I’m watching Mississippi again. I keep coming back to the same thing. Nolan Wells didn’t drown. The autopsy findings reportedly don’t support drowning as his cause of death, which makes the questions surrounding what happened to him even harder to dismiss. Yet a grand jury declined to indict anyone in connection with his death. That’s the part I’m struggling with. How can there be this many questions surrounding the death of a young man and the response still be that th

I’ve been concerned about the reports of Black people found hanging recently. Some of these deaths were quickly described as suicides. While I understand that Black people do die by suicide, including by hanging, I struggle with that explanation because of the history behind lynchings.

We typically learn that the Great Migration was an economic story of Black Americans leaving the South to move up North to acquire better jobs. Which is true, however, it leaves out an important question. Why were six million people willing to leave home? Between 1910 and 1970, about six million Black Americans moved from the South to northern, midwestern and western states. The National Archives describes the Great Migration as one of the largest movements of people in Unite

Many institutions survive challenges not by refusing to change, but by adapting. Throughout American history, reforms have often been accompanied by efforts to preserve existing power structures through new strategies, policies, and narratives. This article examines the difference between symbolic change and structural change, why backlash often follows reform, and how historical patterns can help us better evaluate claims of progress.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, debates over history, patriotism, education, race, and democracy are intensifying across the country. According to America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversary by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., major American anniversaries have historically reflected the political tensions of their era. The 1876 Centennial reflected the collapse of Reconstruction. The 1926 Sesquicentennial reflected white nationalism and immigration

Debates about race often intensify during major American anniversaries because race has always shaped the country’s institutions, politics, and national identity. According to America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversary by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., celebrations like the 1876 Centennial, 1926 Sesquicentennial, and 1976 Bicentennial reflected the racial conflicts of their time.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, debates over patriotism, education, race, and national identity are intensifying. According to America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversary by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., this pattern is not new. America’s major anniversaries have historically reflected the racial and political tensions of their time. The 1876 Centennial celebrated national unity while Reconstruction collapsed and racial violence spread across the

Historians use the term “The Nadir” to describe the period after Reconstruction, roughly from 1877 to 1901, when Black political rights were systematically dismantled across the South through segregation laws, voter suppression, racial terror, and institutional backlash. Although emancipation and constitutional amendments had expanded Black citizenship formally, courts, lawmakers, and local governments weakened those protections over time while maintaining the appearance of l

American history rarely moves in a straight line. Many of the country’s largest expansions of civil rights have been followed by organized backlash, legal restrictions, or institutional retreat. After the Civil War, Reconstruction expanded Black citizenship through constitutional amendments, voting rights, and federal enforcement. That progress was followed by Jim Crow, voter suppression, segregation, and organized racial violence.

The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission was a state government agency created in 1956 to resist desegregation and monitor civil rights activism during the civil rights era. Following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, Mississippi officials established the commission under the stated goal of protecting the state’s sovereignty from federal intervention.

The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 were federal laws passed during Reconstruction to protect Black Americans’ constitutional rights after the Civil War. Following the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan used violence and intimidation to prevent Black citizens from voting and participating in government. Local authorities often refused to intervene.

Following the Civil War, Reconstruction-era law enforcement frequently prioritized protection of property and agricultural production over equal protection of Black communities. Property crimes and contract disputes were prosecuted aggressively, while racial violence often received inconsistent legal response. Examining these enforcement patterns provides critical context for understanding how “law and order” historically functioned to preserve economic stability and ownershi

The story many Americans inherited about the Confederacy is tidy and also deeply misleading. It frames the Civil War as a tragic misunderstanding rooted in honor or regional pride, casting the Confederacy as a defender of a way of life rather than slavery.

For decades, the deaths of formerly enslaved people at the Devil’s Punchbowl were explained away as misfortune. The story suggested chaos after emancipation, people wandering into unsafe conditions, disease spreading naturally. No one was responsible. That framing isn’t neutral. It shifts blame onto the dead and turns mass death into an unfortunate accident rather than the result of policy.

The Confederacy was founded to preserve slavery. Secession documents stated it explicitly, speeches affirmed it, the Confederate constitution protected it, and leaders openly described slavery as the cornerstone of their government. These facts weren’t hidden or disputed at the time. What followed wasn’t confusion or forgetfulness, but deliberate replacement.

The phrase "Reconstruction failed" is often repeated as a simple historical fact. Yet, this statement reflects a political judgment rather than an accurate assessment of what Reconstruction accomplished. After the Civil War, the United States embarked on a bold experiment that challenged its own foundations. Reconstruction treated formerly enslaved people as citizens, expanded voting rights, and built public institutions. It forced the nation to confront whether democracy wou

In 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, witnessed an event that defies the common labels of “civil unrest” or “riot.” What happened was a carefully planned and executed coup that violently removed a legitimately elected, multiracial government. This remains the only successful coup in United States history. Understanding this event sheds light on how democracy can be dismantled when it challenges entrenched power, and how language can be used to erase responsibility for such act

The United States treats 1865 as a clean break: the war ends, the amendment passes, freedom arrives, and the story insists history moves on. It’s a comforting version of events, one that suggests moral progress, offers closure, and frames everything that followed as the result of individual failure rather than inherited systems. But history doesn’t work that way. Slavery didn’t end as a system in 1865; it ended as a legal designation

In December 2023, a monument notorious for its offensive imagery was removed from Arlington National Cemetery. This 32-foot bronze statue, laden with Lost Cause symbolism, depicted smiling enslaved individuals and celebrated Confederate heroes, all while suggesting the South fought nobly for freedom through a Latin inscription.