books

Los Angeles Is Burning

Sasha Frere-Jones Bookforum
This is a new history of the radical and emancipatory movements of the 1960s, as those struggles emerged in and helped define Los Angeles during that era.

Coalitions of Convenience, Periods of Polarization

Van Gosse Organizing Upgrade
The Democrats are the through-line in U.S. political history, which is the first reason we need to understand them. A second reason is that figuring out the left’s relationship to the Democratic Party is crucial for left strategy today.

Noel Ignatiev, Scholar Who Called For Abolishing Whiteness, Dies at 78

Sewell Chan Los Angeles Times
Noel Ignatiev, a provocative scholar who argued that the idea of a white race is a false construct that society would be better off without, died Saturday in Tucson. His best-known book, “How the Irish Became White,” was influential and controversial

Fifty Years of Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition

Jacqueline Serrato South Side Weekly
A look back on how multiracial Chicago-style coalition building has influenced organizing to this day. The trajectory of fearless grassroots, youth-driven, intersectional organizing set in motion by the 1969 Rainbow Coalition still resonates today.

The Freedom Summer of 1964 Launched a Voting Rights Revolution

Ray Uyeda Teen Vogue
June marks the 55th anniversary of the Freedom Summer, when more than 700 college students - whose average age was 21 - traveled mostly from the North to Mississippi to work with local Black-led organizations to support their civil rights work.

The Greensboro Sit-In Protests, Explained

Eric Ginsburg Teen Vogue
February 1 marked the 59th anniversary of the start of the Greensboro sit-ins, a protest started in 1960 by four college students against racial segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their actions quickly spurred a nationwide movement.
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