifying particular candidates does nothing to fight the broad-based embrace of election denialism and authoritarianism, and it further deprives voters of the right to repudiate those things at the polls, say three law professors.