African Americans

Tyra Banks

‘America’s Next Top Model’ Wraps After 22 Seasons of Bigotry ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Wraps After 22 Seasons of Bigotry

Exotic Asians, hot-tempered Latinas, and the original angry black woman—we owe all of these reality TV tropes to Tyra Banks’s fake-empowerment series.

Dec 8, 2015 / Jennifer L. Pozner

Linda and Keshawn Green pose in their backyard and (inset below) with Charles Green, loving husband and dad, who is serving a life sentence.

2.7 Million Kids Have Parents in Prison. They’re Losing Their Right to Visit. 2.7 Million Kids Have Parents in Prison. They’re Losing Their Right to Visit.

States have gutted family visitation programs in reaction to prison overcrowding, and racist ideas about black sexuality.

Dec 2, 2015 / Feature / Sylvia A. Harvey

The Power of Moral Mondays

The Power of Moral Mondays The Power of Moral Mondays

Reverend Barber’s multi-racial movement for justice.

Dec 1, 2015 / Katrina vanden Heuvel

It’s Shocking How Relevant This 150-Year-Old Denunciation of American Racism Is Today

It’s Shocking How Relevant This 150-Year-Old Denunciation of American Racism Is Today It’s Shocking How Relevant This 150-Year-Old Denunciation of American Racism Is Today

In 1865, a writer in The Nation took aim at the deadly dehumanization of black lives that plagued the United States then as it does today.

Nov 4, 2015 / Richard Kreitner

Student protestors at the University of Mississippi demand the remove of the Confederate-styled state flag.

Will the University of Mississippi Ditch Its State Flag? Will the University of Mississippi Ditch Its State Flag?

Tomorrow its student government will vote on a resolution that would remove the Mississippi state flag from campus grounds because of its “[incorporation of] the Confederate battle...

Oct 19, 2015 / StudentNation / Carlos Ballesteros

Reclaiming Black History, One Grave at a Time

Reclaiming Black History, One Grave at a Time Reclaiming Black History, One Grave at a Time

Photojournalist Brian Palmer documents the effort to restore a Virginia cemetery overtaken by trash and brush during years of official neglect.

Oct 15, 2015 / Photo Essay / Brian Palmer and Erin Hollaway Palmer

Margo Jefferson

A Retelling: The Clubwomen A Retelling: The Clubwomen

A writer reflects on her grandmothers’ struggles with progress and peril in a changing America.

Sep 2, 2015 / Margo Jefferson

W.E.B. Du Bois

Historians of Color Are Revolutionizing the Narrative of ‘American Exceptionalism’ Historians of Color Are Revolutionizing the Narrative of ‘American Exceptionalism’

For too long, we have looked in the wrong place and race for the genesis of our national story.

Sep 1, 2015 / David Levering Lewis

Students Protest BLM

What a Band of 20th-Century Alabama Communists Can Teach Black Lives Matter and the Offspring of Occupy What a Band of 20th-Century Alabama Communists Can Teach Black Lives Matter and the Offspring of Occupy

On the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking history, Hammer and Hoe, author Robin D.G. Kelley discusses the lessons Alabama’s forgotten black communists can offer today’s activis...

Aug 31, 2015 / Sarah Jaffe

Julian Bond

What Julian Bond Taught Me What Julian Bond Taught Me

Freedom movements don’t just happen, they are made—and not by charismatic leaders, but by everyday people possessing great courage.

Aug 17, 2015 / Jeanne Theoharis

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