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PW Special Report: After Conservative Criticism, UNC Backs Down From Offering Acclaimed Journalist Tenured Position

“This is a very political thing,” the trustee said. “The university and the board of trustees and the Board of Governors and the legislature have all been getting pressure since this thing was first announced last month. There have been people writing letters and making calls, for and against. But I will leave it to you which is carrying more weight.”

A Vision of Racial and Economic Justice: A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin

by Norman Hill and Velma Murphy Hill

"More than a year into a national reckoning over racism, two heroes in the struggle for racial justice have received little national attention. A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin were mentor and student, friends and colleagues—eventually, their relationship was like father and son."

Children of the Holocaust Who Are Anonymous No More

Researchers using digital enhancement have been able to identify some passengers filmed on a train transporting them to concentration camps; some of those identified are survivors. 

Congressional Hearing on Tulsa Race Massacre

Watch the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee meeting on the Tulsa Race Massacre, which features the testimony of 107 year old Viola Fletcher, possibly the oldest survivor of the events of 1921. 

What to Do if You Unearth a History of Slavery in Your Church, College or Institution?

Many church denominations and denominational institutions like colleges and universities have been pushed to reckon with their past involvement in slavery and consider what obligations that confers on them in the present. 

Survivors Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Share Eyewitness Accounts

"I have been blessed with a long life and have seen the best and the worst of this country. I think about the terror inflicted upon black people in this country every day."

Tulsa Race Massacre Commission Ousts Oklahoma Governor

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission removed Gov. Kevin Stitt from the panel just days after he had signed a bill that banned the teaching of certain concepts about race.

Narrative Napalm: Malcolm Gladwell's Apologia for American Butchery

by Noah Kulwin

Reviewer Noah Kulwin argues Malcolm Gladwell's book on the rise of American air power misrepresents the military history of World War II, wrongly elevates Curtis LeMay to the status of a heroic genius, and blithely passes over the vast carnage of incendiary and atomic bombings. 

Rijksmuseum Slavery Exhibition Confronts Cruelty of Dutch Trade

"Dutch traders shipped over 600,000 Africans to north and South America and between 660,000 and 1.1 million people around the Indian ocean."

Human Tissue Preserved since World War I Yields New Clues about 1918 Pandemic

"The partial genomes hold some tantalizing clues that the infamous flu strain may have adapted to humans between the pandemic’s first and second waves."

Joe Biden Wants to Be Like Roosevelt. But Can He Get the Votes?

Jill Lepore and Jelani Cobb join New Yorker Editor David Remnick's podcast to discuss the prospects for an ambitious program of spending and public works. As Lepore says, “You can’t put F.D.R. in Dr. Who’s phone booth and bring him to 2021."

Germany Nears Accord with Namibia on Colonial Killings

Germany has hinted at its readiness to make compensation payments to Namibia in reparation for the genocidal attacks on the Herero and other peoples in 1904, considered one of the first modern genocides. 

Opinion: If U.S. Museums Say Black Lives Matter, then they Should Return Africa’s Stolen Art

"So far, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have not commented on whether their institutions will return the artifacts that were plundered from the Kingdom of Benin."

In Israel’s Rising Violence, Ripples From 1948

The eruption of communal violence between Jews and Arabs in Israeli towns with mixed populations is a legacy of the events of 1948, when, in the context of war, many towns' Arab populations were purged (historians debate the degree to which this was planned, or part of Israeli state policy). 

A Famed Folk Singer Won a Presidential Pardon after Molesting a Child. Did He Prey on Others?

Jimmy Carter's pardon of singer Peter Yarrow for sexual assault against a minor was overshadowed by the Iranian hostage crisis. Did he victimize others? (Content Advisory)

Officials Apologize for Deadly Police Shooting at a Black College in 1970

More than 400 students from the Jackson State class of 1970 were awarded diplomas on Saturday, as city and state officials apologized for the deadly police violence that took two lives and resulted in the shutdown of the campus and cancellation of that year's graduation ceremonies. 

Racist Attacks Revive Asian American Studies Program Demand

Asian American student activists who are advocating for Asian American studies programs are carrying forward the legacy of student protest in the 1960s that led to the establishment of the first ethnic studies programs. 

The U.S. Role in the El Mozote Massacre Echoes in Today’s Immigration

by Nelson Rauda and John Washington

Renewed efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1981 El Mozote massacre of Salvadoran civilians during the civil war will further demonstrate American involvement in the perpetuation of inequality and violence in Central America and, the authors argue, the hypocrisy of US immigration policy. 

The Epic Journey to ‘The Underground Railroad’

Director Barry Jenkins struggled with the ethical implications of making entertainment out of the brutal events narrated in Colson Whitehead's novel "Underground Railroad." He discusses how he decided to go ahead with the miniseries adaptation anyway. 

The Academic Concept Conservative Lawmakers Love to Hate

Chronicle of Higher Education Reporter Emma Petit examines the campaign to demonize "critical race theory."