Selma – The Struggle for Voting Rights Continues
On Saturday, May 16, an estimated 5,000 people demonstrated in Selma, Alabama against the various efforts to attack people’s voting rights. People from all over the South came to take a stand against the suppression of their votes. The protest took place at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which was not an accident given […]
Black History Month and Self-Liberation
During Black History Month, our attention often focuses on the stories and achievements of great leaders. But those leaders are famous only because of the activism of masses of people for their own liberation. Freedom for Black people in the United States and across the Americas was not won by politicians’ speeches, laws, or reform. […]
Newark and Detroit, July 1967: A Brief History and Lessons for Today
Today, July 12, 2025, we face the specter of ICE raids and potentially even military incursions into and against working-class communities nationwide. As these raids have ramped up, people have begun to respond, first in localized ways and now with slowly expanding protests both large and small. This is not the first time that military […]
Rustin (2023) Movie Review – We Must All Be Troublemakers
The recent biopic Rustin (2023 on Netflix) tells the powerful story of civil rights activist and socialist, Bayard Rustin, who spearheaded the March on Washington in 1963. Rustin is an often overlooked figure in the history of the Civil Rights Movement despite his significant role. The film gives us a look into his commitment to the struggle and ability […]
“El arco del universo moral es largo pero se curva hacia la justicia”
Las palabras anteriores fueron las pronunciadas por MLK Jr. en marzo de 1967, en el apogeo de los movimientos sociales que luchaban por la justicia racial, la igualdad económica y el fin a la política imperialista de EE. UU. en Vietnam. Ahora que nos adentramos en febrero, centrado en la historia Afroamericana, estas palabras son […]
Staughton Lynd: Scholar and Defender of the Working Class
On Thursday, November 17, scholar of the people and lifelong activist Staughton Lynd died at the age of 92. Lynd was part of a generation of young scholars who came of age in the 1960s, perhaps best exemplified by himself and Howard Zinn, who sought to pursue knowledge and scholarship in the struggle to make […]