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Children walk along the tracks in what remains of their community along Buffalo Creek on Feb. 27, 1972.
Politics & History

The Tragedy at Buffalo Creek

The historic Buffalo Creek flood tore through a region often exploited by industry—and stereotyped by outsiders.

Black Radicals

A 19th-century engraving depicting an Arab slave-trading caravan transporting black African slaves across the Sahara.

What Was the Zanj Rebellion?

A remarkable episode of Medieval Islamic history that often goes untold.

Roundup

JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.

Security State of Mind

Man with a sealed mouth

After the Capitol Riot, Who Will Govern Speech Online?

Protecting democracy from the power of free speech seems like a paradox. However, free speech on the internet has never truly been free.

Syllabus

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Politics and Power in the United States: A Syllabus

Historical and scholarly context for the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Most Recent

Fredi Washington and Louise Beavers in a scene from Imitation of Life
Arts & Culture

Why Didn’t Movies about Passing Cast Black Actors?

"Social problem" films were all the rage after World War II. So how could movies about racism be so conservative?
Fred Astaire and his sister Adele playing Mah Jong, 1926
Politics & History

White Women and the Mahjong Craze

Travelers brought the Chinese game to American shores in the early 1920s. Why was it such a hit?
American poet Amanda Gorman reads a poem during the the 59th inaugural ceremony on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Suggested Readings

Black Memes, Patriotic Education, and Vocal Tricks

Well-researched stories from the New York Times, Vox, and other publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Photograph: Bahamian-American actor and civil rights activist Sidney Poitier (centre) suporting the Poor People's Campaign at Resurrection City, a shantytown set up by protestors in Washington, DC, May 1968. Source: Chester Sheard/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Politics & History

How Civil Rights Groups Used Photography for Change

As one activist said, “If our story is to be told, we will have to write it and photograph it and disseminate it ourselves.”

More Stories

Black Radicals

A 19th-century engraving depicting an Arab slave-trading caravan transporting black African slaves across the Sahara.

What Was the Zanj Rebellion?

A remarkable episode of Medieval Islamic history that often goes untold.

Roundup

JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.

Security State of Mind

Man with a sealed mouth

After the Capitol Riot, Who Will Govern Speech Online?

Protecting democracy from the power of free speech seems like a paradox. However, free speech on the internet has never truly been free.

Syllabus

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Politics and Power in the United States: A Syllabus

Historical and scholarly context for the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Trending

A man displays a Ku Klux Klan cross tattooed onto his arm
Education & Society

How White Supremacy Is Like a Drug

Four researchers found that identifying with a hate group can produce pleasurable sensations in the brain.
A collection of rare beer cans
Politics & History

An Archeologist’s Guide to Beer Cans

Here's how to figure out how long it's been since someone left their empties around, only to be dug up later.
Smoke billowing over Tulsa, Oklahoma during 1921 race riots
Politics & History

The Devastation of Black Wall Street

Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1921. A wave of racial violence destroys an affluent African-American community, seen as a threat to white-dominated American capitalism.

Long Reads

An illustration for Jesse James at Long Branch in the magazine Log Cabin Library, 1898.
Arts & Culture

The Murder Ballad Was the Original True Crime Podcast

The 1896 version of crime sensationalism also taught the victim-blaming lesson “Stay Sexy, Don’t Get Murdered.”
Eric LoPresti
Plants & Animals

Some Plants Use Stickiness to Fend off Hungry Insects

For some sand-dwelling plants, stickiness is a defense tactic that keeps predators at bay.
A woman's hand holding a turkey baster
Health

Notes on Queer Conception and the Redefinition of Family

Feminist scholars refer to the “intensely communal, queer, and playful nature” of DIY LGBTQ conception, but Fertility, Inc. is another story.
Judi Iranyi
Politics & History

Community Care in the AIDS Crisis

The Shanti Project’s work in caring for people with AIDS provides valuable lessons in the efficacy of mutual aid in fighting disease.

Editors' Picks

Politics & History

Searching for Black Queer History in Sensational Newspapers

Sometimes finding the stories of marginalized populations demands reading between the lines.
Politics & History

A Formerly Enslaved Woman Successfully Won a Case for Reparations in 1783

In one of the earliest examples of reparations, an ex-slave named Belinda petitioned the government and was granted an annuity.
Politics & History

Remembering Historian John Hope Franklin

Franklin helped to change the way we think about slavery and Reconstruction.
Politics & History

Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement

Women leaders of the Civil Rights movement worked under the triple constraints of gender, race, and class. Their contribution hasn't gotten its due.
Education & Society

15 Black Women Who Should Be (More) Famous

Honoring the scientists, poets, activists, doctors, and librarians--those we know and those we don't.

