The Roundup Top Ten for March 19, 2021

For 100 Years, the Filibuster has been Used to Deny Black Rights

by John Fabian Witt and Magdalene Zier

The filibuster is often associated with Southern conservatives' opposition to civil rights legislation, but it's important to note that the modern use of the tactic emerged to defeat the 1920 Dyer anti-lynching bill – the NAACP called the filibuster a "license to mobs to lynch unmolested."

We Were Warned about a Divided America 50 Years Ago. We Ignored the Signs

by Elizabeth Hinton

The 1968 Kerner Commission Report on civil disorders recommended police reform, public employment, housing and school desegregation, and a basic minimum income to tackle economic inequality and racial segregation as conjoined problems. LBJ shelved the report, and we pay the price today.

Napoleon Isn’t a Hero to Celebrate

by Marlene Daut

The veneration of Napoleon on the 200th anniversary of his death reflects a systemic problem in French education, which touts the color-blind universality of French republicanism (which Napoleon destroyed) without acknowedging his policy of attempted genocide in the effort to retake control of Haiti.

Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present

by Priya Satia

"Historical and local specificities mean all analogies are ultimately inaccurate in ways that historians must always make clear. The point of such comparisons, however, is to uncover darker historical truths obscured by prevailing, more flattering comparisons."

Manufacturing Isn’t Coming Back. Let’s Improve These Jobs Instead

by Gabriel Winant

Instead of focusing on infrastructure projects, the federal government should act to improve the pay and working conditions of medical and care workers, who have been a growing share of the American working class for decades. This would make poorer and older Americans healthier as well.

The Lost Story of Lady Bird

by Julia E. Sweig

"It is perhaps ironic that so many historians, intent as they are on the president, have missed her sway in the White House, because Lyndon himself was not shy in acknowledging Lady Bird’s crucial role in his administration."

The Forgotten Film That Paved The Way For This Year’s Oscars Contenders

by Rebecca Prime

For the 1968 film "Uptight!," white director Jules Dassin enlisted Ruby Dee and Julian Mayfield to remake the 1935 film "The Informer" around the Black Panther Party, a move which drew on all three principals' experiences with surveillance over political activism and provoked a sabotage effort by the FBI.