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Massive Investment in Social Studies and Civics Education Proposed to Address Eroding Trust in Democratic Institutions

The Educating for American Democracy (EAD) initiative will release a 36-page report and an accompanying 39-page road map Tuesday, laying out extensive guidance for improving and reimagining the teaching of social studies, history and civics and then implementing that over the next decade.

Lightning Strikes Twice: Another Lost Jacob Lawrence Surfaces

A Manhattan nurse learned that a painting in her apartment was the missing Panel 28, "Immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820 to 1840—115,773,” in Jacob Lawrence's "Struggle: From the History of the American People." 

Former Procter and Gamble CEO: America and the World Need History Majors

by John Pepper

"Paraphrasing former Yale President and MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti, I love history because I have come to see that without a knowledge of the past — its realities and causative relationships –— we cannot hope to construct an action agenda able to lead us to a better future."

Killings by Police Declined after Black Lives Matter Protests

The study relies on a quantitative method that evaluates the timing of events to approximate a control-group experiment. The mechanism remains unclear, but results suggest BLM protests lead to fewer police killings. 

Ga. Lawmaker Authors Bills To Abolish Confederate Monuments In Peach State

Georgia state representative Shelly Hutchinson argues that while Confederate monuments stand,"there’s no healing that takes place there, and that means you are OK with where we are at as a country.”

An Invaluable Black Public Broadcasting Archive Is Now Accessible Online

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting is a repository of interviews and broadcast content dealing with the spectrum of African American history and political activism. 

Republicans Are Trying to Kill What’s Left of the Voting Rights Act

by Ari Berman

Voting Rights expert Ari Berman says that Chief Justice John Roberts's career gives troubling indications of how the court will rule on cases that could render the Voting Rights act impotent. 

“UT Needs Rich Donors”: Emails Show Wealthy Alumni Supporting “Eyes of Texas” Threatened to Pull Donations

A number of wealthy University of Texas alumni have threatened to withhold donations unless "The Eyes of Texas," a song with roots traced to blackface minstrelsy and the Lost Cause mythology, is reinstated as the Longhorns' postgame anthem. 

A New York Drugstore Nearly as Storied as the City Itself

"The store, on Sixth Avenue between West 8th and 9th Streets, is in the very center of Greenwich Village. And its landmark interior, which dates to 1902, is wonderfully preserved, with its original tiled floor and oak shelves."

The Lie at the Heart of the Western

New novels disrupt the stories of white heroism at the heart of the Western genre and grapple with the multiethnic, violent, and exploitative history of the continent. 

The Untold Story of Queer Foster Families

by Michael Waters

Before the legal recognition of same-sex adoptive parents, social workers around the country made decisions to place gay and lesbian teens with gay and lesbian foster parents as a humane and protective act. 

African-American Sacrifice in the Killing Fields of France

For their bravery in capturing Séchault from the Germans on Sept. 29, 1918, and for other combat action, the regiment known as the "Harlem Hellfighters" was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre, soon after the war. 

Lawrence Otis Graham, 59, Dies; Explored Race and Class in Black America

Graham's writing examined the tensions facing wealthy African Americans in a society divided on both racial and class lines. 

Shelia Washington Dies at 61; Helped Exonerate Scottsboro Boys

Shelia Washington read the story of the Scottsboro Boys as a teen, dedicated her life to preserving knowledge of their case, and finally spearheaded an effort that led the state of Alabama to exonerate the wrongly convicted men. 

The Campaign to Cancel Wokeness

Columnist Michelle Goldberg examines the roots of the academic Critical Race Theory movement, and concludes that while its practitioners are sometimes willing to prioritize justice over free speech, the right today simply wants to suppress ideas it fears.

A Harvard Professor Called Wartime Sex Slaves ‘Prostitutes.’ One Pushed Back

One of the last survivors among the Korean "comfort women" of World War II has denounced a recent paper characterizing the trafficking of women by the Imperial Japanese Army as ordinary prostitution. 

How Negro History Week Became Black History Month and Why It Matters Now

Historian Martha S. Jones traces the lineage of Black History Month from a day promoted by educator Mary Church Terrell to honor Frederick Douglass, through the work of Carter G. Woodson to promote knowledge of Black history, to the present. 

The Future of the Middle Class Depends on Student Loan Forgiveness

Writer Anne Helen Petersen says that understanding the broken student loan system requires rejecting the narrative of individual choice and focusing on the history and social effects of debt.

“Decades in the Making”: How Mainstream Conservatives & Right-Wing Money Fueled the Capitol Attack

Author Brendan O'Connor says the Capitol riots were decades in the making, and discusses the history of ideology and institution-building on the right that organized the riots. 

Cherokee Nation Addresses Bias Against Descendants of Enslaved People

The decision by tribal authorities was a significant step toward resolving the issues created by prior decisions to exclude the descendants of Black people enslaved by members of the Cherokee nation from full citizenship privileges.