The Trayvon Martin movement and the national question George Zimmerman’s acquittal has resulted in waves of mass outrage among Black people and all anti-racists. The verdict should, once and for all, puncture the myth of a “post-racial” or “color-blind” America. The...
Racists defeated in 1958 Battle of Hayes Pond In the 1950s, the movement for civil rights had gained serious momentum, shaking the system of Jim Crow white supremacy to its core and provoking a vicious response from its supporters. The most notorious group that fought...
A new poor people’s movement and a new system In March 1968, a meeting was held in Atlanta between representatives of 100 people’s organizations committed to building a poor people’s march on Washington under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. This effort to...
Fighting and defeating racist oppression 2014 is a significant year for civil rights anniversaries: The 60th for Brown v. Board of Education, and 50th for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Anniversaries like these are bound to inspire significant discussion on how to...
What is the legacy of this historic civil rights victory? Nearly sixty years ago, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, after an intense...
Book review: "Hammer and Hoe" Photo: Univ. of North Carolina Press “Hammer and Hoe,” a 1990 book written by historian Robin D.G. Kelley, chronicles the development of a communist movement in Alabama during the Great Depression. It highlights the struggles communists...
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic and militant struggle of the Second Ward residents of Dorchester County, Maryland in 1963. The residents of the Second Ward launched a community-based effort against racist politicians and business owners in their...
From democratic rights to national liberation The decade of the 1950s is known for the dramatic rise of reactionary politics, especially the virulent anti-communism of the McCarthy era. Amidst and against this period of great reaction emerged the civil rights...
Review of "Want to Start a Revolution?" (NYU Press, 2009) For centuries, history was taught as the history of great, powerful, elite men. While historical writing has become far more diverse in recent years—entire fields focus on cultural and social transformations,...