On May 25, onlookers recorded Minneapolis police officers kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, killing him. It was a horrifying reflection of the long history of police violence against Black people in the United States. Floyd’s murder sparked an ongoing wave of protests … Read more
Samantha O’Sullivan is President of Harvard’s Generational African-American Students Association. “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Frederick Douglass first posed the question in a speech on July 5, 1852, and since then, it has rung, largely unanswered, in the ears of our country. As a little Black girl growing up in Chocolate … Read more
Campbell Erickson worked under U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf and with the NGO Integrity Initiatives International as an advocate for the International Anti-Corruption Court. There is no denying it: for much of the world, corruption is a crisis. Corruption has run rampant in governments for as long as governments have existed. And as global inequality … Read more
This Wednesday, June 17, is Dalloway Day – a celebration both ordinary and extraordinary. Around the world, fans of renowned modernist author Virginia Woolf will pause to celebrate her 1925 novel “Mrs. Dalloway,” a story about a single day in the life of wealthy Londoner Clarissa. As she walks through post World War I London to … Read more
Campus activism has been a long-lasting staple of university life. Though mass student demonstrations are generally thought to have become prevalent in the 1960s, Harvard has had such protests occur throughout its history, with the first dating back to 1639. Harvard’s campus has witnessed many instances of public protest in the past year. These include … Read more
When I was a kid, I spent my Saturdays like many my age: cooped up in bed blasting Cartoon Network on my TV. Reflecting on those days, though, always brings me back to two shows in particular: “Adventure Time” and “Regular Show.” I spent hours watching these shows. I still remember the cute indie outro … Read more
Even before Hillary Clinton officially announced her candidacy for president in April 2015, she was widely favored to win the Democratic nomination. As such, the explosive popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was not nearly as well known as Clinton at the time, came as a surprise to many onlookers. Sanders cast himself … Read more
On the night of April 4, 1968, despondent presidential hopeful Sen. Robert F. Kennedy climbed onto the back of a flat-bed truck in the heart of Indianapolis’ Black community, intending to share with the unsuspecting 2000-person crowd the grim news: Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Instinctively, a heartbroken Kennedy spoke the healing words … Read more
Hours after Harvard sent out an email informing students of the need to evacuate campus, my mom called dropping another piece of news: we had to close our family child care business by the end of the next week. While juggling midterms with trying to pack and move all my belongings out in two days, … Read more
This article was co-written by Corbin Duncan and Michel Nehme. It was winter in Beijing, and Gough Whitlam cut an unusual figure in a terracotta-clad temple of the Chinese capital. Towering over his Chinese counterparts at 6’3”, Whitlam’s presence was marked by obvious bemusement and subtle suspicion in equal measure. It was his second visit … Read more