By all outward appearances, 2018 was a year of incredible progress for trans people. Of the triumphs: Christine Hallquist became the first trans person to be nominated for governor (of Vermont); at least one internationally-recognized company opted to recognize their trans employees by covering corrective surgeries in…

More than a week after director and musician Boots Riley delivered a pointed and detailed critique of BlacKkKlansman and its portrayal of police officers, filmmaker Spike Lee has a response.

J. Kenneth Lee, one of four black students who joined a lawsuit that would ultimately lead to the desegregation of the University of North Carolina School of Law and who became one of the first black students to attend UNC at Chapel Hill, has passed away at the age of 94.

In the latest edition of ‘Dumb Takes on Racism by a Fox News Guest,’ New York State Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor said there’s nothing worse than being called a racist when discussing NFL players’ protests during the National Anthem.

Candace Owens, Kanye West’s new bestie, claims that racism is no longer an issue. Was that before or after her family won a lawsuit for $37,500 from the Stamford, Conn., Board of Education as a result of racism? Perhaps the board should ask for a refund.

Milwaukee civil rights leader Vel Phillips—whose life was marked by shattering glass ceilings and tireless activism—died Tuesday evening at the age of 94.

Poet, author, singer, dancer, director and civil rights activist Maya Angelou would have been 90 years old today. In her 86 years of life, the incredible artist born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis published seven autobiographies and several books of poetry and essays, and received more than 50 honorary degrees,…

We know that talent tends to run in families, but screenwriter Jenny Lumet’s family is pretty extraordinary, even by Hollywood standards. Her father was legendary director, screenwriter and producer Sidney Lumet, who gave us such incredible films as Dog Day Afternoon, Network and my personal all-time fave, The Wiz.

For Women’s History Month, Jezebel and The Root are partnering for JezeRoot, a series that focuses on women of color, domestic workers and sex workers.

While Americans are still waiting to deposit Harriet Tubmans in their bank accounts, our neighbors to the north have just unveiled a new $10 bill that features their own civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond.

In front of a rapt audience at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Malcolm X’s third daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, talked about witnessing the assassination of her father at Harlem’s Audubon Theatre and Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965.

In news that would shock only an alien who just landed in the United States on his way to Pluto and was unfamiliar with the legacy of fuckboy shit that the Trump administration has pulled, the Department of Justice, headed by Jeff “King Keebler” Sessions, has pursued fewer civil rights cases than previous…

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for an Alabama death row inmate whose dementia, his lawyers argue, renders him unable to remember the murder of which he was convicted.

Of all the stories from the civil rights era, perhaps the most extraordinary and least told tale is that of the icon and freedom fighter Fannie Lou Hamer. An upcoming documentary will finally tell Hamer’s stirring story in her own words, thanks to a historic grant by the Kellogg Foundation to Mississippi’s Tougaloo…

In the 50th year since his assassination in 1968, much has and will be said about Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader and icon whose legacy of nonviolent resistance inspired the world—while compelling some to distort and dilute his message of activism.

She was a fearless fighter for our freedom, and one of the first of her kind: She was Frankie Muse Freeman, a brilliant civil rights attorney, activist and icon. She died Friday, Jan. 12, at the age of 101.

On Sept. 3, 1944, 24-year-old Recy Taylor and two friends were on their way home from a late-night church service in Abbeville, Ala., when a group of white men abducted and raped her. Taylor refused to stay silent about the assault. Two grand juries refused to bring charges against her attackers. Taylor, who died at…

A transgender activist who drew national attention last year after confronting Caitlyn Jenner at an event and calling her a “fucking fraud” is now vying for a seat in California’s state Assembly.

LeRoy Frasier, a trailblazing pioneer who, along with his brother and another high school student, was among the first African-American undergraduate students to challenge segregation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has died at the age of 80.