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Denmark Vesey House at 56 Bull Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

Slavery and Memory in Charleston, South Carolina

By Reparations

By Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders, AAIHS — The familiar refrain after the Emmanuel AME massacre on June 17, 2015, was that Dylann Roof, the murderer, was not from “here.” But as Ethan Kytle and Blain Roberts’ Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy aptly demonstrates, Roof’s understanding of history and memory in Charleston led him to that church; and his understanding was not alien to the sometimes violently, oft-contested memory of slavery in the…

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Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams waves to supporters at an election-night party, May 22, 2018.

How Democrats Fail by Ignoring Candidates Of Color

By Editors' Choice

New candidates will create opportunities for Democrats across the country—if the establishment is willing to back them. By Steve Phillips, The Nation — Old wineskins must make room for new wine.” During the Rainbow Coalition days of the 1980s, Jesse Jackson used that biblical reference to press the Democratic Party to make structural and strategic changes in order to seize the opportunities presented by the country’s demographic revolution. Today, this…

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Voting

Pay Attention: They Are Trying to Keep You From Voting

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Monique Judge, The Root — Are you registered to vote? Have you confirmed that your voter registration is valid and ready to go for Election Day? Even if you think you are positively sure everything is OK with your registration, double-check it again—it’s imperative that you do. According to a report by Salon, voters in Georgia stand a 1 in 10 chance of having been purged from the voting rolls.…

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No one was ever a more critical reader of the Constitution, or a more compelling advocate of its virtues, than Douglass.

The Prophetic Pragmatism of Frederick Douglass

By Editors' Choice

He escaped from slavery, and helped rescue America. By Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker — Frederick Douglass, who has been called the greatest American of the nineteenth century, grew up as a slave named Frederick Bailey, and the story of how he named himself in freedom shows how complicated his life, and his world, always was. Frederick’s father, as David W. Blight shows in his extraordinary new biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet…

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Time to Abolish Columbus Day

Time to Abolish Columbus Day

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Bill Bigelow, Zinn Ed Project — Once again this year many schools will pause to commemorate Christopher Columbus. Given everything we know about who Columbus was and what he launched in the Americas, this needs to stop. Columbus initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in early February 1494, first sending several dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. Columbus described those he enslaved as “well made and of very good intelligence,” and recommended…

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America must atone with reparations for our legacy of slavery

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

We must make reparations to the African-American community. By Ruth A. Zlotnick, Seattle Times — The Jewish community has just emerged from our holiest days, when we celebrate the New Year and make teshuvah, or atonement, for the wrongdoings of our past. I believe as a nation, the United States also must make teshuvah, atoning for our legacy of slavery by making reparations to African Americans. I came to this…

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Russia Is Exploiting American White Supremacy Over and Over Again

By Editors' Choice

Russia’s troll army was not interested in stirring up generic ‘chaos’ in America. The Kremlin is strategically tapping into the inexhaustible fuel source of white grievance. By Spencer Ackerman, Daily Beast — Not many Russians are likely to understand a shotgun formation or the strategy behind not punting on fourth down. But between September and December 2017, social-media accounts now associated with the Kremlin-backed troll farm known as the Internet…

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Melania Trump ... spreading a grammatically incorrect gospel.

Melania Trump is off to teach Africa how to look after children – hopefully better than the US

By Commentaries/Opinions

The first lady is jetting off to promote her ‘Be Best’ child welfare initiative, but there is no word on whether it promotes locking them in cages or allowing them to get shot. By Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian — Melania Trump has packed her bags and is heading far, far away from her husband. On Monday, the first lady is jetting off on a solo tour of parts of Africa; her…

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