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Segregation in the US

The Black Panthers shook America awake before the party was eviscerated by the US government. Their children paid a steep price, but also emerged with unassailable pride and burning lessons for today

by Ed Pilkington 25/3/25 The Guardian

Fred Hampton Jr was days away from taking his first breath when his father was assassinated. Still in his mother’s womb, he would have sensed the shots fired by police into his parents’ bedroom at the back of 2337 Monroe Street, Chicago.

What 100 Years of History Tells Us About Racism in Policing

by ACLU 11/12/20

In the middle of the 2020 pandemic, America was shaken by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the protests that erupted in the aftermath. But the disturbing trends we see today in police violence are the same patterns we’ve seen over the last 100 years. Again and again, commissions convened to examine why police brutality sparks unrest have come to the same conclusion: We must address the poverty and systemic racism that go hand in hand with policing communities of color.

A brief history of racism in Healthcare

by Harry Kretchmer 23/7/20 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

These patterns are drawing attention to long-standing health inequalities faced by ethnic minority groups. From HIV/AIDS and cancer to prenatal care, and even amputations, research shows Black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) in America and elsewhere are more likely to be affected, and less likely to receive the right treatment.

A Brief History Of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways

by Noel King 7/4/21 npr

Planners of the interstate highway system, which began to take shape after the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, routed some highways directly, and sometimes purposefully, through Black and brown communities. In some instances, the government took homes by eminent domain.

Environmentalism’s Racist History

by Jedediah Purdy 13/8/15 THE NEW YORKER

Madison Grant (Yale College 1887, Columbia Law School) liked to be photographed with a fedora, or just his dauntingly long head, tilted about thirty degrees to the right.

'Not Racist' Is Not Enough: Putting In The Work To Be Anti-Racist

by Eric Deggans 25/8/20 npr

Deggans came to NPR in 2013 from the Tampa Bay Times, where he served as TV/Media Critic and in other roles for nearly 20 years. A journalist for more than 30 years, he is also the author of "Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation," a look at how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media, published in October 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan.

Is there an uncontroversial way to teach America’s racist history?

by Sean Illing 11/6/21 Vox

A historian on the unavoidable discomfort around anti-racist education.

Trump’s attacks on prosecutors echo long history of racist language

by Ali Swenson 22/8/23 PBS NEWS

The early Republican presidential front-runner has used terms such as “animal” and “rabid” to describe Black district attorneys. He has accused Black prosecutors of being “racist.” He has made unsupported claims about their personal lives. And on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has deployed terms that rhyme with racial slurs as some of his supporters post racist screeds about the same targets.

Southern Baptist Seminary Confronts History Of Slaveholding And 'Deep Racism'

by Tom Gjelten 13/12/18 npr

"The founding fathers of this school — all four of them — were deeply involved in slavery and deeply complicit in the defense of slavery," writes school President R. Albert Mohler Jr., in a letter accompanying the report. "Many of their successors on this faculty, throughout the period of Reconstruction and well into the 20th century, advocated the inferiority of African-Americans and openly embraced the ideology of the Lost Cause of southern slavery."

Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2020

by German Lopez German Lopez 13/8/20 Vox

Trump has repeatedly claimed he’s “the least racist person.” His history suggests otherwise.

NASCAR: Its History Of Racism And Relations With The Confederate Flag

by All Things Considered 23/6/20 npr

America's reckoning with its racist history has found an unlikely arena - auto racing. On Sunday, reports of a noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage in Talladega turned the racing world on its head.

Hiding Buffalo’s History of Racism Behind a Cloak of Unity

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor 9/6/22 THE NEW YORKER

Tension choked the air when a ten-foot-tall cross, wrapped in gasoline-soaked rags, burned wildly, as if to set the night on fire. The cross burned in the fall of 1980, on Jefferson Avenue, which runs through several Black neighborhoods that constitute the East Side of Buffalo, New York, and it punctuated a wave of terror in and around the city.

It's Not A History Lesson. New Book Tackles Racist Ideas

by Elissa Nadworny 10/3/20 npr

One of the more difficult things to talk with students about is race. A new book from a historian and a children's book author tries to tackle racist ideas in a relatable way for young adults. NPR's Elissa Nadworny has the story.

Black history is often shunned — like the book I wrote

by Martha S. Jones 9/2/21 The Washington Post

“Vanguard” recounts how many suffragists and lawmakers who sought to ratify the 19th Amendment accommodated and, in some cases, embraced anti-Black racism even as they worked to expand access to a fundamental democratic right. Jim Crow laws — poll taxes, literacy tests and more — prevented Black women from casting ballots for decades after the 19th Amendment became law in 1920.

How Portland's Racist History Informs Today's Protests

by Ari Shapiro 30/7/20 npr

Oregon has a long history of entrenched racism, dating back to its statehood in 1859, when the state constitution barred Black people from entering or living there. Yet the recent protests in Portland are part of another long history of black and white Oregonians combating that lingering racism, says Lisa Bates, an associate professor of urban studies at Portland State University.

Growing up black in America: here's my story of everyday racism

by Brian Jones 6/6/18 The Guardian

I am a black man who has grown up in the United States. I know what it is like to feel the sting of discrimination. As a middle-class, light-skinned black man I also know that many others suffered (and continue to suffer) a lot worse than me. I grew up around a lot of white people. In elementary school, I remember being told that I was one of the “good ones” – not like the “bad ones” I was meant to understand; I was different.

Black Americans And The Racist Architecture Of Homeownership

by Ailsa Chang 8/5/21 npr

Last summer, DonnaLee Norrington had a dream about owning a home. Not the figurative kind, but a literal dream, as she slept in the rental studio apartment in South Los Angeles that she was sharing with a friend.

A History Book That Isn't: Finding A Way To Teach Racism To A New Generation

by Elissa Nadworny 14/3/20 npr

Which led him to take up the challenge of those people who wished they'd learned these lessons in middle school: Give young people access to this history by collaborating with a writer who could take his facts (the history) and write it for a younger audience.

Racism in the Era of Trump: An Oral History

by Priyanka Boghani 13/1/20 FRONTLINE

A part of the story of America’s political journey from President Barack Obama to President Donald Trump was the rise of racial anger — as seen in the crude, racist stereotypes of Obama that showed up on signs at Tea Party rallies, and in the mainstreaming of the conspiracy that the country’s first African American president was not born in the United States.

