The Man Behind the Double V Campaign
Many may be aware of the Double V campaign, but few know of the 26-year-old who ignited the campaign.
‘Tell him how things can be between men on this earth’: Jesse Owens’ Unlikely Friendship
The unlikely friendship between Jesse Owens and German-born track star Carl Ludwig “Luz” Long
Interview with Edward L. Ayers, Civil War Historian
Ayers argues that America should acknowledge the importance of emancipation with a national holiday.
Embattled Banner: The True History of the Confederate Flag
The history of the Confederate Flag is full of myth and hearsay. So here's the truth of how it emerged during the Civil War—and its meaning then and now.
The Complicated History of Lafayette Square: Then and Now
Lafayette Square is a popular destination for tourists and protestors seeking to engage the White House in their own ways; it’s also an enduring symbol of the American paradox between freedom and slavery.
Why the Civil Rights Movement Was an Insurgency
Military historian Mark Grimsley makes the startling assertion that the American civil rights movement was an insurgency.
A Virginia Slave Schooled in Scotland Made a Bravehearted Bid for His Freedom
Jamie Montgomery failed, but his case set a precedent that ended chattel bondage in Scotland 12 years later
Zephaniah Kingsley: Champion of Free Blacks
Roving merchant and slave trader approved of bondage system but saw freedmen as linchpin
When Truth Spoke to Power
Freedom Rider Jerome Smith stood up to Robert Kennedy with shocking candor about violence against black Americans
How Southerners Became Sympathetic to Suicide
Self-destruction is seen as heroic instead of an act of cowardice
A Winning Essay: Bill Pickett, the Bulldogger
In her winning essay Mayumi Torres, a sixth grader at San Antonio's Pieper Ranch Middle School, profiles Texas-born rodeo legend Bill Pickett
Congress Changed the Way Lincoln Fought the Civil War
Radical Republicans pushed for aggressive military policy, emancipation, and Western expansion
Explore Life Along the Levee
New Orlean, the Confederacy's largest and most commercially important city, fell to the Union in May 1862
Strong Men vs. Strongmen: When American Athletes Try to Play Fair With Totalitarian Regimes
Jesse Owens won a coup in Hitler's Germany, but today's NBA stars kowtow to China
