The Black Panther Party for Self Defense started as an organization to address racially-motivated police violence. They patrolled the streets in groups and carrying loaded weapons to interfere if they witnessed instances of police brutality. The organization quickly grew to include a wide variety of social safety programs, like free school lunches, free health clinics, and voter registration…
On September 8, 1954, Ruby Bridges was born, mere months after the Brown vs Board of Education ruling declared segregated schools to be unconstitutional. The Bridges family moved from Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana, when Ruby was a baby. Brown vs Board of Education and the Delay of Integration Following the Brown vs Board of…
The mission of The Radical Agenda is to show every child that they belong in the pages of history and they are capable of making a difference in their communities, and what better way than to highlight the lesser-highlighted Civil Rights activists? You are probably familiar with some of the biggest names of the Civil…
I love to take advantage of any opportunity to learn, and Spring Break is no exception. While my boys and I are on a mission to visit as many National Parks as possible before my oldest turns 18, I make sure each trip has some element of diverse American history. Last year we went to…
Right after the Civil War and the end of legalized enslavement, disgruntled racists were upset that they could not subject African-Americans to forced labor, so they decided to use their power to create new “legal” ways to keep them from advancement. What are Poll Taxes? Amendment 15 was ratified on February 3, 1870, allowing freed…
Why Do We Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr Day? Martin Luther King, Jr. day is traditionally celebrated on the third Monday of January, to put it close to his birthday of January 15. The official declaration of the day was signed into law by President Reagan in 1986, after activism for the observation started in…
A Brief History of the KKK What is the history of the KKK? It all starts with the Civil War. On March 21, 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens declared in his Cornerstone Speech: “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea {of the United States’ Constitution declaring equality for everyone}; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone…
History of Forced Sterilization in the United States When we think of the term “genocide,” we think of Hitler and his 1930s-1940s eugenics campaign, but the part that is not taught in schools is that Hitler was inspired by none other than the practice of forced sterilization in the United States. What Are Eugenics? The term “eugenics”…
Tuskegee Syphilis Study The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was started in 1932 at the Tuskegee Institute in Macon, Alabama. Sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service, the subjects were mostly undereducated sharecroppers who were enticed to join the program by benefits like hot food and complimentary visits to a healthcare clinic. Out of around 600 participants, the control group of syphilis-free…
Who Are the Central Park Five? On April 19, 1989, jogger Trisha Meili was brutally attacked and left for dead in Central Park. Once she was found in the bushes in the early morning hours of April 20th, the New York Police Department collected a group of five young teenage boys and interviewed them, the oldest among them was…