Special Report

Race in America

To mark the Smithsonian's multi-year initiative, Our Shared Future: Reckoning With Our Racial Past, which will confront the history and legacy of race and racism through live and virtual events, pop-up exhibitions, digital resources, and other offerings, Smithsonian magazine has compiled this collection of relevant coverage.

The Smithsonian's Race and Our Shared Future: Reckoning With Our Racial Past initiative centers on six pillars. Getty Images

Josefina "Joey" Guerrero (third from right) received the Medal of Honor With Silver Palm for her actions during World War II, which were “instrumental in saving the lives of many Americans and Filipinos,” according to the award citation.

This Filipina Spy Used Her Leprosy as a Cover to Thwart the Japanese During World War II

Hazel Ying Lee (right) and fellow pilot Virginia Wong (left)

This Chinese American Aviatrix Overcame Racism to Fly for the U.S. During World War II

The Granada Relocation Center, also known as Amache, had cramped Army-style barracks that housed thousands of Japanese Americans and people of Japanese descent.

A Japanese American Incarceration Camp in Colorado Is America’s Newest National Park

Asian American History

A 1942 Memorial Day service at Manzanar, a Japanese American incarceration camp in California

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

How a 1924 Immigration Act Laid the Groundwork for Japanese American Incarceration

Theodore S. Gonzalves

Participants on a bus tour at the 2014 community pilgrimage to Tule Lake

Why the Language We Use to Describe Japanese American Incarceration During World War II Matters

Tamiko Nimura, Zócalo Public Square

Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone (1990)

'Home Alone,' 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and More Join the National Film Registry

Julia Binswanger

Black History

Bridge, Glenn Kaino, fiberglass, steel, wire and gold paint, 2013-2014

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Tommie Smith’s Raised Fist at the 1968 Olympics Inspired a Massive Golden Sculpture That Signifies the Art of His Protest

A 1959 photograph of William "W.R." Saxon, who is standing third from left

This Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Refused to Give Up His Bus Seat Four Years Before Rosa Parks Did

The explosion at Port Chicago on July 17, 1944, killed 320 people and injured 400 more.

Black Sailors Exonerated 80 Years After Deadly World War II Disaster

Latino American History

The cemetery is located near a Spanish colonial church built in Huanchaco, Peru, around 1535.

16th-Century Skeletons of Children Infected With Smallpox Discovered in Peru

Ellen Ochoa was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House last week, becoming the tenth astronaut to receive the country's highest civilian honor.

Ellen Ochoa, Former NASA Astronaut and First Hispanic Woman in Space, Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Christian Thorsberg

Fans hold a photo of Selena during the ceremony honoring her with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

How Museums Are Preserving and Celebrating Selena's Legacy

Native American History

Red Bear’s Winter Count, Martin E. Red Bear, canvas and acrylic paint, 2004

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

From Powwows to Smartphones, See the Past and Present of Indigenous Plains Life in Narrative Art

Could different backyard birds, such as a robin and a bluebird, produce viable offspring?

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Could a Robin and a Bluebird Have Babies? And More Questions From Our Readers

Smithsonian magazine

York, the enslaved man who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their history-making expedition, appears in the rightmost canoe in this 1905 painting by Charles Marion Russell.

The Forgotten Black Explorers Who Transformed Americans' Understanding of the Wilderness