The Supreme Court made two very important rulings today. The first decision upholds President Trump’s travel ban on several mostly-Muslim nations. The second is the Court’s decision to strike down a California Law requiring nonprofit centers that perform abortion to inform clients of alternative options. The decision to uphold the President’s travel ban after months […]
In BackStory episode “The Camera Never Lies?,” Joanne and Brian looked at the history of photography in America – how the medium and its different forms changed the lives of everyday Americans One form taken was spiritual photography. First popular during the Civil War-era, spiritual photography was a way for people to connect with lost […]
I can’t really remember the first time I was assigned an actual research paper – probably around ninth grade. However, I quickly learned that I enjoyed the process immensely. My love for writing continued to grow as assignments became more intensive (correct citations, primary/secondary sources, etc.). Eventually, these exercises in writing culminated in a 25-page […]
This November marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. But according to David Stevenson, who holds the Stevenson Chair of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, events that happened in 1917 — not 1918 — changed the tide of the global conflict. Stevenson traces this […]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BackStory, its hosts or its staff. On February 14th, 2018, students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida witnessed the horrific murder of their classmates by a shooter in their school. Since […]
On March 1, 1968, Mexican-American students attending East Los Angeles High Schools staged the first in a series of walkouts. They protested the quality of their education, addressing a range of issues like drop-out rates (then as high as fifty percent), understaffed classrooms and administrations, and classroom topics not reflecting the issues and histories of […]
Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from a conversation BackStory had with Dr. Robert L. Harris, Jr., a former Chicago school teacher and civil rights advocate. Dr. Harris, who was a resident of Chicago and present during the Open Housing March of 1966, was prompted to move himself and his family to Birmingham, Ala. after […]
When asked about her public image, Coretta Scott King was once quoted as saying, “Often, I am made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner: the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more […]
In the segment “’A Foe Without Hate’” from BackStory’s “Too Good To Be True,” guest Gary Gallagher and host Brian Balogh discussed celebrated rebel leaders. During the segment, Gallagher said, “I’d love to know any other principle rebel leader in a major civil war who ended up with a National Memorial to him, and his […]