Civil Rights

   
Image from Racial Inequality Was Tearing the U.S. Apart, a 1968 Report Warned. It Was Ignored.
Video

Racial Inequality Was Tearing the U.S. Apart, a 1968 Report Warned. It Was Ignored.

Anger over policing and inequality boiled over in 1967 in protests and violence across the United States. A landmark report warned that without major changes, it would happen again.
Image from Combating the Myth of the Superpredator
Video

Combating the Myth of the Superpredator

In the 1990s, a handful of researchers inspired panic with a dire but flawed prediction: the imminent arrival of a new breed of “superpredators.”
Image from The Birth of Free Agency
Video

The Birth of Free Agency

The drama of modern free agency has become as much a part of professional sports as the games themselves. But it wasn’t always that way. Today’s free agents owe a big debt of gratitude to Curt Flood.
Image from Athletes vs. Injustice: Protests in Sports
Video

Athletes vs. Injustice: Protests in Sports

When N.F.L. players, starting with Colin Kaepernick, took a knee during the National Anthem to protest they ignited an uproar over injecting politics onto the playing field.
Image from How an Underground Abortion Network Got Started
Mini-doc

How an Underground Abortion Network Got Started

It started with one request. A friend's sister was pregnant and suicidal. Before long a clandestine group called Jane was created to help women in Chicago with illegal abortions.
Image from Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence
Video

Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence

This is the story of cops, African-American pastors, gang members, and academics coming together to create positive change for Boston, while upending notions of traditional policing in a way that is especially pertinent today.
Image from Trump Administration Sued for Torpedoing Enforcement of Landmark Housing Law
Video

Trump Administration Sued for Torpedoing Enforcement of Landmark Housing Law

Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD, is being sued for not enforcing the Fair Housing Act -- landmark legislation that was passed 50 years ago during the Civil Rights era.
Image from Gerrymandering's Surprising History and Uncertain Future
Video

Gerrymandering's Surprising History and Uncertain Future

Both political parties have always played the redistricting game. But some of today’s battles have roots in a civil rights case decided by the Supreme Court 30 years ago.
Image from Louis Armstrong And The Black Celebrity's Dilemma
Mini-doc

Louis Armstrong And The Black Celebrity's Dilemma

As America's jazz icon, Louis Armstrong was seen as a smiling, easygoing entertainer. But in 1957, he invited controversy by speaking forcefully on behalf of his fellow African Americans, putting him in a position familiar to many black athletes today.
Image from What Jesse Owens's Story Tells Us About Sports and Politics
Mini-doc

What Jesse Owens's Story Tells Us About Sports and Politics

This season, NFL players have been derided for injecting politics into the country's favorite sport. But, when convenient, America has also celebrated black athletes for acting as political emissaries.
Image from How Zero Tolerance Blurred the Lines Between Schools and Criminal Justice
Video

How Zero Tolerance Blurred the Lines Between Schools and Criminal Justice

Over the last 30 years, schools across the country have enacted tough new discipline policies. Some of those schools say they went too far.
Image from Fair Housing
Mini-doc

Fair Housing

Has the government done enough to stop housing discrimination?
Image from Welfare and the Politics of Poverty
Video

Welfare and the Politics of Poverty

Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform was supposed to move needy families off government handouts and onto a path out of poverty. Twenty years later, how has it turned out?
Image from How Geography Drove MLK's Fight for a Ferry in Alabama
Video

How Geography Drove MLK's Fight for a Ferry in Alabama

Weeks before Selma's Bloody Sunday in 1965, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged residents of Gee's Bend, Ala., to vote, and fed a continuing fight over a small ferry that would last for decades.
Image from The Battle For Busing
Video

The Battle For Busing

A story of America's school integration and what happened when the buses stopped rolling.