Margaret Bush Wilson (Missouri Historical Society)
Six years ago this month, Margaret Bush Wilson, the St. Louis lawyer and civil rights pioneer who died here Tuesday night at age 90, gave an extended interview to Christine Lamberson of Washington University as…
PHOTO BY WENDI FITZGERALD
On July 12, 1999 — 10 years ago to the day, yesterday — between 200 and 300 activists, most of them African-American, some of them prominent leaders, staged a brief shutdown of Interstate 70 at Goodfellow Avenue.
Now…
The U.S. Supreme Court served up plenty of red meat for conservative commentators Monday: Not only did it rule 5-4 in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who claimed discrimination in promotions practices, but in so doing, it…
Carrie Prejean
Whether Miss California Carrie Prejean keeps her title is up to Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump, according to this AP story. Trump has called a press conference for Tuesday. Prejean’s father said he is excited about the press conference,…
Eyesore or civil right?
In 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously wrote that freedom of speech would not extend to falsely shouting “fire” in a theater. Does that apply to painting a big, ugly sign at downtown’s southern door?
That’s one…
Voting rights march in 1965.
When the Rev. Joseph Lowery delivered the benediction at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, he wore the joyful expression of a man vindicated after a lifetime of struggle.
Mr. Lowery, as a Methodist minister in Mobile, Ala., helped…
James Baldwin squares off against William F. Buckley in this 1965 debate at the Cambridge Union.
The issue: Race in America.
Quite bruising.
I wonder if, in later years, Mr. Buckley had any misgivings about the arguments he made that night.
(Click on text…
