Montgomery Square, the newest @eji.org Legacy Site, memorializes the Montgomery bus boycott and modern Civil Rights Movement. It is also a warning to all of us. I talked with Bryan Stevenson about memory, erasure, and what history demands for @us.theguardian.com.

Mississippi’s governor just called Bennie Thompson’s time in Congress a “reign of terror.” Who, precisely, is terrified here? And of what, or whom? My new column for @us.theguardian.com on what the post-Callais redistricting wave is actually building.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is all but dead. We’re going to need a new one. My latest column for @us.theguardian.com, in which I argue that the next VRA must include a total ban on federal gerrymandering.

"The court has essentially ruled that unless a legislator records a confession of their own bigotry, the map is constitutional – making the only person allowed to define a racist act the person committing it," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social.

The Voting Rights Act existed because America could not be trusted. The Supreme Court just told us to trust it anyway. I don’t. I doubt I ever will. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.

The political project is to guide millions of Brads to the realization that they fell for a con and to give them hope that better futures are possible and theirs is not a zero sum game against others.

"Strongmen do not last forever. They fall when a public stops recognizing them as strong," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social.

There is certainly a moral case to be made against Trump's Iran war. Americans don't need one. We have a gas receipt. We're experiencing the war in our wallets. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.

Protesters in 2020 dumped a Christopher Columbus statue into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Trump just installed a replica on the White House grounds. This isn’t about preserving history. It’s about asserting the power to rewrite it. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.

Threatening broadcast licenses over war coverage isn’t media oversight. It’s the language of governments that want obedience instead of journalism. What FCC chairman Brendan Carr wrote should alarm anyone who cares about a free press. And “anyone” needs to be all of us.

Six years ago today, police killed Breonna Taylor during a no-knock raid at her home. She wasn’t even the target of the investigation. Now the Trump DOJ is doing away with the rules meant to prevent another tragedy like hers. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.

"What this administration’s quiet reversal tells us is that her death has been processed – grieved, protested, memorialized – and filed away," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social.

When presidents ask the country to support a war, honesty is not optional. Those disfiguring decisions outlast the headlines. They survive the presidents who made them. What remains are the people left to carry the consequences. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.

Grateful for the chance to join @sykescharlie.bsky.social on "To the Contrary." We discussed tariffs, executive power, and how racism continues to function as a structural vulnerability in American democracy. Watch here, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. youtu.be/9Cx6i8r1ldQ?...

I’ve joined @us.theguardian.com as a columnist. I’ll be on my usual beat, covering power, identity, and culture — with an eye on how people advance civil rights outside of electoral politics. I'm looking forward to the work ahead.

Hatred cannot govern a country effectively. Prior to this morning's arrest of journalists for doing their jobs, I wrote about this government using fear as policy in the Twin Cities, and why racist governance is bad governance. My first column for @us.theguardian.com.

Don’t say this is “un-American.” If journalists are being arrested for doing journalism, then we are not the America we claim to be. That just means we have work to do. I stand with Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and those demanding their immediate release.

Indeed. We and our forebears have been sounding this warning for generations.

My final article as @theemancipator.org’s Editor-in-Chief, with contributions from @renee.bsky.social, @victorerikray.bsky.social, and many more who have helped make this magazine what it has been. Please read and share.

Racism is an emergency. Why don’t enough journalists and media outlets treat it as such? For my final article as @theemancipator.org’s Editor-in-chief, I addressed the need for our industry to do better, and quickly. theemancipator.org/2025/06/12/t...

If like any sane, moral person you think this administration's immigration policy is cruel, inhumane, and brutal, there are probably better ways to spend your time than lecturing the people harmed by that policy about patriotism and proper decorum when protesting what's being done to them.

Homan recently said Newsom hasn't done anything yet to warrant arrest and Trump making it clear he wants his political opponents jailed.

Law enforcement is violently targeting press at protests around Los Angeles, from easily recognizable "mainstream" outlets to freelancers and independents. ALL press have explicit legal protections in California. #JournalismIsNotACrime. This evidence thread may get graphic. 🧵👇

Since the AG doesn't seem to be getting ethics guidance from her team these days, I wanted to make sure she has the rule in the Justice Manual in front of her, which expressly prohibits this.

