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Easter Killing Frenzy: The Colfax Massacre

The Editors — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:03:03 +0000

By Nicholas Lemann
"On Easter Sunday, when the Christian world was chanting anthems in commemoration of the resurrection of the world's Redeemer, when from every sanctuary the gospel of love and peace was proclaimed, it was then that angels veiled their faces, and devils howled at the bloody and revolting scenes that were enacted on the banks of the Red River."

W. E. B. Du Bois at 141

The Editors — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:11:38 +0000

By David Levering Lewis
February is the month of America's emancipators. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, emancipator of African-American citizenship, was born February 23, 1868. Du Bois's eloquent turn-of-the-century meditation, The Souls of Black Folk, explained Americans of color to themselves with a saliency that still inspires and defines them today.

Richard Pryor, the First Black President in 1977

The Editors — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:48:19 +0000

By The Editors
Before Barack Obama became the first black and the 44th President of the United States, Richard Pryor portrayed the 40th Commander-in-Chief on his comedy show.

Surviving A Lynch Mob

The Editors — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:56:47 +0000

The Story Behind the Photo:
In the early morning hours of July 16, 1949, Norma Padgett, a 17 year-old white woman living in central Florida’s Lake County, reported that she had been attacked and raped by four black teenagers. Local white citizens vowed to “wait and see what the law does, and if the law doesn’t do it right, we’ll do it.”

The First Lady and a “Dangerous Negro”

The Editors — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:30:17 +0000

The Story Behind the Photo: In 1940s American society, there was an unwritten rule that a black man could be lynched for transgressing certain social boundaries with white women, including touching a white woman or looking one in the face. But in the 1943 photograph shown above, civil rights activist and labor leader A. Philip [...]

Moving Education Forward

The Editors — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:01:28 +0000

The Story Behind the Photo In September of 1950, Gregory Hayes Swanson (center) registers for classes at the University of Virginia Law School. Swanson was the first African American student to be admitted to the University of Virginia Law School in its 131-year history. Four years before the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. [...]

Hosing Down Progress

The Editors — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:15:00 +0000

The Story Behind the Photo: On July 15, 1963, photographer Bill Hudson snapped this photograph as members of the Birmingham Fire Department turned their hoses full force on civil rights demonstrators. It wasn’t the first time that Hudson and other photographers and cameramen of the era captured such striking images that stirred the nation’s moral [...]

Oliver Hill Documentary

The Editors — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:48:05 +0000

Oliver Hill provides a glimpse into his extraordinary life in his own words. Related Posts:Correcting the Supreme Court’s “Mistake”: A Tribute to a Civil Rights TitanElaine R. Jones To Receive the American Bar Association Thurgood Marshall AwardWinter 2002: Remembering Esther Brown: She Was Responsible for the First Break in Segregated EducationThe Pot Calling the Kettle [...]

“Incendiary Fire Destroys Rights Lawyers’ Office”

The Editors — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:32:48 +0000

The Story Behind The Photos: In this week’s issue of TheDefendersOnline we are featuring the 1971 firebombing of former LDF Director-Counsel Julius Chambers’ law office in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. A fire, believed to have been deliberately set at about 4:30 in the morning on February 5th, gutted the offices belonging to Chambers and his [...]

Correcting the Supreme Court’s “Mistake”: A Tribute to a Civil Rights Titan

The Editors — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:52:57 +0000

By Stacey Patton
In this premier issue of The Defenders Online, it is fitting for us to pay tribute to Oliver White Hill, Sr., a man who spent nearly a century fighting for equality and justice for all. He died last August in his Richmond home at age 100.