Before “Global Black Politics” Had a Name, Vicki Garvin Was Living It
From Harlem union halls to Ghana, Nigeria, and Mao-era China, Garvin built a politics that treated Black freedom as inseparable from labor justice, women’s equality, and world re
When Bobby Hutton Fell
His killing in 1968 did not simply end a young life. It accelerated the mythology, militancy, grief, and national attention surrounding the Black Panther Party.
Alice Ball’s Cure, and the Theft That Followed
Her chemistry helped turn a dreaded oil into a workable treatment for leprosy. Her short life also exposed how easily brilliance could be erased when it belonged to a young Black w
Mary Jane Patterson and the Cost of Being First
Her name should sit much closer to the center of American educational history: a scholar of the “gentleman’s course,” a school leader in Washington and a builder of Black ins
Andrew Young and the Art of Moving History
His life tracks a distinctly American journey: from Jim Crow’s limits to civil rights negotiation rooms, congressional halls, and global diplomacy.
The Drone War Haiti Didn’t Vote For
As Haiti’s interim authorities turned to explosive drones and a private firm run by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, the campaign promised precision. What it delivered, according
Moe Brooker and the Discipline of Joy
Brooker turned jazz, faith, and the heat of Philadelphia into a language of abstraction that made joy feel hard-won, communal, and unmistakably alive.
The Abolitionist America Forgot
His life survives in fragments, but the fragments are enough to show why Shields Green belongs at the center—not the margins—of the fight against slavery.
The Book That Refused to Let America Look Away
Richard Wright’s Native Son did more than scandalize 1940 readers. It forced the country to confront how race, fear, housing, policing, and power could shape a life before a crim
Pastor on the Hill
From the pulpit at New Bethel Baptist to the committee rooms of Capitol Hill, Walter Fauntroy turned moral authority into legislative leverage—and made D.C.’s unfinished democr