U.S. History

Photograph: Bahamian-American actor and civil rights activist Sidney Poitier (centre) suporting the Poor People's Campaign at Resurrection City, a shantytown set up by protestors in Washington, DC, May 1968. Source: Chester Sheard/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

How Civil Rights Groups Used Photography for Change

As one activist said, “If our story is to be told, we will have to write it and photograph it and disseminate it ourselves.”
Cigarmakers, Tampa, Florida, 1909 by Lewis Hine

Are Children “Persons”?

In the mid-nineteenth century, the law was ambiguous.
A map of Illinois from 1894

The Meaning of Racist Place Names

In one river town in central Illinois, a wetlands called N— Lake was scapegoated for destructive flooding.

Margaret S. Collins was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in entomology as well as an activist for freedom in the Civil Rights Movement.

Margaret S. Collins, Pioneering Black Entomologist

Pedagogies

Malcolm X at Temple 7, a Halal restaurant on Lenox Avenue and 116th Street, Harlem, 1963

Teaching U.S. History with JSTOR Daily

A survey course may be the only college-level history course a student takes. Here's an easy way to incorporate fascinating scholarship.
A person typing on a computer

How to Use Zotero and Scrivener for Research-Driven Writing

This month, I’m doing something a little different with my column: I’m sharing the system I use to write it, so that you can use or adapt my system.
A person's hand drawing a Big Mac hamburger on a sheet of lined paper

Are Students Just Telling Us What We Want to Hear?

Students tend to fill out end-of-year evaluations so as to describe a “narrative of progress.” For teachers, this is fast food of the mind.

Open Community Collections

Cover of The Seed

The Campus Underground Press

The 1960s and 70s were a time of activism in the U.S., and therefore a fertile time for campus newspapers and the alternative press.

Anti-War Posters from City College of New York

A collection of flyers and other material circulated at The City College of New York (CCNY) between 1934 and 1936.
A teacher teaches her young pupils how to spell, 1930.

The Woman Teacher Documents a Feminist Labor Union’s Victory

The UK’s National Union of Women Teachers went from splinter group to union in its own right, winning on equal pay—as The Woman Teacher shows first-hand.

Syllabus

"I Voted" stickers

Voting in American Politics: A Syllabus

From battles to expand the franchise to the mysteries of turnout, voting is one of the most important things to understand about U.S. politics.
A forest fire reflected in Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Wildfires and Climate Change

Scholarly research offers insight into the ways climate change and other factors are contributing to the wildfire crisis.
A woman reading a newspaper

Media Literacy & Fake News: A Syllabus

Ten lessons from the past and steps we can take now to educate ourselves and our students about how to be a thoughtful consumer of information.

Health

A woman's hand holding a turkey baster

Notes on Queer Conception and the Redefinition of Family

Feminist scholars refer to the “intensely communal, queer, and playful nature” of DIY LGBTQ conception, but Fertility, Inc. is another story.
Florence Nightingale

How Courageous Should Nurses Have to Be?

According to three scholars, it's asking a lot for health care professionals to be completely selfless.
A person's palms presented to the camera

The Trouble with “Native DNA”

Genetic testing to determine who is Native American is problematic, argues Native American studies scholar Kim TallBear.

Education

Malcolm X at Temple 7, a Halal restaurant on Lenox Avenue and 116th Street, Harlem, 1963

Teaching U.S. History with JSTOR Daily

A survey course may be the only college-level history course a student takes. Here's an easy way to incorporate fascinating scholarship.
A girl scout troupe marching in parade in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in the 1960s

Desegregating the Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts had always professed that they were open to all girls. But how did that play out in segregated cities?
An illustration from America's story for America's children, 1900

How (Not) to Teach Kids about Native Cultures

Even well-intentioned books for children can romanticize (or demonize) Native Americans. But better materials exist.

Arts & Culture

Fredi Washington and Louise Beavers in a scene from Imitation of Life

Why Didn’t Movies about Passing Cast Black Actors?

"Social problem" films were all the rage after World War II. So how could movies about racism be so conservative?
An illustration for Jesse James at Long Branch in the magazine Log Cabin Library, 1898.

The Murder Ballad Was the Original True Crime Podcast

The 1896 version of crime sensationalism also taught the victim-blaming lesson “Stay Sexy, Don’t Get Murdered.”
Zora Neale Hurston, 1937

Zora Neale Hurston

In a controversial letter, the versatile author expressed frustration with critics of segregation.

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Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news.