During the summer of 2020, as protestors rallied against racial injustice, at least two dozen monuments of Confederate soldiers and slave owners were “torched, occupied, or removed.” In Portland, protestors toppled a George Washington statue on the lawn outside the German American Society, erected to commemorate the sesquicentennial. Six years later, and the Trump administration is fighting in court to remove plaques in Philadelphia that commemorate Washington’s history of enslaving people.

The...

Last June, as David was returning from visiting friends in New Jersey, he stopped to use a restroom in New York City’s Penn Station. He told Out Magazine that as he approached a urinal, he noticed one man watching him, while two others traded glances over the urinals’ dividers. David didn’t engage with any of them. However, before he knew it, the first man he noticed pulled out a badge and said, “All three of you are under arrest.” They were quickly escorted out of the bathroom in handcuffs and...

On Thursday just before noon, bundled up couples and small groups of people wandered through the President’s House on Independence Hall, some snapping photos and others inquiring what was happening as four National Park employees worked in tandem, behind a barricade, to reattach panel after panel of the President’s House slavery exhibits. They worked in the cold, lifting the massive glass squares up onto the brick wall and then screwing them into place. Philadelphia’s mayor Cherelle L. Parker ap...

Editor’s note: to protect students’ and families’ privacy, we have chosen to refer to students and their families by first name only.

Last Friday evening, in Birmingham, Alabama, parents, guardians and friends sat under sparkling rows of string lights, waiting in joyous anticipation for the ’s inaugural graduation ceremony.

Charity Jackson, Magic City’s chief academic officer, stood center stage in front of a ring of white, gray and purple balloons. Mike Wilson, the school’s founding principal