Civil Rights

Is Violence the Answer?

Using violence as a response to racism can both divide and unite communities. This was demonstrated when a riot erupted in the Leeds suburb of Chapeltown on Bonfire Night 1975.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Second Act

After the death of her husband in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt left the White House and embarked upon a new career as ‘First Lady of the World’.

The Man behind the Leader

Bayard Rustin, African American civil rights leader, was also a pacifist, a socialist and a gay rights activist.

Policing Abortion

Recent restrictions on the right to abortion in the United States imitate policies enacted 150 years ago.

Out on Good Behaviour

Mississippi’s governors have had a unique approach to prison labour and prisoner rehabilitation. 

The Man who Haunts America

John Brown, the abolitionist firebrand, remains a potent figure in the United States’ febrile politics of race.

A Stand on the Streetcar

How an individual act of resistance in 1850s’ New York led to the desegregation of the city’s transit system.

On the Wrong Side of History

A celebrated novelist and tireless social reformer, Mary Ward has been all but forgotten because of her support for the anti-suffrage movement.

Birth of a Freedom Fighter

Nat Turner, leader of one of the most significant rebellions in the antebellum South, was born on 2 October 1800.