America’s long history of anti-Haitian racism, explained

by Li Zhou 15/9/24 Vox

The US has often singled out Haitian immigrants. GOP attacks are the latest example. 

The Mysterious History Of 'Marijuana'

by Matt Thompson 22/7/13 npr

Marijuana has been intertwined with race and ethnicity in America since well before the word "marijuana" was coined. The drug, my colleague Gene Demby recently wrote, has a disturbing case of multiple personality disorder: It's a go-to pop culture punch line. It's the foundation of a growing recreational and medicinal industry. 

From raised fists at the 1968 Olympics to taking the knee: A history of racial justice protests in sport

by Kate Whiting 23/7/21 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

The black socks and no shoes represented Black-American poverty, while the gloves symbolized Black-American strength and unity.

How a history of ‘medical racism’ may fuel mistrust in COVID-19 vaccines

by John Letzing 9/12/20 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Recent survey results in the US showed that just 42% of Black respondents would want to take a COVID-19 vaccine if it was available, compared with 61% of white respondents. The same survey results showed that Black respondents were far more likely to say they know someone who has been hospitalized or died from having the coronavirus (71%) than white respondents (49%).

History: Racism and Exclusion in the United States

by POLITICS/HISTORY

This panel brings together three L.A. Times Book Prize finalists in history for a discussion that connects America’s past treatment of women, and indigenous and enslaved people with the present, taking a look at the people and the policies that have brought us to where we are today. Anna-lisa Grace Cox leads the conversation.

Florida moves to restrict what schools can teach about systemic racism

by Associated Press 8/7/22 PBS NEWS

A new law in Florida has instituted restrictions on how schools and businesses can teach race-related concepts. The law, called the Stop Woke Act, limits instruction on critical race theory. It's the latest part of Republican Gov. Ron Desantis’ extensive efforts to reshape public education and curriculum in the state. The Miami Herald's Ana Ceballos joins Lisa Desjardins to discuss.

Racist History Of American News Media?

by Tell Me More 25/11/11 npr

This is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I'm Tony Cox. Michel Martin is away. Coming up, the sound of Cleveland's soul music is rediscovered. We talk about the new box set of songs from the Boddie Recording Company in just a few moments.

An examination of The Times’ failures on race, our apology and a path forward

by The Times Editorial Board 27/9/20 Los Angeles Times

The headline was stripped across the top of the front page, “Marauders From Inner City Prey on L.A.’s Suburbs.” The story, published by The Times on July 12, 1981, described a “permanent underclass” in the city’s “ghettos and barrios,” fueling a crime wave that was spilling over from South Los Angeles into prosperous — and largely white — communities in Pasadena, Palos Verdes, Beverly Hills and elsewhere.

Haitians see history of racist policies in migrant treatment

by Aaron Morrison 24/9/21 PBS NEWS

The Border Patrol’s treatment of Haitian migrants, they say, is just the latest in a long history of discriminatory U.S. policies and of indignities faced by Black people, sparking new anger among Haitian Americans, Black immigrant advocates and civil rights leaders.

The long history of anti-Asian hate in America, explained

by Li Zhou 5/3/21 Vox

Anti-Asian racism is nothing new in America. The pandemic, and Trump, just made it worse.

A 'Showdown' That Changed Football's Racial History

by All Things Considered 4/9/11 npr

As Thomas G. Smith writes in his new book, Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins, Redskins owner George Preston Marshall was quite happy running the last segregated team. "He loved being a holdout because he loved the attention," Smith told weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan. 

N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur

by Cherry Wilson 4/10/20 BBC

The BBC received more than 18,600 complaints for using the word in full in a report about a racially aggravated attack in July.

Pain and terror: America's history of racism

by The Guardian 26/4/18

America's first memorial to victims of lynching opens in Alabama – live updates

The filibuster’s racist history, explained

by Zack Beauchamp 25/3/21 Vox

“It’s been a tool used overwhelmingly by racists,” says Kevin Kruse, a historian of race and American politics at Princeton University. 

This is why blackface is offensive

by Harmeet Kaur 7/2/19 CNN

Among the recent controversies to erupt over blackface is a photo on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s personal page in his medical school yearbook. It depicts one person in blackface and another dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. After initially apologizing for appearing in the photo, the Democratic governor now says he is neither the person in blackface nor the person dressed as a Klansman.

How The Battle Against D.C. Statehood Is Rooted In Racism

by All Things Considered 24/4/21 npr

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would eventually, if approved by the Senate and signed by the president, make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. That vote was along party lines, with Republicans insisting that the move is merely a power grab by Democrats to enlarge their numbers in the Congress, particularly the Senate.

‘A very old political trope’: the racist US history behind Trump’s Haitian pet eater claim

by Claire Wang 14/9/24 The Guardian

Less than half an hour into Tuesday’s presidential debate, former president Donald Trump deployed an updated version of a century-old slur against immigrant communities: that newcomers are eating other people’s pets and vermin.

To tackle racism in football Spain needs to face its history

by Gabriel Leão 21/6/23 ALJAZEERA

It has been a month now since Black Brazilian forward Vinícius Jr suffered yet another disgusting episode of racist abuse during a match in Spain. While playing for Real Madrid against Valencia on May 21, he was heckled by fans and called a “monkey”.

America’s long, rich history of pretending systemic racism doesn’t exist

by Elaine Frantz 16/5/19 Vox

Even in the face of undeniable evidence.

As Coronavirus Spreads, Racism And Xenophobia Are Too

by npr 11/3/20

Our colleague Gene Demby, co-host of NPR's Code Switch podcast, explains that this is part of a longer history in the United States of camouflaging xenophobia and racism as public health and hygiene concerns. Featuring the work of historian Erika Lee, author of "America For Americans: A History Of Xenophobia In The United States."

Philosophy’s systemic racism

by aeon

It is by now well known that some of the greatest modern philosophers held racist views. John Locke (1632-1704), David Hume (1711-76), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), G W F Hegel (1770-1831) and many others believed that Black and Indigenous peoples the world over were savage, inferior and in need of correction by European enlightenment. No serious philosopher today defends these explicitly racist views but, with good reason, they continue to study the writings of these authors.