DOJ as we have known it, as a place where prosecutors from the AG on down do the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way, is over.

not enough said about how, by turning the national government against states on the basis of ordinary political disagreement, trump is undermining the idea that the union is worthwhile. www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/p...

The tactics Trump used with Zelensky don’t shock Black USians because the gov has always used the same with us: 1) Be respectful/“professional” even if they aren’t. 2) To get help, expect to give up resources. 3) Be thankful/grovel for crumbs or be punished. 4) Say/do what they want or expect rage.

Literal villainy. I suspected this may have been at least one motivation behind the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Standing alongside Netanyahu, Trump made it plain.

Can we please remember that very recently South Korea showed us all what we should do when the president does illegal shit

Note for fellow journalists reporting or commenting on this story.

Dr. Leah Barlow, an African American Studies professor, went viral on TikTok when she shared course syllabus intended for her undergraduate students. To her surprise, "HillmanTok University," a free virtual educational community, was created. www.tiktok.com/@the_emancip...

Follow the thread, read the op-ed. Grateful that @victorerikray.bsky.social published this with us in @theemancipator.org.

One consequence of abortion no longer being a right is that it sets Trump and Project 2025 free to do everything they can to eliminate family planning and increase unwanted pregnancies and abortions along with pregnancy-related deaths.

Americans’ health has long been unequal, but a new study shows that the disparity between the life expectancies of different populations has nearly doubled since 2000. Via @kffhealthnews.bsky.social theemancipator.org/2025/01/24/t...

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts' message is, in the end, resolutely anti-American. "According to him there is but one way to structure your household, one way to pray (and one God to worship), only one way to live," culture critic Tope Folarin writes. theemancipator.org/2025/01/24/t...

Civil rights scholar Peniel Joseph reflects upon the unfortunate synchronicity the nation experienced on Jan. 20th. "In an Orwellian display of dissemblance, President Donald Trump’s inaugural address tried to claim parts of King’s legacy." theemancipator.org/2025/01/21/t...

It’s coronation day on the hill, brilliantly depicted by the inimitable @jeremywins.bsky.social for @theemancipator.org

Martin Luther King Jr. and a multiracial coalition of other leaders recognized shared struggles against racial and economic injustice. More than 30 activists, scholars, and leaders told us how Black and Brown communities can build a modern-era coalition. theemancipator.org/2025/01/20/t...

“January 6th was a continuation of White people rioting when they don’t get their way,” the Enfield mayor told The Emancipator, calling the seditionist siege an instance of “the unchecked benefit of Whiteness.” theemancipator.org/2025/01/06/t...

In our flagship newsletter, Critical Thinking, Editor-in-Chief @jamilsmith.bsky.social offers his perspectives on race and racism — both local and global — while highlighting the news and people you should know about. Sign up now now: theemancipator.org/newsletter-s...

It's even crazier than that. He blocked an editorial saying the U.S. Senate should follow its normal procedures during the confirmation process. The least inflammatory idea possible, in other words.

Americans can back those resisting tyranny around the world without needing them to show us how to do it. We’ve had heroes who fought Jim Crow. It’s a different world, but this is a familiar challenge. My latest edition of the Critical Thinking newsletter for @theemancipator.bsky.social.

The South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, failed in this attempt to become a dictator. America might not get that lucky — so we can’t wait for the worst to happen. Sign up to “Critical Thinking,” written by our Editor-in-chief Jamil Smith. theemancipator.org/2024/12/08/n...

"Of the 13 people executed by Trump, 10 had previously filed a clemency application to the Obama administration. His refusal to act set them up for execution." It's past time to act, POTUS. Reporting by @lilianasegura.bsky.social.

“When we talk about land and Indigenous people, a lot of folks who aren’t Native think about it as real estate,” Rebecca Nagle told me. “And what we lost is so much more than that because you can’t separate out land from culture and land from sovereignty and land from language.” Read more below.

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