Civil Rights

At the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural American Portrait Gala, Franklin was honored in 2015 with a Portrait of the Nation Prize.

Museum Curators Reflect on the Legacy of the Queen of Soul

Aretha Franklin dies at 76; her memory lives on at the Smithsonian in artwork, photographs and other ephemera

A Memorial Sign to Emmett Till Was Defaced With Four Bullet Holes

This is the third time the marker of the African-American boy’s brutal torture and murder in Mississippi in 1955 has been vandalized

Following Malcolm X's 1965 assassination, the original manuscript and unpublished chapters of his autobiography remained hidden from the public

New York Public Library Acquires Unpublished Chapter of Malcolm X’s Autobiography

The public is just weeks away from being able to view these “lost” works

At a time when factional tensions on Earth were running rampant, Earthrise served to remind us of our cosmic insignificance.

These Images From 1968 Capture an America in Violent Flux

A one-room show at the National Portrait Gallery is a hauntingly relevant 50-year-old time capsule

"Big Man" Elbert Howard

Black Panther Co-Founder Elbert 'Big Man' Howard Dies at 80

Howard was a key Panther organizer and played an important role in community activism

Rosa Parks lived in her brother's Detroit home after fleeing the south

Rosa Parks’ Detroit Home Is Now Up for Auction

Parts of the tiny home where the civil rights activist lived with 17 family members are expected to sell for between $1 and $3 million

Luisa Moreno, born to a wealthy Guatemalan family, struck out on her own at a young age, eager to alter the world around her for the better.

Guatemalan Immigrant Luisa Moreno Was Expelled From the U.S. for Her Groundbreaking Labor Activism

The little-known story of an early champion of workers’ rights receives new recognition

The image on the left is a wood engraving that was likely commissioned by a popular magazine hostile to abolitionism and happy to render Angelina strangely distorted. This is the first time that it has been published next to the photo on the right, on which it was based and which was likely taken in the 1840s.

The South Carolina Aristocrat Who Became a Feminist Abolitionist

After moving to Philadelphia and joining the Quakers, Angelina Grimké rededicated her life to fighting for racial equality

Black and white photographic print of Emmet Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley.

The Justice Department Has Reopened Its Investigation into the Murder of Emmett Till

A report states that the department received “new information” connected to the case

Calvin Coolidge, stoic as ever, with his ebullient wife Grace.

For His Patriotic Birthday, Five Facts About Calvin Coolidge

On Coolidge’s would-be 146th birthday, celebrate with some little-known facts about our 30th President

Members of Revitalization Corps marching in Old Saybrook

Racism Kept Connecticut's Beaches White Up Through the 1970s

By bussing black kids from Hartford to the shore, Ned Coll took a stand against the bigotry of “armchair liberals”

Readers Discuss Our June 2018 Issue

Feedback from our readers

The dethroning of Cecil John Rhodes, after the throwing of human faeces on the statue and the agreement of the University to the demands of students for its removal. The University of Cape Town, 9 April 2015

David Goldblatt, the South African Photographer Who Documented Life Under Apartheid, Has Died at 87

He did not rush to the frontlines of violent events, but instead photographed everyday scenes of racial discrimination

The Unheralded Legacy of Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Cotton

The late activist helped organize the Birmingham marches and educated the disenfranchised about their constitutional rights

Robert F. Kennedy accepts the Democratic nomination as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1964.

Why Robert Kennedy Transformed From a Conservative Into a Liberal Champion of Civil Rights

A professor of political history looks at how RFK, assassinated 50 years ago this week, was an improbable hero to the left

No photos of Cole survive. Shown here is an anatomy lecture taught by pioneering female physician Elizabeth Blackwell at the Woman's Medical College of New York Infirmary, which she founded. Cole was the resident physician at the infirmary and later a sanitary visitor at Blackwell's Tenement House Service. Blackwell described Cole as “an intelligent young coloured physician [who] carried on this work with tact and care.”

The Woman Who Challenged the Idea that Black Communities Were Destined for Disease

A physician and activist, Rebecca J. Cole became a leading voice in medical social services

Sign outside white lunch counter in county courthouse building Montgomery, Alabama, in 1960.

58 Years Later, Alabama Clears the Records of 29 Black Students Who Protested Segregation

The students sat down at the courthouse lunch counter in a non-violent demonstration

Millicent Brown broke the racial barrier at a Charleston, South Carolina, high school. “This was the challenge of our day,” says Brown, a historian and activist.

The Defiant Ones

As young girls, they fought the fierce battle to integrate America’s schools half a century ago

Tenant associations lead a march up Columbia Road N.W. in protest against threats of eviction at a time when land speculation and residential displacement were growing more common in the Adams Morgan neighborhood and across Washington, D.C.

A New Show About Neighborhoods Facing Gentrification Offers a Cautionary Tale

As cities face multi-billion-dollar developments, the question remains “Who Owns the City?”

Civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy, in short sleeves, leads the Poor People's March to the edge of the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, June 24, 1968. Abernathy and his followers from Resurrection City marched to the Agriculture Department and then to the Capitol.

Remembering Resurrection City and the Poor People's Campaign of 1968

Lenneal Henderson and thousands of other protesters occupied the National Mall for 42 days during the landmark civil rights protest

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