It's More Than Racism: Isabel Wilkerson Explains America's 'Caste' System

by Terry Gross 4/8/20 npr

Wilkerson describes caste an artificial hierarchy that helps determine standing and respect, assumptions of beauty and competence, and even who gets benefit of the doubt and access to resources.

White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots In U.S. Christianity

by Tom Gjelten 1/7/20 npr

When a young Southern Baptist pastor named Alan Cross arrived in Montgomery, Ala., in January 2000, he knew it was where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had his first church and where Rosa Parks helped launched the famous bus boycott, but he didn't know some other details of the city's role in civil rights history.

The history of tensions — and solidarity — between Black and Asian American communities, explained

by Jerusalem Demsas and Rachel Ramirez 16/3/21 Vox

How white supremacy tried to divide Black and Asian Americans — and how communities worked to find common ground.

Prairie View, Texas, Reflects On History Of Racism After Police Incidents

by Wade Goodwyn 21/10/15 npr

We're going to visit a place now that has become a big part of the debate over race and policing. That's Waller County, Texas. It's where Sandra Bland was stopped for a traffic violation. Bland was black. She was pulled from her car by a white officer and handcuffed for resisting an order. She later died in custody. Authorities say she committed suicide. Waller County is also where a black city councilman was recently Tased by a white police officer outside his apartment complex. NPR's Wade Goodwyn has our report.

A look at the history of racism in America and its role in today’s divisions

by Judy Woodruff 3/5/23 PBS NEWS

The fact that our country is divided isn’t new. In many respects, it can be traced back to the founding of a nation on the promise of freedom while dependent on slavery, a time when many couldn’t participate in the democracy being created. Judy Woodruff examines how that founding contradiction has evolved and what it means for our challenges today. It's part of her series, America at a Crossroads.

More than 4-in-10 Republicans don't want schools teaching the history of racism whatsoever: new poll

by John Haltiwanger 10/11/21 BUSINESS INSIDER AFRICA

Republican critics of critical race theory have misleadingly suggested it teaches children to hate one another based on the color of their skin. In reality, critical race theorists look at how the country's long history of slavery, segregation and discrimination impacts people today. Moreover, schools are typically not explicitly teaching students critical race theory, despite the Republican outcry over it. But lessons on how racism has shaped the US effectively align with what the theory aims to shine a light on.

Outdoor recreation has historically excluded people of color. That’s beginning to change

by Leah Asmelash 14/12/21 CNN

Dubbed the “adventure gap” or “nature gap,” the lack of diversity in outdoor recreation has become a hot topic in the White-dominated space. (In 2019, more than 50 CEOs of outdoor retailers signed a pledge to work toward diversity and inclusion in the outdoors). Conversation about the disparity picked up among industry leaders and enthusiasts alike after the racial justice protests of 2020.

Opinion: Why I’m going to keep teaching the truth about racism in America

by Khalil Gibran Muhammad 1/2/24 CNN

Take race and racism out of the American story and very little about the country is comprehensible. The way we elect our presidents. The civil rights enshrined in the 14th Amendment that gives birthright citizenship to formerly excluded Asian immigrants and grants marriage equality to same-sex couples.

I am Native American and a former football player. Our history is much darker than racist mascots.

by Rory Taylor 19/7/20 Vox

An NFL team changing its name does nothing to address the role of Indigenous people in the game’s legacy.

How America's history of racism connects to divisions today

by PBS 9/2/24

The fact that our country is divided isn’t new. In many respects, it can be traced back to the founding of a nation on the promise of freedom while dependent on slavery, a time when many couldn’t participate in the democracy being created. In a conversation with retired naval Commander Theodore Johnson, Judy Woodruff examines how that founding contradiction has evolved and what it means for our challenges today.

'Long Time Coming' Explores Birth, Uninterrupted History Of Systemic Racism In U.S.

by Gabino Iglesias 3/12/20 npr

From the abused, stolen bodies pressed together inside slave ships to the lynching of Emmett Till to the battered body of George Floyd pressed against the ground under a police officer's knee, Dyson uses the history of anti-blackness and violence against Black people to map out the way systemic racism was created and how it has operated, uninterrupted, since America's birth.

History of Racism Leaves Black Californians Most at Risk from Oil and Gas Drilling, New Research Shows

by Liza Gross 5/4/23 Inside Climate News

Even as fossil fuel extraction declined in the state, low-income, Black and Hispanic residents continued to face disproportionate risks from living near wells, and Black residents were exposed to the most intensive operations.

Next time someone questions America’s history of racism, show them this video

by German Lopez 8/7/15 Vox

America has a long history of systemic racism: From the dehumanization of black people to justify slavery to the policies of segregation and mass incarceration that followed emancipation, the country has always made it difficult for many minorities to rise out of their literal and figurative shackles.

This is how systemic racism is hampering progress around the world

by IMF Blog 16/9/20 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

As protests spread worldwide, many began to shift focus from solidarity with Black Americans to racial injustice within their own countries. Adama Traoré. João Pedro Matos Pinto. David Dungay, Jr. Different names from different countries, but still victims whose deaths have forced reexamination of the global presence of systemic racism and sent demonstrators into the streets to demand better.

Maud Newton couldn't ignore her family's racist history. So she published it

by Ari Shapiro, Lauren Hodges, Justine Kenin 29/3/22 npr

Everyone's family tree has some gnarled branches. In the author Maud Newton's past, there are ancestors who committed violence, extremism, racism and worse. Rather than shove that inheritance under the bed in a locked box, she excavates it in her new memoir, "Ancestor Trouble."

Georgia’s runoff elections have segregationist roots

by Nicole Ellis 3/12/22 PBS NEWS

Georgia’s Dec. 6 runoff election pitting Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock against Republican Herschel Walker is historic for having two Black candidates representing major parties on that state’s ballot. But the voting law that mandated a runoff when neither candidate won a majority in November’s election is actually a vestige of racist legislation.

Lesson plan: How America's history of racism continues to shape us today

by PBS 13/9/23

In this lesson, students will watch a video in which Judy Woodruff examines how that founding contradiction has evolved and what it means for us today. They will then examine a primary source chosen by the teacher and connect it to the themes of the NewsHour story.

