In a new story for Wired, Bijan Stephen looks at how the Black Lives Matter movement uses social media to organize and fight for change. As Stephen writes, “any large social movement is shaped by the technology available to it,” tailoring their goals and tactics to the media of their time. For the nascent Black Lives Matter […]
civil rights
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How Mardi Gras Helped Make Mahalia Jackson a Political Activist
“I never did like the world-famous Mardi Gras that went on in New Orleans. It was a beautiful sight, but to me it was horrible. I have seen so many people hurt on that particular day . . . The white people would celebrate their Mardi Gras with big and expensive floats that went down the main part of Canal Street, which were very beautiful and high class . . . But for my people, for them it would be such a tragedy. “
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Seven Stories for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Below are seven stories about (or by) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., exploring different facets of his life and legacy.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Seven Stories for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Below are seven stories about (or by) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., exploring different facets of his life and legacy.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Step Back for The Civil Rights Movement
Over the next three decades, Hank Sanders became a fixture in the statehouse, ascending to the chairmanship of the Senate’s Finance and Taxation Education Committee. From his expansive office just off the Senate floor, he controlled Alabama’s Education Trust Fund, the largest operating budget in state government. Sanders tried to exercise his power to represent […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What It Was Like to Hear Nina Simone Live
Nina Simone’s explosiveness was well known. In concert, she was quick to call out anyone she noticed talking, to stop and glare or hurl a few insults or even leave the stage. Yet her performances, richly improvised, were also confidingly intimate—she needed the connection with her audience—and often riveting. Even in her best years, Simone […]
Posted inFirst Chapters, Nonfiction, Story
Sponsored Longreads: Read an Excerpt from 'The Children,' by David Halberstam
The following is a free excerpt from Open Road Media’s The Children, the acclaimed book by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Halberstam on the early days of the civil rights movement. The below excerpt focuses on Diane Nash and the Nashville sit-ins, which started on this day, February 13, in 1960. Buy the book now. ***
Posted inUncategorized
The true story of the case that helped change the legal landscape for gay rights in the U.S.: The story told in Lawrence v. Texas was a story of sexual privacy, personal dignity, intimate relationships, and shifting notions of family in America. By the time the tale poured from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s pen, in his […]