Civil Rights Archives - Public Seminar

Podcast

We Shall Not Be Moved

Episode 62: David Greenberg on nonviolent resistance, the legacy of an iconic civil rights organizer, and his new book, John Lewis: A Life

November 4, 2024 • by Claire Potter

There is no question that Donald Trump, a former President who is on the ballot next Tuesday, November 5, is not only a man in love with violence, but one who also understands violence as a way to get what he wants. On May 1, 1989, Trump took out a ...

Podcast

When We Lose, We Win

Episode 60: Talking with historian Brenda Wineapple about civil rights, culture wars, the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” trial and her new book, Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted A Nation

October 10, 2024 • by Claire Potter

In 2016, white evangelical Christians showed up at the polls in force for Donald J. Trump, part of a diverse movement that defied expectations to sweep him into the White House. In the past decade, scholars and journalists have spilled a lot of ink on what seemed initially like a ...

Podcast

The Bright Sunshine of Human Rights

A conversation with journalist and historian James Traub about liberalism and his book True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America

March 12, 2024 • by Claire Potter

An interview with James Traub on his new book, True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America....

Podcast

Hit Them in the Pocketbook

May 8, 2023 • by Claire Potter

This book describes a part of the African American civil rights movement that many people don’t know—perhaps because it was run, and the battles were fought, by Black women who saw their activism as an extension of their commitment as mothers....

Activism

We Are a Reckoning

Deva Woodly introduces her new book, Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements

January 17, 2022 • by Deva Woodly

This nation is mine. Mine to claim. Mine to hold to account. Mine to participate in reshaping. So I tell an American story because it is my story to tell....

Film

Who Should Tell Pauli Murray’s Story?

Why a white documentarian should have stepped aside and created space for a Black filmmaker

December 1, 2021 • by Benje Williams

My hand is trembling as I stick it into the dark air. I wasn’t planning on asking a question. Definitely not this question. But it needs to be asked, and I don’t see any other Black people in this theater in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. “I’m so glad My ...

Announcements

Ann Snitow Prize Awarded to Barnard Historian and Activist Premilla Nadasen

Nadasen’s work elevating the voices of poor and low-income Southern women has earned her the Prize’s inaugural award

December 16, 2020 • by Judith Levine

The Awards Ceremony will take place, via Zoom, on January 14 at 6 PM. It will feature a conversation about care work, race, and grassroots organizing between Professor Nadasen and the historian, writer, and longtime activist Barbara Ransby. Ann Snitow was a feminist writer and teacher best remembered for her critical ...

Ann Snitow Prize Awarded to Barnard Historian and Activist Premilla Nadasen

Democracy

How to Suppress the Vote

One of the Constitution’s original provisions, delegating elections to the states, haunts us today

November 2, 2020 • by Jo Freeman

There has been a lot of talk in the last few months about vote suppression. Both Democrats and Republicans are accusing the other of an action that, we can all agree, is reprehensible. But vote suppression is nothing new. It has a long and (dis)honorable tradition reaching back to the founding ...

North America

Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

The Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States

July 23, 2020 • by Duncan Hosie

This justification is a pretext. While pretending to strengthen protection for human rights abroad, the Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States. Pompeo and the Commission’s report embrace an “originalist” vision of America’s founding. Originalism is a doctrine in constitutional law ...

Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

Politics

Fox News Accidentally Reveals the Horrible Truth About Republicans

An attempt to advance the Republican party line goes awry

July 9, 2020 • by John Stoehr

Brian Kilmeade is co-host of Fox & Friends, the president’s favorite weekday morning show. Kilmeade is, well -- he’s not that bright. To be sure, he’s very good at advancing the party line. Sometimes, though, he gets mixed up. Wednesday morning, he tried saying something bad about the Democrats but ...

Fox News Accidentally Reveals the Horrible Truth About Republicans

Activism

What Will It Take for Black Lives to Matter?

Nonviolent, cross-racial coalitions are the way back to a decent America

July 9, 2020 • by Todd Gitlin

I wrote the article that follows three years ago. Since it first appeared in the American Prospect, Black Lives Matter (BLM) has generated the largest protest movement in American history. What has changed? And what hasn’t? It remains true that the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is ill-defined. It has rough edges ...

What Will It Take for Black Lives to Matter?

Politics

Harnessing Federal Power for Police Reform in America

What we can learn from Reconstruction and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

July 8, 2020 • by Richard Johnson and Desmond King

History suggests that the response to the current crisis of policing in the United States must be a stronger role for the federal government. Yet few activists within the Movement for Black Lives are demanding that the federal government flex its coercive muscle. Given the racism of the current occupant ...

Civil Rights

We Shall Not Be Moved

Episode 62: David Greenberg on nonviolent resistance, the legacy of an iconic civil rights organizer, and his new book, John Lewis: A Life

When We Lose, We Win

Episode 60: Talking with historian Brenda Wineapple about civil rights, culture wars, the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” trial and her new book, Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted A Nation

The Bright Sunshine of Human Rights

A conversation with journalist and historian James Traub about liberalism and his book True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America

Hit Them in the Pocketbook

Who Should Tell Pauli Murray’s Story?

Why a white documentarian should have stepped aside and created space for a Black filmmaker

How to Suppress the Vote

One of the Constitution’s original provisions, delegating elections to the states, haunts us today

Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

The Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States

Fox News Accidentally Reveals the Horrible Truth About Republicans

An attempt to advance the Republican party line goes awry

What Will It Take for Black Lives to Matter?

Nonviolent, cross-racial coalitions are the way back to a decent America

Harnessing Federal Power for Police Reform in America

What we can learn from Reconstruction and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

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