< A Brief History Of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways

by STEVE INSKEEP 7/4/21 npr

INSKEEP: An interstate running through his front yard - when the U.S. built highways in the 20th century, many ran through Black neighborhoods. Read of Robert Moses in New York or Richard Daley in Chicago, and you learn this story. President Biden's infrastructure plan includes money to repair the damage.

Racial History of American Swimming Pools

by The Bryant Park Project 6/5/08 npr

So there was a study released last week that caught my eye. According to USA Swimming, over 58 percent of African-American children can't swim. That's almost double the rate of white children. And African-American children drown at nearly three times the overall rate. That got us here at the BPP asking questions about, well, race and swimming. And it turns out there's a lot to say about the topic.

Titus Kaphar: How Can We Address Centuries of Racism In Art?

by NPR/TED Staff 10/11/17 npr

Western art contains countless paintings and sculptures that reveal a painful history of racism. We can't erase that history, but artist Titus Kaphar has begun the long and hard work of amending it.

Ketanji Brown Jackson urges teaching of US history of racism

by Andrew Chung 15/9/23 Reuters

Sept 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday called for a commitment to remember and teach the history of racism and violence in the United States as she commemorated the deaths of four Black girls killed by white supremacists in a Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing.

Racism is a public health issue. Here's why

by npr 16/12/24

EMILY KWONG: One quick note before we begin, Short Wavers. This episode talks about racial violence and references a lynching. You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Hey, Short Wavers. It's Emily Kwong. And today I am joined by one of KFF Health News's Midwest correspondents, Cara Anthony. Cara, it is really good to have you here.

I investigated my own family for their history of lynching

by Karen Branan 26/4/18 The Guardian

“The hanging,” she replied without pause. She told me of a woman and some men “hanged” in the open, downtown, “for a murder”. She was 17 at the time, living in Hamilton, Georgia. I thought she was talking about white people found guilty under law, so I let it be. Something in me was not yet ready to descend that deep staircase into my grandparents’ and the nation’s bloody basement.

The ugly history of racist policing in America

by Dara Lind 17/7/16 Vox

Critical race theory hysteria overshadows the importance of teaching kids about racism

by Jania Hoover 9/7/21 Vox

I teach high school. My students are mature and smart enough to handle these kinds of topics.

Teaching bans on 'divisive concepts' including systemic racism and Critical Race Theory

by Frederick Joseph 2/7/21 PBS

On Wednesday, June 23, 2001, guest Frederick Joseph, author of the New York Times best-selling book "The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person," joined host Sari Beth Rosenberg, a high school history teacher, and educators from across the country to discuss new laws passed on teaching divisive concepts or so-called "critical race theory" education in classrooms.

Texas city haunted by 'no blacks after dark' past

by Keith Oppenheim 13/12/06 CNN

VIDOR, Texas (CNN) -- As a reporter for CNN, I've spent a lot of time travelling around the United States. And along the way, I've developed some impressions of who we are, and where we are, as a society.

Examining the American Medical Association’s racist history and its overdue reckoning

by Yamiche Alcindor 18/5/21 PBS NEWS

he national calls to action over racial justice have brought new awareness of past injustices in many parts of our society, including the fields of science and medicine. Yamiche Alcindor speaks to Dr. Aletha Maybank, the American Medical Association's chief health equity officer, about the organization's racist history, how it plans to reckon with it, and the intersection of race and medicine.

Ku Klux Klan: A History of Racism

by SPLC 1/3/11

This report on the history of the Ku Klux Klan, America’s first terrorist organization, was prepared by the Klanwatch Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Klanwatch was formed in 1981 to help curb Klan and racist violence through litigation, education and monitoring.

People’s History Lessons for Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 26/7/20

We are thrilled that teachers across the country are meeting, collaborating, and building curriculum based on Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. This YA book is based on Kendi’s 2016 Stamped from the Beginning.

New Documentary Tackles Impact of Racism on Public Housing

[https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/new-documentary-tackles-impact-of-racism-on-public-housing/ by pbs publicity

Pasadena, CA – January 10, 2020 – East Lake Meadows, the public housing project opened by the Atlanta Housing Authority in 1970 and demolished a generation later, is the subject of a new documentary by Sarah Burns and David McMahon (THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, JACKIE ROBINSON) that tackles the impact of racism on housing while also exploring the daily lives of those who called East Lake Meadows home. EAST LAKE MEADOWS: A PUBLIC HOUSING STORY, which is executive produced by Ken Burns, will air on PBS on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 (8:00 p.m. ET; check local listings). The film trailer is available on PBS’s YouTube page here. 

Sierra Club calls out founder John Muir for racist views

by Brian Melley 22/7/20 PBS NEWS

Executive Director Michael Brune said Wednesday that it was “time to take down some of our own monuments” as statues of Confederate officers and colonists are toppled in a reckoning with the nation’s racist history following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Illegal Discrimination in Jury Selection

by Race and the Jury

In too many communities, the fairness, reliability, and integrity of the legal system have been compromised by clear evidence of racial bias in the selection of juries.1 Unrepresentative juries not only exclude and marginalize communities of color, they also produce wrongful convictions and unfair sentences that disproportionately burden Black people and people of color. Our failure to remedy this longstanding problem of racial bias imperils the legitimacy of the U.S. legal system.

How National Geographic is facing its racist history

by Charlayne Hunter-Gault 27/3/18 PBS NEWS

National Geographic has long provided a unique lens to view the world -- one that has sometimes distorted the lives of people of color. Now the 130-year-old magazine turns the lens on itself, with an issue devoted to the topic of race and an apology for past portrayals by editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg. Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault sits down with Goldberg to discuss that reckoning.

Under pressure, undeterred

by The Guardian 29/4/18

Black men were lynched for “standing around”, for “annoying white girls”, for failing to call a policeman “mister”. Those are just a few of the horrific stories on display at a new national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama.

The racist history of voter suppression laws

by Julissa Arce 16/9/21 UNIDOS US Blog

These voter suppression tactics continue a long legacy of efforts to silence us at the polls. Let’s expose the structurally racist roots of voting policies. As far back as 1909, the Arizona territory enacted a law that made speaking English a prerequisite to register to vote and run for office. The Arizona Rangers were then created to enforce this law and terrorize Latinos in the region. Today, Arizona’s Constitution still has a provision that mandates one’s ability to “read, write, speak, and understand the English language sufficiently well” in order to hold public office.

