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What's Behind Trump's Defiance of the National Archives (and the Law?)

The civil servants working to preserve and secure government records have faced threats and harassment since the National Archives brought the FBI into its efforts to get the former president to comply with the law and return public documents. 

Black Women Veterans of Movement to Desegregate St. Augustine will Never Forget what they Endured

The 1964 campaign against Jim Crown in St. Augustine, waged as the Civil Rights Act was being filibustered in the Senate, remains an understudied battle in the movement. Many surviving women activists are keepers of knowledge about this phase of the freedom struggle. 

For One Iowa Teacher Leaving the Field, Harassment Over Curriculum Played a Big Role

"You really start to say, 'Well, can I teach about these topics at all? Can I —if a student brings it up — do I feel comfortable addressing that in class'?"

The Geographical Correlation Between Slavery Then and Guns Now

by Matthew Rozsa

A new study finds a strong county-level correlation between the number of slaves owned before the Civil War and the number of guns owned today. Is the answer in the violent history of white supremacy in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras? 

How Stokely Carmichael Inspired the Most Boring Channel on TV

Brian Lamb saw the Black Power advocate speak in a church in the 1960s, and then saw the news media distort his speech. This experience led to CSPAN, the anti-sound bite contribution to public discourse. 

Court Upholds Mississippi's 1890 Jim Crow Voting Law

The framers of the state's voting laws were explicit in their intention to use the law to strip as many Black men of their right to vote as possible. A federal court recently ruled that the law, amended with nominally color-blind language, is acceptable. 

The Growth of the Right-Wing Sect Advancing Christian Nationalism

Beneath broadly held notions of Christian nationalism lies a distinct theology. If you hear "spiritual warfare" in political speech, you're hearing the New Apostolic Reformation—though its adherents are secretive about it. 

Anthropologists: Heartland Imagery Distorts History of Midwest, Elevates Whites as Real Americans

Heartland imagery depends on images of white individuals and families obscure the forces of migration and industrialization that shaped the region and reinforce an image of rural whites as ideal citizens, argue two anthropologists. 

Attorney Fred Gray Still Fighting for Civil Rights at 91

The recent Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient lived by the motto of working "to destroy everything segregated I could find." 

ACLU, Educators and Students File to Block Florida's "Stop WOKE" Law

" The bill specifically targets and places vague restrictions on educators’ ability to teach and discuss concepts pertaining to systemic inequalities, including the legacy of slavery in America, white privilege, and anti-racism."

PEN America: The Nation's Censored Classrooms

by Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

"The restrictions and chilling effects of gag order laws threaten to destroy the climate of open inquiry required in free and democratic educational institutions."

The Pre-Civil War Origins of Texas's Abortion Laws

Texas's pre-Roe abortion ban has been dated to 1925 when the state recodified its criminal code, but the original statute dates to 1857. 

States Curtailing Students' Access to Books, Ideas

In many states, school librarians will be less free to recommend books, and students less free to explore them, with potentially serious consequences for educational quality and personal and intellectual growth, experts argue. 

Documentary Shows the Choices that Led to Deadly Streets

Blaming distraction—by drivers, pedestrians or cyclists—for climbing road fatalities is a cop-out, says Jennifer Boyd. Americans need to be willing to question the basic design of roads and the priority they give to moving cars fast if they are serious about reducing road deaths. 

Does DNA Clear Up the Origin Story of Chincoteague Horses?

Investigations of the origins of the wild horses of the mid-Atlantic coast remain inconclusive with respect to the horses, but they do demonstrate the human capacity to invest in a romantic narrative. 

Texas District Removes Graphic Version of Diary of Anne Frank

“It’s disgusting. It’s devastating. It’s legitimate book banning, there’s no way around it,” Laney Hawes, a parent of four children in the Keller district, told JTA about the order. “I feel bad for the teachers and the librarians.”

Franklin Foer on Paul Manafort's Memoir

With a memoir titled "political prisoner," Paul Manafort "now places himself in the same category as the victims of rape and beatings whose suffering he was once handsomely paid to minimize."

Feminism Can't Ignore the Power of Sexual Freedom

by Nona Willis Aronowitz

A half century later, the "sex wars" that split second-wave feminists remain resonant in a society where the display of sexuality sits uneasily with women's ability to pursue desire on their own terms. 

Native Activist Gets Apology from MPAAS For 1973 Oscars Protest

Sacheen Littlefeather appeared in lieu of Marlon Brando to decline his Oscar for "The Godfather" as a protest against racist portrayals of American Indians. The Academy has just now apologized for the abuse she endured during the ceremony and afterward.

75 Years Later, are the Ghosts of India's Partition Fading?

Up to two million people were killed in the violence and forced migration prompted by the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947, warning for the present as nationalist sentiment surges in both countries.