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Articles on Civil war

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Construction workers extracted a Calhoun statue in Charleston, South Carolina on June 24, 2020. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Authorities are yanking the legacy of slaveholder John C. Calhoun from public sphere, but his bigotry remains embedded in American society

Despite his defense of slavery, the former vice president and US senator from South Carolina has been honored with statues and streets, schools and counties. That’s finally changing.
President Donald Trump makes a statement to the press in the Rose Garden about restoring “law and order” in the wake of protests. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Can the president really order the military to occupy US cities and states?

President Trump has warned that he will send the military into states to curb protests. Is Trump’s warning bluster? Or does the president have the authority to send the military into American cities?
The Proud Boys outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

There’s a history of white supremacists interpreting government leaders’ words as encouragement

White supremacists’ protests against COVID-19 lockdowns reflect the US history of political leaders encouraging white supremacist groups to challenge or overthrow democratic governments.
Singer-songwriter Norberto Amaya, pictured in the hat, singing at a refugee camp for El Salvadorians fleeing their country’s civil war, in La Virtud, Honduras, 1981. (Photo courtesy of Meyer Brownstone/Oxfam Canada)

Music helps us remember who we are and how we belong during difficult and traumatic times

People rely on familiar music to get through difficult times. Refugees from El Salvador’s civil war used music to light up memories of their past.
Despite voter dissatisfaction with the Republican and Democratic parties, they are likely to persist. Shutterstock/Victor Moussa

The two-party system is here to stay

Despite the fact that only 38% of Americans say they think the Democratic and Republican parties are doing ‘an adequate job,’ they’re unlikely to disappear.
Christmas tours to mansions often present a ‘magical’ experience to tourists, but they ignore the realities of the lives of slaves who worked there. Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau/Flickr

Slave life’s harsh realities are erased in Christmas tours of Southern plantations

Fictional accounts of white Southerners make it seem like it was fun to be a slave on a plantation at holiday time. Many of today’s tours repeat such stories.
A portrait from 1868 of abolitionist Harriet Tubman. AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz

Faith made Harriet Tubman fearless as she rescued slaves

Among Tubman’s most daring feats was helping slaves escape. She believed she went into trances and had visions. These, to her, were God’s way of guiding her, which made her quite fearless.
Women dance during a protest march against the killing of activists, in Bogota, Colombia, on July 26, 2019. Colombians took to the streets to call for an end to a wave of killings in the wake of the nation’s peace deal. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

El Grito: Violence in Colombia continues to kill activists

In Colombia, a 2016 peace agreement does not contain the ongoing violence. Violence escalates as criminal armed groups replace the FARC rebels in a violent battle for land and resources.
A racial wealth gap is persisting after centuries enslavement and systemic discrimination. Hyejin Kang/Shutterstock.com

The case for African American reparations, explained

Thanks to demographic and political changes, Democratic contenders are addressing this issue for the first time.
President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Vice President Joseph Biden in 2019. Library of Congress, photo Alexander Gardner; AP/Nati Harnik

Abraham Lincoln, Joe Biden and the politics of touch

The news is filled with stories about inappropriate touching by politicians. But touch by politicians was long important in the US, and Abraham Lincoln’s handshake helped engage and guide the nation.

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