Anne C. Bailey, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Former enslaved persons never got ‘forty acres and a mule,’ and their descendants have been denied reparations for the legacy of slavery. Will Joe Biden be the president to change that?
Students of School Section #13 with teacher, Verlyn Ladd, who taught at the school from 1939 to 1958. Class of 1951, Buxton, Raleigh Township, Ontario.
(Buxton National Historic Site & Museum)
An 1850 act permitted the creation of separate schools for Protestants, Catholics and for any five Black families. Some white people used the act to force Black students into separate institutions.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preaching from his pulpit in 1960 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dozier Mobley/Getty Images
The church has played a vital role in America’s civil rights struggle. It was the spiritual home to MLK, to the generations that shaped the vision of the late civil rights leader, and now to Sen. Raphael Warnock.
A 1938 stamp honoring former President Woodrow Wilson, considered one of America’s most progressive presidents.
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Guo Xu, University of California, Berkeley e Abhay Aneja, University of California, Berkeley
President Wilson sanctioned segregation policies more than a century ago by targeting Black civil service workers.
When commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis received a petition to integrate baseball with over a million signatures, he simply ignored it.
APA via Getty Images
By removing Kenesaw Mountain Landis’ name from the plaques awarded to each league’s MVP, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America acknowledged Landis’ role in upholding segregation.
Football players from Lee Central High School in Bishopville, South Carolina, share a meal with players from the Robert E. Lee Academy. Lee County in South Carolina is still segregated.
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The battle to expand private education in South Carolina amid the pandemic mirrors previous struggles over civil rights and highlights the ways systemic racism has undermined public education.
Theodore Roosevelt was one of many U.S. presidents who was racist.
Bettman/Getty
President Woodrow Wilson told Black leaders, ‘Segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.’ He was one in a long line of racist American presidents.
Will white people’s participation in Black Lives Matter protests yield real change?
Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In principle, white Americans support efforts to end racism. But in practice, they have long been unwilling to support the fundamental change needed to do that. Will this year’s events change that?
Minneapolis, a city still split along racial lines.
Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Despite its progressive image, Minneapolis is one of the most segregated cities in the United States. That is by design not accident, argues an urban planning scholar.
John Lewis, right, marched with Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for equality.
Steve Schapiro / Contributor/GettyImages
Though he had a speech impediment and came from humble beginnings, John Lewis went on to become a giant of the civil rights movement.
A New Jersey minister welcoming members of the KKK into his church in 1923.
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Brutus’s life was closely interlinked with the rise of apartheid and offered a way to look at resistance to this system.
Richmond’s towering 1890 Robert E. Lee statue is transformed by protests following the killing of George Floyd.
John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images
A Richmond court says the city cannot remove its controversial Robert E. Lee sculpture because an 1890 land deed gave the Confederate monument ‘to the people’ of Virginia, not its government.
Richmond’s towering Robert E. Lee statue is transformed by protests following the killing of George Floyd. Is removal next?
John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images
On June 19, a court will decide whether Virginia must obey a 1890 deed that gave the state a plot of prime Richmond land as long as it would ‘faithfully guard’ the Robert E. Lee statue erected there.
Police stand guard on Plymouth Avenue as firemen battle fires on July 21, 1967.
AP Photo/Robert Walsh
After a riot broke out in 1967, Minneapolis officials squandered an opportunity to address the structural racism that led to George Floyd’s death and a wave of unrest across the country.
Katherine Johnson spoke at the Oscars about her work depicted in the 2016 film ‘Hidden Figures.’
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
NASA scientist Katherine Johnson was instrumental in getting people to the moon. Here are some of the lessons one mathematics professor believes she taught us all.
More than half of black people in the U.S. live in highly segregated areas.
Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com
Black Americans who grow up in racially segregated areas tend to have worse health, education and future economic prospects. Moving out can make a big difference.
The springbok emblem was introduced under white rule in South Africa and by retaining it, it remains a burden for many South Africans who followed the Rugby World Cup.
Some kids need a more challenging curriculum.
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New York City could be on the verge of dismantling gifted programs at its elementary and middle schools. Taking that step could make things even worse for some of the children it aims to help.
The Rosa Parks Barbie (centre) with other figures from the Inspiring Women Series. From L to R: Katherine Johnson, Sally Ride, Frida Kahlo and Amelia Earhart.
Mattel, Inc.