Abby Zimet: Slipping Free of the Shame To Say His Name, Now More Than Ever
If he’d been allowed to live his “one wild and precious life,” Sunday July 25 would have been the 80th birthday of Emmett Till, who at 14 was kidnapped, whipped, … Continue reading
Liz Theoharis: The Nation Must Have the Moral Courage To Carry on the Work of Martin Luther King Jr.
Many have claimed that those rioters (and the president’s infamous “base” more generally) were all, in essence, poor, working-class white people. In reality, however, among those who have led such racist attacks are business leaders, executives, and multimillionaires.
Kathleen O’Toole: For Such a Time as This
The poet’s ability to inhabit the events, and actors, with King himself center stage, contribute to the power of this collection. Moreover, the questions these poems raise could not be more timely.
George Yancy: Capitol Mob Reveals Ongoing Refusal to Accept Black Votes as Legitimate
Frederick Douglass embraced the promise of the Declaration, even while he condemned the United States as a land of hypocrisy, because people talk about freedom, but in fact they deprive millions of their freedom.
David D. Daniels III: Black Church has been getting ‘souls to the polls’ for more than 60 years
To King and other civil rights leaders, the Black Church was a key institution within the pro-democracy movement.
Liz Theoharis: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in America
The gospel doesn’t talk about the inevitability of poverty or the need for charity, but the responsibilities of the ruling authorities to all people and the possibility of abundance for all.
Video: Ayishat Akanbi | The Problem with Wokeness
Ayishat Akanbi considers the radical power of kindness, the limits of identity, the gendered nature of image, and how to transcend the superficial to form meaningful connections.
John Lewis: Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble
Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.
Kazu Haga: Why the moral argument for nonviolence matters
The civil rights movement was led largely by leaders who believed in nonviolence as a moral imperative. It was not only the most effective thing, but also the right thing.
Vox Populi: An Interview With Our Editor
On Friday, we caught up with poet, blogger, editor and activist Michael Simms at his kitchen table where he was preparing his Saturday morning post for Vox Populi.
Donna M. Cox: The power of a song in a strange land
“they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.” — Frederick Douglass
Audio: The Ballad of Birmingham
At 10:22 a.m. on the morning of September 15, 1963, some 200 church members were in the building—many attending Sunday school classes before the start of the 11 am service—when the bomb detonated on the church’s east side, spraying mortar and bricks from the front of the church and caving in its interior walls.
Kazu Haga: Why we need to move closer to King’s understanding of nonviolence
When we use nonviolence to confront violence and injustice, we are not disturbing the peace, we are disturbing complacency. We are disturbing the normalization of violence.
Abby Zimet: What We Do With Our History
Emmett Till gets a new memorial. “The fact that it’s bulletproof,” noted one relative, “speaks volumes.”
