Jim Crow is alive and well: Calculated attacks on Voting Rights seek to resurrect the Bad Old Days
“Do you know I’ve never voted in my life, never been able to exercise my right as a citizen because of the poll tax? … I can’t pay a poll tax, can’t have a voice in my own government.” – Mr. Trout, a Georgia native (1936) “More than 250...
Jacob Blake files federal civil lawsuit against the Kenosha police officer who shot him in the back
Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot seven times in the back last summer by a Kenosha police officer, has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the officer. Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced in January he wouldn’t charge any of the...
Deutsche in Milwaukee: New book explores the city’s old German neighborhoods with personal stories
Milwaukee has been a home for many generations of various ethnic communities. However, a well-documented presence that continues to be recognized is Milwaukee’s German heritage. There has been a wave of interest in recent years to uncover and uplift diverse voices...
Investigation finds retailers distributing COVID-19 vaccinations added requirements violating CDC policy
The original justification for proof-of-residency and ID requirements to get a COVID-19 vaccination were supposed to stop so-called “Vaccine Tourists” who sought access in other states that had better public distribution channels. Instead, the most...
Proposed overhaul of immigration laws would finally reunite families divided by deportation
By Robert McKee Irwin, Deputy Director, Global Migration Center, University of California, Davis Hundreds of thousands of immigrant families have been separated by deportation from the United States, in many cases with a parent on one side of the border and children...
Categorizing Identity: The intersection of Race and Education in America
“The United States must vastly improve the educational outcomes for this new and diverse majority of American students, whose success is inextricably linked to the well-being of the nation.” – Education Week Magazine The 2014-15 school year marked the first time...
Expansion of facial surveillance at airports seen as a growing threat to civil liberties
Over the last couple years, it has become increasingly clear that facial recognition technology doesn’t work well, and would be a civil liberties and privacy nightmare even if it did. But that has not stopped the Trump administration from moving forward with its...
A tool for social change: How photography demonstrated the dignity of the Black experience
By Samantha Hill, 2019 – 2021 Joyce Bock Fellow at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan and current graduate student at U-M School of Information, University of Michigan; and Janette Greenwood, Professor of History, Clark University...
New documents reveal meatpacking industry fought against implementing minimal COVID-19 safeguards
Documents obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and published on March 4 reveal how leading players in the meatpacking industry, one of the hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, fought the minimal...
The Broken American Dream: Less upward mobility and a ladder of opportunity that is much harder to climb
The United States has long prided itself as being an exceptionally fluid society with respect to social class and economic mobility. The American Dream holds that anyone who works hard can achieve economic success – perhaps even rise from rags to riches. Underlying...
“Going to Hell” for more than 200 years: Every generation has been pessimistic about America’s future
By Maurizio Valsania, Professor of American History, Università di Torino Pessimism looms large in America today. It is not just because of Donald Trump’s legacy as the vicar of fear and violence. It is COVID-19, a faltering economy, racial tensions, the growing...
A political effort to honor racists provides confirmation that Wisconsin really is Wississippi
“You own this. You own his rhetoric. You own his sentiment.” – State Senator LaTonya Johnson to her Republican colleagues Once upon a time I used to joke that because I was born in Mississippi and raised in Wisconsin that I’m from Wississippi. Well, it’s...