ACLU History: Uprooting Racism in the South

by ACLU 1/9/10

In the 1960s, the fight for racial justice took on new life as the battleground moved to the Deep South. The emerging leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. focused national attention on the segregation and suppression of blacks in the South, while the ACLU and other advocates became increasingly energized to help the growing civil rights movement. Sit-ins protesting segregation at lunch counters and other public accommodations abounded.

Stone Mountain: Monument’s racist history must be acknowledged for community to heal

by Kimberly Probolus 19/4/21 SPLC

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association, which is authorized by the state of Georgia to manage Stone Mountain Park, has denied the Sons of Confederate Veterans a permit to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day later this month in their facilities. In so doing, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association tacitly acknowledged the problematic relationship between the park and the legacy of the Confederacy.

“Who We Are”: New Film Chronicles History of Racism in America Amid Growing Attack on Voting Rights

by DEMOCRACY NOW 14/1/22

As the United States heads into the Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, attempts by Democrats to pass major new voting rights legislation appear to have stalled. We examine the new award-winning documentary “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” which follows civil rights attorney Jeffery Robinson as he confronts the enduring legacy of anti-Black racism in the United States, weaving together examples from the U.S. Constitution, education system and policing. 

May 31, 1921: Tulsa Massacre

by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 1920

From May 31 through June 1, deputized whites killed more than 300 African Americans. They looted and burned to the ground 40 square blocks of 1,265 African American homes, including hospitals, schools, and churches, and destroyed 150 businesses. White deputies and members of the National Guard arrested and detained 6,000 Black Tulsans who were released only upon being vouched for by a white employer or other white citizen. Nine thousand African Americans were left homeless and lived in tents well into the winter of 1921 . . .

Racial Discrimination in the United States

by HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 8/8/22

The United States signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“ICERD” or “Convention”) in 1966. President Lyndon Johnson’s administration noted at the time that the United States “has not always measured up to its constitutional heritage of equality for all” but that it was “on the march” toward compliance.

Milwaukee County Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis

by Equal Justice Initiative 6/5/19

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele signed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis that affects society as a whole. “It is Milwaukee County’s responsibility to address racism, including seeking solutions to reshape the discourse, actively engaging all citizens in racial justice work,” Mr. Abele said in a statement. “Local government needs to take a leadership role and we intend to do so.”

Missouri Newspaper Confronts and Apologizes for its History of Racially Biased Reporting

by Equal Justice Initiative 22/12/20

The Kansas City Star, a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, published an extensive analysis of its past reporting this week, acknowledging and apologizing for its history of reinforcing and perpetuating racial bias, discrimination, and violence. 

Feb. 7, 1926: Carter G. Woodson Launched Negro History Week

by Carter G. Woodson 7/2/1926 ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT

On Feb. 7, 1926, Carter G. Woodson, initiated the first celebration of Negro History Week which led to Black History Month, to extend and deepen the study and scholarship on African American history, all year long. Further below is an essay on the history and purpose of the commemoration, including why Woodson chose February.

ACLU History: Black America: Casualties of the 'War on Drugs'

by ACLU 1/9/2010

In the modern era, a subtler but equally pernicious form of institutional racism came to be known as 'driving while black or brown.' The practice of racial profiling by police on our nation's highways has resulted in black travelers disproportionately being stopped, searched and arrested. Significant blame for this rampant abuse of power can be laid at the feet of the government's 'war on drugs,' in which blacks are targeted and thus arrested for drug possession at a far higher rate than whites, resulting in skewed statistics that 'prove' that blacks are more likely to be involved with drugs.

Ron DeSantis banned lessons on racism in Florida public schools. ‘Freedom schools’ fill the gaps

by Melissa Hellmann 24/8/24 The Guardian

“When I say, ‘because’, you say: ‘Black people invented it,’” Renee Scott Best told a class of predominantly Black students one Monday last month. The call and response from the kids grew louder as they read a fictional story about a dystopian world without African Americans and their inventions. A folding bed, tricycle, clock, toilet, heating furnace, thermostat and air conditioner were among the innovations that no longer existed because, “Black people invented it,” the students shouted.

California Governor Signs Bills to Address Systemic Racism and Treatment of Children

by Equal Justice Initiative 1/10/20

The governor signed two sweeping bills aimed at confronting racial bias in the state’s criminal justice system. AB 3070 tackles illegal racial discrimination in jury selection, and AB 2542, the “California Racial Justice Act,” prohibits prosecutors from seeking, obtaining, or imposing a criminal conviction or sentence on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.

The Racist Roots of Denying Incarcerated People Their Right to Vote

by Jeffery Robinson 3/5/19 ACLU

The historical context for this comes from old English common law which justified the concept of “civil death” as punishment for conviction of treason or a felony because a person committing a crime had “corrupt blood,” making the person “dead in the law.” America did not immediately adopt this position because the Constitution was silent on voting rights — it neither granted nor denied anyone the right to vote.

Elon Musk Was Raised Under Racist Apartheid Laws in South Africa. What Does He Believe Now?

by Chris McGreal 11/2/25 DEMOCRACY NOW

Watch Part 2 of our interview with reporter Chris McGreal, who was Johannesburg correspondent for The Guardian during the last years of apartheid through 2002. His new pieces for The Guardian are headlined “What does Elon Musk believe?” and “How the roots of the 'PayPal mafia' extend to apartheid South Africa.”

What the Fight Against Class

by Leah Watson 7/9/23 ACLU

The ACLU is leading the fight to end classroom censorship and protect our right to learn. We filed the first case in the country to challenge a law that censored instruction about systemic sexism and racism in Oklahoma, survived a motion to dismiss in New Hampshire, and obtained an injunction to block the State of Florida from enforcing the higher education provisions of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.

The Wilmington Massacre of 1898

by Equal Justice Initiative 10/11/24

In the late 1890s, Wilmington, North Carolina, a port city between the Atlantic’s barrier islands and the banks of the Cape Fear River, became an island of hope for a new America.

