Mary E. Harper (left) and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (right), whose two photos in ‘Atlanta Offering’ are unusual.
Unidentified Artist, 1895, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University
A 19th-century volume contained a mystery for two historians who combined their knowledge to tell the story of the women and their contributions to American democracy.
On paper, lives were lived, trysts arranged, manifestos mailed and wars waged.
MCAD Library/flickr
Textbook prices are causing many college students to forego the books they need for class, putting their grades in peril and leading many to miss out on certain courses, research shows.
Two of the top donors who made constructing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture possible were black.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Billionaire Robert F. Smith made a big splash when he told Morehouse grads he would pay off their student debt. Yet his generosity adheres to a long African American tradition.
Voodoo believers walk during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
Voodoo is often seen as a practice involving magic. In Haiti, Voodoo is a religion born out of the struggle of slaves. And today, it is used as a form of healing and protection.
Hendrix’s version of the National Anthem combined reverence and revolution.
nelag0/pixabay
W.T. Stead’s 1885 account of the process by which wealthy Londoners procured teenagers for sex became a global news story, but the police refused to investigate.
Evidence suggests that Muslim men in France have been disproportionately arrested and jailed for cannabis-related crimes since the drug became illegal in 1970.
Francisco Osorio/flickr
Muslims make up 9% of France’s population and half of all its prisoners – many convicted on drug charges. But social justice isn’t part of the country’s growing debate on legalization.
It’s a linguistic battlefield out there.
Complot/Shutterstock.com
Each spin of the news cycle hits us with another ‘bombshell,’ while everything from free speech to race has been ‘weaponized.’ What’s the effect of being relentlessly exposed to metaphors of war?
An 1870 portrait of Herman Melville painted by Joseph Oriel Eaton.
Houghton Library
While clear-eyed about the country’s injustices, Melville never succumbed to cynicism. On the author’s bicentennial, American readers could use a dose of his ability to fuse realism with idealism.
Solving the world’s climate problems will require many kinds of brain power.
UC Irvine School of Humanities
Climate change isn’t just a technical challenge – it also involves ethics, social justice and cultural values. Insights from literature, philosophy and other humanities can produce better solutions.
Honduran migrant Vicky Chavez with her daughter Issabella on May 31, 2018 in the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City, where she sought protection from deportation in late 2017.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Mario Garcia, University of California, Santa Barbara
The number of migrants living in churches has spiked recently in anticipation of threatened immigration raids, but churches have long protected refugees in an act of faith-based civil disobedience.
Chesley Bonestell’s detailed drawings of space travel inspired millions.
James Vaughan/flickr
While the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing is an opportunity to celebrate a remarkable technological achievement, it’s worth reflecting upon the creative vision that made it possible.
China is projected to surpass the U.S. in box office receipts in 2020.
DGArt3D/Shutterstock.com
Studios are starting to realize that diverse casts and diverse stories have a massive earning potential.
When a group of white and African American integrationists entered a St. Augustine, Fla. segregated hotel pool in 1964, the hotel manager poured acid into it.
AP Photo
Hidden for decades in a vault at the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, the photographs depict a regime fixated on establishing order, meting out punishment and stoking nationalism.
A drawing of Philip Marlowe, an icon of hard-boiled detective fiction created by author Raymond Chandler.
CHRISTO DRUMMKOPF/flickr
For decades, black characters in horror movies were objects of ridicule, died first or played evil Voodoo practitioners. But now we’re seeing a wave of films created by blacks and starring blacks.
In the live-action ‘Aladdin,’ Mena Massoud stars Aladdin, while Will Smith plays the Genie.
Daniel Smith/Walt Disney Pictures
Executive Director, Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; Honorary Senior Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne