Randall Kennedy, Author at The American Prospect

‘Brown’ at 70

by Randall Kennedy May 17, 2024

The rhetorically modest but functionally powerful ruling that ended segregation shouldn’t be misused to forestall other efforts at racial equality.

A new history of the civil rights movement gets a lot right but falls short in trying to reframe the story.

How critical race theory has become a handy target for an old-fashioned assault on civil rights.

Despite a lot of words about not politicizing the Court, he will do the right thing—and his former clerk is likely to take his seat.

Is this one of those rare breakthrough moments like Lincoln’s emancipation and the civil rights era of the 1960s—or prologue to more disappointment?

We need to learn from him, not just revere him.

From Lincoln to Obama, we have seen periods of racial progress before. Dare we be optimistic that this one will prove durable and systemic?

The case of a black Army veteran that spurred a South Carolina federal judge to defy his state’s white supremacist power structure

Whether by example or by strategy, Dr. King always looked for opportunities to build bridges.

Foes of hateful speech should remember how free expression was protected on campus in the first place—through the civil rights movement.