‘Truth-telling has to happen’: the museum of America’s racist history

by Ed Pilkington 19/9/21 The Guardian

The Legacy Museum, opening in October, lands at a time when racial violence is again on the rise and critical race theory is being used to prevent America’s racist past being taught in schools

Author Viet Thanh Nguyen on the ‘deep well’ of anti-Asian racism in the U.S.

by Joshua Barajas 18/3/21 PBS NEWS

The Atlanta-area shootings this week that killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, has deepened fears amid an uptick of hate targeted at Asian American and Pacific Islander communities throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Clint Smith on Teaching About Structural Racism

by Clint Smith 12/6/19 ZINNEDUCATION PROJECT

Poet and educator Clint Smith wrote reflections on teaching after visiting young people in a juvenile detention center. His description of what has been missing from the young people’s formal education serves to explain the purpose of many of the Zinn Education Project lessons. Below is Smith’s tweet thread. We are honored at the shout out for the Zinn Education Project in the closing tweet.

History Lesson Sheds Light on Racism Today

by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 19/4/16

“The Color Line” lesson by Rethinking Schools editor Bill Bigelow is featured in a Washington Post article today called “How American oligarchs created the concept of race to divide and conquer the poor” by Courtland Milloy Jr.

The Color Line

by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT

Colonial laws prohibiting Black and white people from marrying one another suggest that some Black and white people did marry.

The Movement to Erase Black History and Culture

by ACLU

February marks Black History Month, a time to recognize the significant achievements and culture of Black Americans–from bell hooks to Beyonce–and also to honor an accurate history about them, a history that we know is rife with discrimination and abuse -- think: slavery, Jim Crow, and the structural racism we’re still infected with today.

The Trump Administration is Banning Talk about Race and Gender

by Sarah Hinger 9/10/20 ACLU

In the latest attempt to silence conversations about race and gender equity deemed “anti-American,” President Trump issued an executive order last week banning federal entities and contractors from providing employees with training on “divisive concepts” and “harmful ideologies” related to race and gender.

The enduring impact of historical and structural racism on urban violence in Philadelphia

by Sara F. Jacoby PhD, 2/18 ScienceDirect

Public health approaches to crime and injury prevention are increasingly focused on the physical places and environments where violence is concentrated. In this study, our aim is to explore the association between historic place-based racial discrimination captured in the 1937 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of Philadelphia and present-day violent crime and firearm injuries. 

A socioecological psychology of racism: making structures and history more visible

by Sophie Trawalter 4/20 ScienceDirect

Psychology has been accused of ‘psychologizing’ racism. Here, we summarize the argument that Psychology routinely neglects structural racism and historical legacies of racism. We then discuss two cases—healthcare and police use of force—in which studying individual bias could benefit from incorporating a focus on structures and history. We close by echoing others who have advocated that Psychology move forward with a better integrated view of racism; in particular, we suggest a socioecological view that contextualizes individual bias within the relevant realities of historical and structural racism.

Reflections on the history and legacy of scientific racism in South African paleoanthropology and beyond

by Rebecca Rogers Ackermann 1/19 ScienceDirect

The history of scientific discovery is overwhelmingly told as a narrative of the lives and discoveries of a series of remarkable white men. Christa Kuljian's real triumph in this book is that she reframes the narrative of paleoanthropological discovery in South Africa as a tale of flawed men who succeed—through some combination of luck, skill, personality and perseverance—literally and figuratively on the backs of black bodies.

Marijuana’s racist history shows the need for comprehensive drug reform

by John Hudak 23/6/20 BROOKINGS

As the conversation around the country centers on policing, criminal and racial justice, and social equity, the topic of the War on Drugs must play a central part. For decades, the War on Drugs has been a tool to target Black and Brown Americans and change life trajectories in those communities for millions of people. 

THE ORIGINS OF RACISM: A CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

by VANITA SETH 2/9/20 WILEY.Online Library

This essay has two objectives. First, it seeks to engage critically with contemporary scholarship on the origins of racism through the lens of an older debate centered around the history of ideas. Specifically, it argues that Quentin Skinner's influential critique of the history of ideas can help identify the pitfalls of our current fascination with the origins of racism—most particularly when such origins are traced back to antiquity and the European pre- and early modern periods.

Accumulating inequalities: a qualitative life history examination of how processes of racism and racialisation impact on maternal health among British Somali women in the UK

by Sarah Milton 11/24 ScienceDirect

In the UK, women from Black ethnic groups are four times and Asian and Mixed ethnicity women are two times more likely to die in the perinatal period than women from white groups. Black, Asian and Mixed ethnicity women are also more likely to experience baby loss, become seriously ill and have worse experiences of care in pregnancy and childbirth than white women, with further inequalities found within these broad ethnic groups. These findings have remained the same for decades. Within this context this study aimed to demonstrate empirically the processes by which structural, institutional and interpersonal racism directly impact on mental and physical health.

How should we address the US’s history of slavery and racism? Here’s what Americans think.

by William A. Galston 17/8/21 BROOKINGS

Discussion of racial issues has intensified in recent years, with vigorous debates emerging at the national and local level over once obscure academic arguments such as critical race theory. At the core of much of the discussion is how we should confront America’s history of slavery and racism. 

Measuring the effect of historical structural racism on community firearm violence in US cities

by Ariana N. Gobaud 11/24 ScienceDirect

Community firearm violence in the United States (US), defined as fatal and nonfatal interpersonal shootings in public spaces, (Community Violence) disproportionately affects neighborhoods where people racialized as Black predominately live. 

We carry history within us: Anti-Black racism and the legacy of lynchings on life expectancy in the U.S. South

by Laura Kihlström 7/21 ScienceDirect

The United States lags in life expectancy compared to most of the world's similarly wealthy nations, driven by pronounced regional disparities particularly between the South and the rest of the country. The U.S. South has a violent history of lynchings of Black Americans by White mobs after the ending of slavery and up to the Civil Rights Era.

Social vulnerabilities for substance use: Stressors, socially toxic environments, and discrimination and racism

by Hortensia Amaro 1/5/21 ScienceDirect

Applying a social determinants of health framework, this review brings attention to evidence from social sciences and neuroscience on the role of selected social factors in individual and population-level vulnerability to substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs). The understanding that social vulnerability to substance use and SUDs is multifaceted and occurs across different levels of influence (individual, interpersonal, community, and societal) is underscored. 

Exploring the relation between early childhood education and historical and contemporary racism and bias for Black children

by Heidi A. Vuletich 2024 ScienceDirect

Racial disparities in educational outcomes start early in childhood and persist through adulthood. High quality Early Care and Education (ECE) programs tend to show benefits for Black children, but less is known about how larger contextual inequalities, both historical and contemporary, relate to young children's outcomes in these high-quality settings. 

