Portside

Anticommunists deployed "semantic contrivances" to claim the US was a model democracy; meanwhile, the FBI focused its energies on activists and described their freedom aspirations as conspiratorial while the CIA, destroyed freedom movements abroad.

Charlotta Bass was the first Black woman to run for Vice President of the United States, on the Progressive Party ticket in 1952. Her speech is particularly relevant as Kamala Harris builds on her legacy today.

Most Americans know the song “MTA,” popularized by the Kingston Trio in 1959. It’s the one about a “man named Charlie” doomed to “ride forever ’neath the streets of Boston . . . the man who never returned.” What’s forgotten, however, is that the song was originally made for a left-wing political campaign. In 1949, the Boston People’s Artists wrote “MTA” for a left-wing candidate. The song became a hit — the man behind it disappeared.