Student journalists are using spreadsheets and databases to examine one of the darkest chapters in American history.
President Barack Obama presents NBA champion and human rights advocate Bill Russell the Medal of Freedom on Feb. 15, 2011.
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America’s complicated history with race can be told through the lives and times of Black Americans, a view that some GOP-controlled state legislatures want to restrict, if not outright ban.
In this photo from Aug. 20, 1922, Gene Kemp and Mary ‘Teddie’ Kemp, at left, are seen with two friends.
Jeffrey L. Littlejohn
If Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had his way, the state’s past of lynching Blacks would be taught as an exception rather than the rule. History tells a different story.
Voting rights supporters at a rally in Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2022.
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Experts help explain the context around the murder trial and convictions of Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan.
A float featuring Christopher Columbus makes its way down Fifth Avenue during the 75th annual Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 14, 2019, in New York.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Given Italian history, U.S. descendants of Italian immigrants have reason to reject their association with Columbus and stand in solidarity with indigenous groups as they reclaim their histories.
The aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre, during which mobs of white residents attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in June 1921.
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Digging deeply into the nation’s past can help illuminate the racial struggles facing the U.S. today.
An early 20th-century NAACP map showing lynchings between 1909 and 1918. The maps were sent to politicians and newspapers in an effort to spur legislation protecting Black Americans.
Library of Congress
Mapping is one way African Americans fight for equality and help each other navigate a racially hostile landscape.
Armed white citizens and police have historically worked together in the U.S., though it’s not clear whether that’s what’s happening here.
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The US has a centuries-old tradition of killing black people without repercussion – and of publicly viewing the violence. Spreading those images can disrespect the dead and traumatize viewers.
A funeral held in July 1945 for two victims of the Ku Klux Klan, George Dorsey and his sister, Dorothy Dorsey Malcolm, of Walton County, Georgia, held at the Mt. Perry Baptist Church Sunday.
Bettman via Getty
Religion was no barrier for Southern lynch mobs intent on terror. White pastors joined the KKK, incited racial violence and took part in lynchings. Sometimes, the victim was a preacher.
More than 40 lynchings have been documented in Maryland.
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Kelebogile Zvobgo, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The first truth commission to research lynchings has been established in Maryland. It has the potential to educate the public about and support racial reconciliation. But it also faces obstacles.
Henry W. Grady coined the phrase the ‘New South.’
C.W. Mates/Library of Congress
Henry W. Grady wanted to promote northern investment in the South – and he was willing to ignore lynchings and the exploitation of black labor.
Six memorial candles are lit during a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Sharkey Theater on board Naval Station Pearl Harbor.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James E. Foehl