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Montgomery, Alabama - The Legacy Museum and the Memorial for Peace and Justice

No Reconciliation Without Truth

By Commentaries/Opinions

A new museum and lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, constitute a watershed moment in the way America remembers its racist past. By Caleb Gayle — When it comes to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, there are two kinds of monuments in America. There are memorials that seek to honor this country’s fitful march toward civil rights. Then there are the statues of generals and politicians—as well as the…

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Hitler, circa 1923. Five years later, he noted, approvingly, that white Americans had “gunned down . . . millions of redskins.”

How American Racism Influenced Hitler

By Commentaries/Opinions

Scholars are mapping the international precursors of Nazism. By Alex Ross — “History teaches, but has no pupils,” the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci wrote. That line comes to mind when I browse in the history section of a bookstore. An adage in publishing is that you can never go wrong with books about Lincoln, Hitler, and dogs; an alternative version names golfing, Nazis, and cats. In Germany, it’s said that…

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Cuba's First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel listens to Vietnam's Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong at University of Havana.

Who Is Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba’s New President?

By Commentaries/Opinions

Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez to succeed Raul Castro as country’s head of state. By teleSUR— The Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, a 57-year-old Cuban born two years after the island’s socialist revolution, as the country’s new head of the Council of State and therefore the president of the Caribbean country. During his speech after he was sworn-in, Diaz-Canel vowed to be faithful to the legacy of late Cuban President Fidel Castro and…

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"Here we're proving—with data and analysis spanning 50 years—that the problem is both structural barriers for the poor in hiring, housing, policing, and more, as well as a system that prioritizes war and the wealthy over people and the environment they live in," said John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies. (Photo: Poor People's Campaign/Twitter)

Decrying System That Favors ‘War and the Wealthy,’ Poor People’s Campaign Unveils Agenda to Combat Poverty, Racism, and Militarism

By Commentaries/Opinions

“The Democrats talk about the middle class. The Republicans talk about the military. No one’s talking about the poor.” By Jake Johnson — In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s original campaign against poverty that kicked off 50 years ago next month, leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) on Tuesday announced plans to revive Dr. King’s radical moral vision with mass action nationwide and unveiled a series of ambitious demands aimed…

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Image: Ronald Reagan, with Nancy Reagan, signing the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1988

The Untold Story of Mass Incarceration

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Vesla M. Weaver — Two new books, including National Book Award nominee ‘Locking Up Our Own,’ address major blind spots about the causes of America’s carceral failure. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr.; Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John F. Pfaff

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President Lyndon Johnson meets with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the White House, March 18, 1966

From “War on Crime” to War on the Black Community

By Commentaries/Opinions

The Enduring Impact of President Johnson’s Crime Commission Elizabeth Hinton, Boston Review — In his televised speech following five days of civil unrest in Detroit during the summer of 1967, President Lyndon Johnson announced the creation of the Kerner Commission to evaluate the uprisings there and in other cities, and to prescribe policies to suppress future disorder. The American public also demanded insight into why cities burned and what drove…

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