Feature – Was the Confederacy really defeated? Why America can’t stop fighting the Civil War. How can we reconcile the rise of Donald Trump with the long view of American history? Why do so many Americans still fight about the real causes of the Civil War? What explains the Confederacy’s enduring allure for many white Americans? Should the statues and other monuments honoring the Confederacy be removed from public spaces? If so, what should be done with them? Historian Ed Ayers attempts to answer these questions and more. Read more
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, freelance reporter, wins the Pulitzer for portrait of Dylann Roof. “A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof.” Read a review here and the full article here.
Beyoncé and the End of Respectability Politics. In putting on a show at the Coachella festival to a majority-white audience, she conveyed that no matter how much fame or money she has, she will refuse to divorce herself from black culture, even the parts that are underappreciated, disrespected or misunderstood by white people. Read more
Stacey Abrams, the Candidate for Georgia Governor Who Could Make History. Should Abrams win, she would be Georgia’s first Democratic governor in fifteen years, its first black governor, and the first black woman to be the governor of any state in the country. Read more
Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer in ‘Big Moment for Hip-Hop.’ On Monday, Mr. Lamar’s “DAMN.” took home an even more elusive honor, one that may never have even seemed within reach: the Pulitzer Prize for music. Mr. Lamar is not only the first rapper to win the award since the Pulitzers expanded to music in 1943, but he is also the first winner who is not a classical or jazz musician. Read more
Philadelphia Starbucks video may have an upside: This is how we discuss racism in 2018. A continuous effort to raise awareness about racial profiling, implicit bias and discrimination is important, and at least the Philly Starbucks video has helped further that goal. Read more and Starbuck stores will close 8000 stores in May for racial -bias training.
Why a Statue of the ‘Father of Gynecology’ Had to Come Down. J. Marion Sims is known as the “father” of modern gynecology. His advances in medical science were made through experimentation on enslaved women. On Tuesday, the city of New York took down a statue honoring Sims in Central Park and will move it to his grave. Read more
‘Dear White People’ Season 2 Targets Alt-Right Trolls. Season one was written and filmed before the 2016 election. “We commented on the world we were going to live in before we knew it was coming.” Season 2 is broadening that scope to include the Trump-fueled rise of the alt-right. Read more
Watch: The Memphis Sanitation Strike Ends. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers felt a sense of guilt mixed in with their sadness and shock, but they had more work to do. The strike wasn’t over yet. Watch the video here
The Unlikely Pairing of Louis Armstrong With Ella Fitzgerald Is (Still) Pure Bliss. An epic new collection contains all they’ve recorded together, and more. Have a listen here
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