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…
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…
“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society…In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way…
What is the War on Drugs? The war on drugs is not a war in the defense of public health; it is, from its very foundation, a racist political agenda created to control non-white people by creating laws to strip them of their rights. In the 1970s, towards the end of the Vietnam war, anti-war protestors were becoming…