Confederate monuments and the history of lynching in the American South: An empirical examination

by Kyshia Henderson 11/10/21 PNAS

The fight over Confederate monuments has fueled lawsuits, protests, counterprotests, arrests, even terrorism, as we painfully saw in August 2017 in Charlottesville, VA. The fight rests on a debate over whether these monuments represent racism (“hate”) or something ostensibly devoid of racism (“heritage,” “Southern pride”). 

We carry history within us: Anti-Black racism and the legacy of lynchings on life expectancy in the U.S. South

by Laura Kihlström 7/21 ScienceDirect

The United States lags in life expectancy compared to most of the world's similarly wealthy nations, driven by pronounced regional disparities particularly between the South and the rest of the country. The U.S. South has a violent history of lynchings of Black Americans by White mobs after the ending of slavery and up to the Civil Rights Era. Building on critical race scholarship, the objective of this study was to determine whether there exists an association between historical lynchings and overall life expectancies in the U.S. 

The case for leveraging multiple resource pedagogies: Teaching about racism in a secondary history classroom

by Eliana Castro 1/22 ScienceDirect

This qualitative case study analyzes how one secondary history teacher enacted three resource pedagogies to teach about systemic racism and encourage his students to explore the topic. Drawing on observations, meetings, and interviews, the paper illustrates the affordances of culturally responsive, culturally relevant, and culturally sustaining practice, especially when leveraged together. 

The Racist History of Race Science

by Union of Concerned Scientists 6/10/20

Author Angela Saini discusses biological myths and racist biases in the sciences from past to present.

Structural Racism, Health Inequities, and the Two-Edged Sword of Data: Structural Problems Require Structural Solutions

by Nancy Krieger 14/4/21 frontiers

Analyzing the myriad ways in which structural racism systemically generates health inequities requires engaging with the profound challenges of conceptualizing, operationalizing, and analyzing the very data deployed—i. e., racialized categories—to document racialized health inequities. 

Bloomberg’s comments on redlining distort a history of racism

by Andre M. Perry and Vanessa Williamson 20/2/20 BROOKING

Last week, comments surfaced from a 2008 lecture by former New York City mayor and current Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, in which he asserted that the period’s housing crisis was due to the end of “redlining,” the mid-20th century discriminatory practice that made home loans unavailable in Black neighborhoods.

The impact of education about historical and current injustices, individual racism and systemic racism on anti-Indigenous racism

by Iloradanon H. Efimoff 18/9/23 WILEY Online Store

Anti-Indigenous racism is a pressing issue in Canada. Education on historical and contemporary Indigenous topics is a common strategy to challenge such racism. Despite the existence of education-based programmes intended to address anti-Indigenous racism, there is limited evidence that they are effective. 

Science must overcome its racist legacy: Nature’s guest editors speak

by Melissa Nobles, Chad Womack, Ambroise Wonkam & Elizabeth Wathuti 8/6/22 nature

Science is a human endeavour that is fuelled by curiosity and a drive to better understand and shape our natural and material world. Science is also a shared experience, subject both to the best of what creativity and imagination have to offer and to humankind’s worst excesses. 

Make Black history core to degrees, tie tenure to anti-racism efforts

by Cheryl Gore-Felton, Christina Tara Khan & Jacqueline Njenga 28/7/20 nature

Elite institutions are well positioned to set the standard on how to dismantle systemic racism and discrimination. As African American and Black women working at a leading US medical school, we are tired of rhetoric and euphemisms that are not yet matched with policy and action. We are ready to engage in a productive partnership with our institutional leaders to create a culture of diversity and inclusion that acts on principles of social justice and human rights.

Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job: ‘We found too many slaves’

by Michela Moscufo 21/6/25 The Guardian

Jordan Lloyd had been praying for something big to happen. The 35-year-old screenwriter was quarantining in her apartment in North Hollywood in June 2020. Without any work projects to fill her days, she picked up the novel Roots, by Alex Haley, to reread.

Supreme Court History-The Dred Scott Decision

Taney, in his decision for the court, wrote, “for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.” The full court ruled for the enslaver in a 7-2 vote.

Ishi, a Yahi Indian of California who was the last of his tribe, died 102 years ago this Sunday

Native American Net Roots November 25, 2019

That “painful regret” didn’t stop future governors from supporting volunteer militias to hunt and kill Indians. Between 1851 and 1859, the state spent more than $1.3 million for this purpose. The federal government reimbursed California for some of this spending. The state offered scalp bounties of 25 cents each in 1856, raised to $5 in 1860. Some towns also offered their own bounties.

Groups like the Humboldt Home Guard, the Eel River Minutemen, and the Placer Blades terrorized and murdered local Indians. The 19th century historian Hubert Howe Bancroft wrote: “The California valley cannot grace her annals with a single Indian war bordering on respectability. It can, however, boast a hundred or two of them as brutal butchering on the part of our honest miners and brave pioneers, as any area of equal extent in our republic.”

Among them were Ishi, his mother and his sister, survivors of the Three Knolls Massacre of 1865. That is when an impromptu militia of white settlers had killed some 40 Yahi on Mill Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River near Mt. Lassen in today’s Tehama County. The survivors, including 3-year-old Ishi, had fled.

Half of them were killed in 1867 or ’68 by another ad hoc militia. Its leader, Norman Kingsley, later said that during the slaughter, he had exchanged his .56 caliber Spencer rifle for a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver because the rifle “tore them up so bad,” particularly the babies. The few remaining Yahi fled into the wilderness where they effectively hid out for the next 40 years. In 1908, a survey team ran across Ishi’s camp. He fled with his sister and another man, but his mother was too frail to run. The surveyors looted the camp, taking everything of value. Soon afterward, the rest of Ishi’s tiny band died. For the next three years, he lived alone. But in 1911, starving, he stole into a slaughterhouse where he was caught by the butchers and briefly jailed.

