Civil Rights Archives - Page 2 of 4

Activism

Protest as a Means of Political Change: An Indian Case Study

How the 2012 gang rape of Jyoti Singh and the protests that followed changed a nation

July 2, 2020 • by Natasha Behl

In this current political moment of mass protests for racial justice across America, many of us are wondering how effective these protests are. Can marching in the streets lead to enduring change? Can dissent and disruption help us achieve a more equal and just society? Consider what happened in India eight ...

Protest as a Means of Political Change: An Indian Case Study

Activism

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

When monuments to racism, slavery, and empire come down, new possibilities rise up

June 25, 2020 • by Durba Ghosh and Kelly King-O’Brien

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, the movement to remove Confederate monuments has accelerated rapidly as part of a new wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Protestors argue these monuments represent institutional racism and should be removed immediately. Many governors and local politicians readily ...

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

Democracy

The U.S. Needs to Protect Free and Fair Elections

Here’s how

June 23, 2020 • by Katie Scofield

When eight states and Washington, D.C., all held elections facing the dual challenges of Covid-19 and demonstrations protesting anti-Black violence prompted -- this time -- by the killing of George Floyd, we learned that cumbersome voting systems have become more fragile than ever. Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Maryland were unable to ...

The U.S. Needs to Protect Free and Fair Elections

It Was Never About The Buses

Personal And Political Reflections On “Forced Busing”

July 27, 2019 • by Leo Casey

One of my earliest recollections dates back to the fall of 1964, in my 6th grade class at St. Matthias Elementary School. The nun who taught the class had us research that year’s presidential election, and each of us had to decide which of the major party candidates – Johnson ...

Feature

No ‘Fringe’ About It: An Interview with Arte Público Press

The NBBC award-winning press on publishing Latino authors in the United States

May 4, 2019 • by Virginia Valenzuela

In March 2019, The New School hosted the National Book Critics Circle awards, which honor literature published in the United States in the previous year. The awards are presented in six categories -- autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry -- and are the only U.S. literary awards chosen by ...

No ‘Fringe’ About It: An Interview with Arte Público Press

Race

Lorraine Hansberry and the Long Black Freedom Struggle

Imani Perry’s ‘Looking for Lorraine’ Review

April 5, 2019 • by Robert Greene II

The play A Raisin in the Sun is one of the most recognizable stage productions in the last 60 years of American history. Many Americans have encountered it -- whether on Broadway, at a local production, in film, or in a high school or college classroom. Yet, the person who wrote it, ...

Lorraine Hansberry and the Long Black Freedom Struggle

Exiles on 12th Street

The Fire This Time

Exiles on 12th Street, Episode Two

April 3, 2019 • by Claire Potter

Violence against African American people creates pain and outrage, but policy makers offer us few solutions. In this episode, we ask: how can the fight for racial justice be accelerated, even as racism remains as persistent today as it was before the modern Civil Rights movement? In the spirit of ...

Feature

Reflections of a Federal Judge from Jim Crow Mississippi

A Jo Freeman Review of ‘Won Over’

March 23, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

When I was working in Mississippi for SCLC in 1966, I would not have believed that any of the young white men I saw on the streets (mostly harassing us) would ever reject white supremacy. They appeared as dedicated to its domination as sports fans are to their clubs. William Alsup writes that ...

Reflections of a Federal Judge from Jim Crow Mississippi

Feature

Banned for Life – from Mississippi

Review of Brenda Travis, written with John Obee

February 28, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

At age 17 Brenda Travis was banned from the state of Mississippi, or so she was told. Forced to leave family and friends behind because she got involved in the civil rights movement she spent most of her life someplace else, but always felt like an exile. Brenda was just 16 ...

Feature

How to Live One’s Values in All The “Little” Choices

A Review of Making History, Making Blintzes: How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America

February 20, 2019 • by Myra Marx Ferree

Living in interesting times is reputedly a curse, but Mickey and Dick Flacks tell a story of such times that makes them positively charming. The title suggests a voyage of discovery, both of each other and of national experiences and values, but the book itself has less to say about ...

How to Live One’s Values in All The “Little” Choices

Feature

Our Sixties: Blowin’ in the Wind

Thinking Morally, Acting Strategically

February 19, 2019 • by Richard Flacks and Miriam Flacks

Making History/Making Blintzes: How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America is a chronicle of the political and personal lives of progressive activists Richard (Dick) and Miriam (Mickey) Flacks, two of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). As active members of the Civil Rights movement ...

Blue Monday

Thoughts on Martin Luther King, Jr., Birmingham, and Fractious Unity

Lessons from the civil rights movement for today’s political debates

January 21, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” - Duke Ellington Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a classic of American political thought and of American literature more generally. I’ve taught it countless times in my almost four decades of teaching political ...