In early 1968, the activist planned a massive protest in the nation’s capital. In the early months of 1968, King toured the South and beyond to drum up interest in,…
After the abolition of slavery, Britain paid millions in compensation – but every penny of it went to slave owners, and nothing to those they enslaved. We must stop overlooking…
I’m running for Congress in Indiana, and I’ve been warned to stay away from “radical” issues. This shouldn’t be one. By Dan Canon — Editor’s note: Dan Canon is a…
By Sonali Kolhatkar — Any discussions of gun violence and the regulations needed to curb it are incomplete unless they include an analysis of how racism plays a role. Government data show that “black Americans are, on average, eight times more likely to be killed by firearms than those who are white.” Gun violence by police against ordinary Americans also disproportionately affects people of color—a fact that the Black Lives Matter movement has…
By Keisha N. Blain — The #MeToo movement in the United States is one of the contemporary expressions of women’s political power and evidence of women’s commitment to dismantling systems of oppression that give rise to sexual harassment and assault. The fact that a Black woman founded the movement is not surprising; especially considering the crucial role Black women have always played in shaping US and global politics. During the 20th century, a dynamic…
Gun control becomes only one part of the larger solution to violence in our communities. By Lori Bezahler — The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have catalyzed a social movement demanding an end to gun violence. While their leadership and moral authority have undoubtedly taken the movement to another level, youth-led activism against gun violence is not, in fact, new. In Florida in 2013, for example…
Earl Ofari Hutchinson — One week after the slaying of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police officers, prosecutors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana announced that the officers who gunned down Alton Sterling…
By Randy Blazak — I spent most of 1989 in Florida, hanging out with a group of skinheads who hated “The Cosby Show.” The white supremacists I embedded with for…
By Charisse Burden-Stelly — The Black Studies movement, inaugurated in the late 1960s by student- and community-based demands for a “more relevant education,” represented the intellectual expression of political Pan-Africanism in United States colleges and universities. According to St. Clair Drake, “Pan-Africanism ha provided a distinct global focus for Black Studies since the programs became a part of the campus scene in the late sixties and early seventies…
It was young people who made possible the largest gun-control rally in a generation. By George Zornick — Sydney Neal was already planning to attend the March for Our Lives in Washington when tragedy struck her community on Tuesday. A student opened fire at the nearby Great Mills High School, killing 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey and wounding another student. On Saturday morning, Neal, the president of the association of student councils…
By Marshall Ganz — This is an extraordinary moment. Tom Hayden once observed: “Change is slow, except when it’s fast.” In fast moments, chickens come home to roost, we confront…
Two new books about making change in smaller cities are worthy of close study by anyone hoping to push their own city hall in a similar left-wing direction. By Steve…