The Austerity Politics of White Supremacy

Dissent magazine Vanessa Williamson ▪ Winter 2021

From the Southern strategy of the 1960s to Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the presidential election, it is easy to trace the Republican Party’s decades-long descent into racial authoritarianism. Despite the president’s unhinged response to the election results, the real locus of power is the Senate, where Republican legislators have been striking sober-sounding notes about the need for smaller government, an end to relief spending, and the danger of higher taxes. Those desperate to see a return to normalcy may hail this born-again fiscal conservatism as a departure from Trump’s racist, antidemocratic politics. Historically speaking, this is a false distinction.

There has been one successful coup in the United States. It foreshadowed the rise of Donald Trump

DailyKos Dartagnan November 24, 2020

Out of the many acts of terroristic violence perpetrated against African Americans since active hostilities concluded in the Civil War, what occurred in Wilmington over a few days in November 1898 was not unique in its lethal character. Some 60 (probably more) Black citizens were massacred at the hands of an angry mob of white supremacists. Similar incidents of racist violence had peppered the South for decades, fueling the inception of such domestic terrorist groups as the Ku Klux Klan. But the parallels with the modern goals of the Republican Party—specifically the political reasons for the massacre, coupled with what sparked the event itself—echo today in the strategy and motives underlying the Trump campaign’s efforts to delegitimize the 2020 election.

What motivated that 1898 Wilmington coup, known as the Wilmington Insurrection—or its longtime white-washed historical descriptor, the “Wilmington Race Riot”—were the same things that motivate Trump and the GOP today: white power, white insecurity and white fear. All of those put together led to a sustained campaign of voter intimidation that directly prefigures the GOP’s modern-day voter suppression script.

Indian Training Schools

John N Mare Washco Day 3 of American Indian Heritage Month. Today we're going to look back at the wonderful experience of "Residential Boarding Schools". Won't hear about this on TV. Between 1869 and the 1960s, (YES 1960s) hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. Though we don't know how many children were taken in total, by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled. The U.S. Native children that were voluntarily or forcibly removed from their homes, families, and communities during this time were taken to schools far away where they were punished for speaking their native language, banned from acting in any way that might be seen to represent traditional or cultural practices, stripped of traditional clothing, hair and personal belongings and behaviors reflective of their native culture. They suffered physical, sexual, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect, and experienced treatment that in many cases constituted torture for speaking their Native languages. Many children never returned home and their fates have yet to be accounted for by the U.S. government.

The Other Madisons review: an astonishing story of a president's black family

<embed> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/19/the-other-madisons-review-president-black-family </embed> the Guardian Michael Henry Adams Sun 19 Jul 2020 02.00 EDT

Bettye Kearse’s powerful book acts to memorably illuminate the poet Caroline Randall Williams’ vivid idea of the “rape-colored skin”. By infinite degrees, African Americans’ skins are lighter than our unknown west African ancestors. This is due to our haunted legacy of imposition. Black women submitted to predatory masters. Their husbands accepted and loved white men’s children.

The Black Descendants of President Madison

<embed> https://lithub.com/the-black-descendants-of-president-madison </embed> The Literary Hub By Bettye Kearse March 25, 2020

Bettye Kearse on the Complicated Lineage of Her Ancestors
My earliest recollection of hearing this story was as a five-year-old attempting to stand still while my mother worked on the dress she was creating for me. Every time I had a piano recital, she sewed me a new dress, and every time she sewed for me, I became bored and fidgety. I dreaded the fittings more than the performance itself. The performance lasted little more than two minutes; the fittings took forever. Mom pinned a seam; I tried on the dress. Mom sewed a seam; I tried on the dress. Mom pinned a hem; I tried on the dress . . . It was torture. My mother designed my outfits, but I did not care about ruffles, lace, and satin trim, and I did not want to play the piano. I wanted to dance. The closer the dress came to its final shape, the closer I came to driving my mother to her wits’ end. At every opportunity, I’d slip away and dance to the music in my head. I loved the Nutcracker Suite. I was the Sugar Plum Fairy. I arabesqued, twirled, pliéed, then twirled again, careful not to let the pins stick me. But my reprieves were brief.

Confederate Statues Were Never Really About Preserving History

<embed> https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/confederate-statues/ </embed>

The biggest spike in Confederate memorials came during the early 1900s, soon after Southern states enacted a number of sweeping laws to disenfranchise Black Americans and segregate society. During this period, more than 400 monuments were built as part of an organized strategy to reshape Civil War history. And this effort was largely spearheaded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who sponsored hundreds of statues, predominantly in the South in the early 20th century — and as recently as 2011.

The Frenzy at David Duke’s Campaign Rallies

<embed> https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/david-duke-1990-senate-race-rallies.html </embed>

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, I look around at this country. I love this country deeply. And I believe we’re losing it,” he told them. “And I know what we once were, and I want to make us great again, ladies and gentlemen. We gotta stand up for this country!” see Trump 2016
As a Senate candidate, he used the “welfare queen” myth to rile up his white supporters.See Reagan 1976

Civil Rights History Project

<embed> https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/about-this-collection/ </embed>

On May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directed the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a national survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record and make widely accessible new interviews with people who participated in the struggle. The project was initiated in 2010 with the survey and with interviews beginning in 2011.

Junípero Serra's road to sainthood is controversial for Native Americans

<embed> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/pope-francis-junipero-serra-sainthood-native-american-controversy </embed>

As Pope Francis plans to canonize ‘the evangeliser of the west’, descendants of those who first encountered the missionary recall a culture lost to violence

Ulysses S. Grant Launched an Illegal War Against the Plains Indians, Then Lied About It

<embed> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ulysses-grant-launched-illegal-war-plains-indians-180960787/ </embed>

The president promised peace with Indians — and covertly hatched the plot that provoked one of the bloodiest conflicts in the West

The Politic use of Law and Order and its racist origins

https://youtu.be/o1XeY6DHHmA

Southern Strategy, Silent Majority, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan: "Monkeys from those African countries uncomfortable wearing shoes", Lee Atwater: "Nigger, nigger, nigger", Barry Goldwater You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

Ruby Bridges Daisy Gabriel integrating School 1960

Short Clip of Ruby Bridges integrated school in New Orleans 1960 <embed> https://www.criterionchannel.com/the-children-were-watching </embed>

The Aunt Jemima brand, acknowledging its racist past, will be retired

<embed> https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/business/aunt-jemima-logo-change/index.html </embed>

RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA: Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876 EJI 6/2020

<embed> https://eji.org/reports/reconstruction-in-america-overview/ </embed>