Since its founding in 1865, The Nation has been a home for writers instigating, reporting on and arguing about struggles for social and economic justice. During our anniversary year, TheNation.com will highlight one “Nation Ideal” every month or two. We’ll celebrate by offering Journeys Through History—interactive multimedia timelines that present the history of each Ideal, complete with archival photographs and video. Our fourth Journey Through History presents Part IV of the history of the fight for civil rights and racial justice, from 1968 to 1990. You can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, and Part V here.
Research by Richard Kreitner
Design by Stacie Williams
Editor‘s Note: The December 1, 1955, entry initially left out reference to Rosa Parks as a civil-rights activist prior to her arrest. It also erroneously claimed that Claudette Colvin’s pregnancy was the reason that she was not embraced as a symbol of the movement.
Check out all of our Journeys Through History on race and civil rights!
Part I, From the Memphis riots of 1866 to the first anti-lynching conference, in New York City, in 1919.
Part II, From the “Red Summer” of racial violence in Chicago, in 1919, to Rosa Parks’s bus protest, in 1955.
Part III, From the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968.
Part IV, From the ban on segregation in housing, in 1968, to freedom for Nelson Mandela, in 1990.
Part V, From the LA riots of 1992 to the release of Selma, in 2015.
