Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/13/2022
  

  Margaret Atwood: I Created Gilead, but the Supreme Court Might Make it Real

  "Women were nonpersons in U.S. law for a lot longer than they have been persons. If we start overthrowing settled law using Justice Samuel Alito’s justifications, why not repeal votes for women?"

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/15/2022
  

  "Great Replacement" Rhetoric has not Historically Been Out of Place in the Halls of Power

  Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo published a book in 1947 declaring that the failure to ensure racial segregation and Anglo-Saxon supremacy would lead to the destruction of American civilization. 

• 
• SOURCE: Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
  3/16/2022
  

  Montpelier Board Appoints 11 Members from Descendants Committee

  The move may finally deliver on the board's promise to grant parity in the governance of the James Madison estate to the descendants of persons enslaved at Montpelier. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  5/16/2022
  

  Zemmour Acquitted of Holocaust Denial after Crediting Nazi Collaborator with Saving Jews

  While there is substantial disagreement on whether Vichy leader Philippe Pétain's decision to turn over foreign-born Jews to the Nazis was motivated by a desire to save French Jews, a court ruled that the right-wing provocateur did not engage in Holocaust denial by endorsing that view. 

• 
• SOURCE: Library of Congress
  5/10/2022
  

  Dig Into the History of Baseball's Negro Leagues with a Quiz from the Library of Congress

  by Mike Queen

  Now that Major League Baseball is recognizing stats from Negro League competition as Major League achievements, it's time to learn about the top players and history of the league.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  5/5/2022
  

  How the Government Aided and Abetted the Theft of Black-Owned Farmland

  A group of scholars estimates more than 300 billion dollars in lost land wealth by Black farm families over the course of the 20th century, with less tangible but still significant losses in economic security and political influence. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/15/2022
  

  A Neighborly Civil War in Virginia over Street Names

  Leaders of a group of suburban Virginia homeowners who want to change the Confederate-related street names in their community have been accused of being puppets of George Soros and threatened. 

• 
• SOURCE: ChalkBeat
  5/3/2022
  

  Where Americans Agree and Disagree on Teaching Race in School

  Polls show that 2/3 of Americans think schools need to change how much attention they give to race in the curriculum, but they are split, along party and racial lines, between those who want more and those who want less, making this likely to remain a political wedge issue.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/3/2022
  

  Is Alito's Plan to Repeal the 20th Century?

  Alito's invocation of Plessy v. Ferguson as a reason to discard precedent is galling because his opinion would destroy the kind of protection under law that Homer Plessy actually sought. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  5/5/2022
  

  Why the End of Roe Isn't Likely to Energize the Democrats

  by Natalie Shure

  Until the Democratic Party and its pro-choice supporters decide to take action to fix the fact that abortion restrictions are already harming poor and working-class women, they are unlikely to win elections based on their nominal support for abortion rights. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Grio
  5/4/2022
  

  Smithsonian Announces Plans to Return Looted, Unethically Sourced Artifacts

  Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III announced the museum's intention to be a world leading institution on repatriating artifacts and promoting reconciliation for colonialism through museums. 

• 
• SOURCE: The City Life
  5/3/2022
  

  Traveling Smithsonian Exhibition to Highlight 1968 Poor People's Campaign

  Reflecting Dr. King's increased attention to matters of inequality and economic justice, the Poor People's Campaign was launched in his honor a month after his assassination. The exhibition will begin at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. 

• 
• SOURCE: In These Times
  5/3/2022
  

  Protest Can – And Should – Influence the Supreme Court

  by Eric Stoner

  Direct action is the only way to push the court's majority more into line with the will of the majority of the public. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/3/2022
  

  What Will Post-Roe Campuses Be Like?

  Student life and mental health, gender equity, medical school curricula, and faculty recruitment are just some of the areas of change likely if some states are able to ban abortion. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forbes
  5/1/2022
  

  After COVID Delay, Controversial Philip Guston Exhibit Opens in Boston

  Guston's blunt imagery, including Ku Klux Klan figures, arguably interrogates his complicity as a white artist in ongoing racism. Is it offensive to contemporary museum audiences? 

• 
• SOURCE: WMAR
  4/28/2022
  

  NMAAHC and Local Historians Team Up to Preserve Tale of Maryland Freedmen's School

  "A month before the Civil War formally ended, a 20-year-old Black woman and prolific writer named Edmonia Highgate came from upstate New York to Harford County to launch a school for former slaves."

• 
• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  4/29/2022
  

  Natchez's Deacons For Defense HQ on National Register of Historic Places

  A Natchez barbershop will be recognized as the meeting place of the group organized for Black community self-defense against racist terrorism. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times
  5/1/2022
  

  Chicago Museum Expansion will Highlight Key Role of Pullman Porters in Black History

  Lyn Hughes was shocked that the public history of Chicago's Pullman factory and surrounding neighborhood overlooked the role of African American workers – who became a key core of civil rights activism. 

• 
• SOURCE: Newsweek
  5/1/2022
  

  "Gaslit" Recalls Martha Mitchell's Role in the Watergate Scandal

  The outspoken and media-friendly wife of Attorney General John Mitchell had warned reporters of CREEP "dirty tricks" before the infamous burglary. After, keeping her from talking to reporters was the first battle of the coverup.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  4/29/2022
  

  "Pachinko" Tells History of Korean Women in Mid-20th Century Japan

  The Apple+ series, based in a fictionalized narrative of Korean immigration to Japan, concludes with interview footage of eight women, now all more than 90 years old, who lived this history.