History
November 11, 2016 -
Adopted to appease slaveholding states, the U.S. Electoral College has discouraged expansion of the franchise and resulted in five presidents who most voters opposed — but an alternative approach is gaining momentum in the states.
October 19, 2016 -
Seventy years ago this week in South Carolina, the Southern Negro Youth Congress convened the largest human rights gathering the region had ever seen. The S.C. Progressive Network is holding a public symposium on Oct. 22 looking back at that historic event. To mark the occasion, we share author and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois' convention address, one of his last major speeches and considered one of his best.
October 4, 2016 -
This Oct. 5 marks 100 years since the birth of Stetson Kennedy, the Florida writer and human rights activist who died in 2011 at the age of 94. The nonprofit foundation he launched while still alive is marking the occasion with a series of events that start this week with a biographical drama of Kennedy's life — and what a life it was.
September 30, 2016 -
Continued instances of police brutality reinforce the reality that African Americans are still deprived of basic citizenship and constitutional rights in the United States.
September 9, 2016 -
With Nate Parker's film about Nat Turner's 1831 slave revolt set to be released soon, retired Duke University history professor Peter H. Wood wonders if another much-needed teaching moment is on the way.
August 26, 2016 -
Sixty-one years after a grief-stricken mother invited the world to witness the brutality of white supremacy, a new museum dedicated to the African-American experience will put her son's casket on display — an exhibit that aims to ensure future generations remember America's painful past and how it shapes the present.
August 5, 2016 -
Recent legal victories over voting restrictions in North Carolina and other states point to the danger in being ahistorical when passing voting laws. Particularly in the South, where discrimination has deep roots, it is necessary to remember past discrimination when crafting present-day legislation.