Race and Ethnicity

A view of Progressive Field, the team's home arena, in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2008

Cleveland Baseball Team to Rebrand as the Guardians

The new name references the "Guardians of Traffic"—larger-than-life statues that appear on the city's Hope Memorial Bridge

The Covid pandemic prompted universities to rethink the value of standardized tests for admissions.

Has the Pandemic Put an End to the SAT and ACT?

Many colleges and universities stopped requiring the tests during Covid, and it is unclear if they will return to testing in the future

Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, which famously depicts William the Conqueror's victory over the so-called Anglo-Saxons

The Many Myths of the Term 'Anglo-Saxon'

Two medieval scholars tackle the misuse of a phrase that was rarely used by its supposed namesakes

Group portrait of three Chinese children, each holding an American flag and a Chinese flag, in a room in Chicago, 1929

Illinois Becomes First State to Mandate Teaching Asian American History

The move arrives amid a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes across the country

A portion of Chicago's newly renamed Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive, pictured in 2013

Who Was Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the New Namesake of Chicago's Lake Shore Drive?

Chicago leaders voted to rename the city's iconic lakeside roadway after a Black trader and the first non-Indigenous settler in the region

“We have these iconic figures from history and literature, who people feel possessive about in some way,” says scholar Miranda Kaufman, author of Black Tudors: The Untold Story. “But you have to remember that it’s not a historical reconstruction: it’s a thriller; it’s a drama; it’s entertainment.”

Why the Controversy Over a Black Actress Playing Anne Boleyn Is Unnecessary and Harmful

Long before Jodie Turner-Smith's miniseries came under criticism, British Indian actress Merle Oberon portrayed the Tudor queen

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti leave jail at Dedham, Mass., en route to the courthouse where they are to be sentenced by Judge Webster Thayer to die in the electric chair.

Sacco and Vanzetti's Trial of the Century Exposed Injustice in 1920s America

The pair's path to becoming media sensations began 100 years ago. To this day the two remain emblems of prejudice in the American justice system

Artist Kenny Altidor unveiled this Brooklyn mural of George Floyd in July 2020.

Remembering George Floyd and the Movement He Sparked

Kevin Young, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, reflects on the one-year anniversary of Floyd's killing

From May 31 through June 1, 1921, white mobs murdered scores of African Americans and ransacked, razed and burned homes, businesses and churches in Tulsa's Black community of Greenwood.

Reflections on the Artifacts Left Behind From the Tulsa Race Massacre

Objects and documents, says the Smithsonian historian Paul Gardullo, offer a profound opportunity for reckoning with a past that still lingers

"What’s Going On" was a turning point for Marvin Gaye.

Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' Is as Relevant Today as It Was in 1971

Fifty years ago, the artist released Motown's best-selling album ever and changed the course of his musical career

“We used five isotope methods in all to provide information on geology, coastal proximity, climate and diet,” says study co-author Richard Madgwick, an osteoarchaeologist at Cardiff University.

Ethnically Diverse Crew of Henry VIII's Flagship Hailed From Iberia, North Africa

New multi-isotope analysis illuminates early lives of sailors stationed on the Tudor "Mary Rose," including three born outside of Britain

This month's book picks include African Europeans, X Troop and Chasing the Thrill.

African Europeans, Jewish Commandos of WWII and Other New Books to Read

These May releases elevate overlooked stories and offer insights on oft-discussed topics

A panel of the "Birthing Rock" petroglyphs in Moab, Utah, prior to its defacement with racist and obscene etchings

Racist Phrase Found Etched on Native American Petroglyphs in Utah

Unidentified criminals wrote "white power" and obscenities over thousand-year-old Indigenous markings on "Birthing Rock" in Moab

This drawing of a performance of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus has given scholars an understanding of how blackface was used in Elizabethan England.

Blackface Is Older Than You Might Think

From medieval European theater troupes to American minstrelsy, the harmful tradition has a surprisingly long history

Surgeon Ala Stanford takes a pause from testing while standing near one of her group's signs in North Philadelphia.

Meet the Black Physicians Bringing Covid Vaccines to Hard-Hit Philadelphia Communities

The Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium is leveraging their medical expertise and connections to provide testing and vaccines where measures are most needed

Built in 1920, this Rosenwald School in Hertford County, North Carolina, was later acquired by the Pleasant Plains Baptist Church and has served as a community center and fellowship hall.

Lessons Learned

A photographic homage to a momentous education experiment

If you hike to the Minam River Lodge, thinking about the amazing food, including smokehouse bacon and foraged morels, may keep you going.

What a Vintage Guidebook Taught Me About Oregon's Past and Present

Our writer takes a quirky trip through Oregon, from a wilderness lodge to a Gilded Age saloon to a town hidden underground

Amy Sherald's posthumous portrait of Breonna Taylor serves as the Louisville show's focal point.

How an Art Exhibition in Breonna Taylor's Hometown Honors Her Life and Impact

The Louisville show is organized around three overarching themes proposed by Taylor's mother: promise, witness and remembrance

Tuskegee history professor Frank Toland speaks to the gathered students at the base of the Confederate monument.

Black Protesters Have Been Rallying Against Confederate Statues for Generations

When Tuskegee student Sammy Younge, Jr., was murdered in 1966, his classmates focused their righteous anger on a local monument

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Looking Back at the Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 Years Later

Confronting the murderous attack on the most prosperous black community in the nation

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