Portside

Documenting the Vietnam War in 1969. War crime in Yemen in 2018. Face-masks protect from pandemic in 1918. Hip-hop is born in 1973. White House report doesn't see race in 1938. Blowin' In the Wind dropped in 1963. Springfield Massacre in 1908.

Pinochet's men accused of Letelier murder in 1978. Dick Cheney's hypocrisy in 2000. Reagan's racist dog-whistle in 1980. Dixiecrats defend the poll tax in 1948. Chicago Freedom Movement in 1966. Birth of a hero in 1848. Toxic-waste emergency in 1978.

The economic consequences of capitalism’s profit-driven movement out of its old centers (Western Europe, North America, and Japan) brought capitalism there to its current crisis.

Alabama tries to ban the NAACP in 1956. Freedom Summer under the gun in 1964. Cigarette health warning in 1965. Protesters killed in DC in 1932. "Fight for 15" in 2013. Federal health insurance for some in 1965. Black Power in 1966.

Jelly Roll Morton's hit single in 1923. Women's Rights Convention in 1848. Disability rights a winner in 1968. Prepaid comprehensive healthcare in 1945. Investigation smoke and mirrors in 2004. Prisoner abuse in 2006. Civil disobedience in 1846.

' No accommodation to racism' in 1905. Smoking causes lung cancer in 1957. Nixon on tape, really? in 1973. FBI admits to burglaries in 1975. CIA admits to more bad behavior in 1977. Forgetting about the Civil War 1917. One last nuke test in 1962.

Shining light on federal records in 1966. Segregating the U.S. civil service in 1913. Smallpox scam in 2002. March of the Mill Children in 1903. A big win for airline workers in 1966. 14th Amendment inked in 1868. Telstar fried by a nuke in 1962.

It would be a mistake to think of the current wave of attacks on “critical race theory” as a culture war. This is a political battle.

The holiday’s 158-year history holds a lot of meaning in the fight for Black liberation today.