William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was a giant in the legal profession most well-known for his groundbreaking civil rights and social justice work. While a highly controversial figure throughout his career, his work continues to inspire movements in the ongoing fights for human rights and social justice, legacies that run […]
Leontyn Price, the groundbreaking, world-renowned soprano and longtime Greenwich Village resident, made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on January 27, 1961. Ms. Price was one of the first internationally recognized African-American opera stars. Her career broke through racial barriers at another time in our history when the United States was experiencing intense racial strife […]
The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted on July 28, 1868, played an important role in setting legal precedents for equality after the Civil War. The most radically worded of the Reconstruction Amendments, it was intended by its post–Civil War Radical Republican sponsors to stop the efforts by the former Confederate states to nullify emancipation. Its language promotes “liberty” […]
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This ended the life of one of the 20th century’s most revered and influential figures. It also began a 15-year campaign to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday — the first-ever honoring an […]
On April 3rd, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what would become both his last and one of his most powerful speeches, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” In it, he called for unity and non-violent protests while challenging the United States to live up to its promise and ideas, saying he could see the day […]