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Category: Mary Frances Berry

  • Beacon Press Authors and Staff Reflect on the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Today, on the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, we honor his legacy. We reached out to some of our authors and staff members to reflect on the impact of his global vision for social justice and his tireless work in the civil rights movement. We share their commemorative responses with you…

  • A Book for Our Times: Mary Frances Berry’s “History Teaches Us to Resist”

    By Gayatri Patnaik: I had the very good fortune to meet Dr. Mary Frances Berry (MFB) when I was twenty-one years old and working at the University of Pennsylvania. Having recently graduated from college with one major and an excessive number of minors (three!), I was undecided about what to pursue in graduate school. I…

  • Before #MeToo, There Was Mrs. Recy Taylor

    A Q&A with Mary Frances Berry: Black women going public about rape is not new. Harriet Jacobs, in her 1861 autobiography, denounced her rape by her master. Ida B. Wells, in 1892, denounced the rape of Black women and girls by white men in her newspaper along with the lynching of Black men for false accusations of…

  • A Different, Non-Partisan Voting Process Code to Restore Faith in Our Democracy

    By Mary Frances Berry Our electoral process is broken. Polls, interviews with voters or prospective voters all confirm discontent with our system and a sense of unfairness, corruption or unresponsiveness. At the state and local levels, such issues as expanding Medicaid, insuring clean drinking water, addressing homelessness, figuring out how to “fix” education, repairing streets…

  • Beacon Authors Speak Truth to Trump on Inauguration Day

    Donald Trump gets sworn in today as commander in chief. His approval rating speaks to the myriad doubts, concerns, and fears many have about what he and his administration will do during his term in the White House. We reached out to a few of our authors to ask if they wanted to share what…

  • Beacon’s Bestsellers and Highlights of 2016

    It’s December, which means it’s time for our holiday sale! All this month, get 30% off every purchase on our website using code HOLIDAY30. This year, we’re donating 20% of all sales in December to the Water Protector Legal Collective, which provides legal support for water protection activities in resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.…

  • Rigged?: Trump’s Claims of Voter Fraud in the 2016 Election

    A Q&A with Mary Frances Berry | Donald Trump is emphasizing the possibility of voter fraud because if he loses he may want to challenge the election. The most obvious way to do that is to charge fraud. The conventional wisdom that there is little or no voter fraud is not quite accurate. While there…

  • The Story Behind Obama’s Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention

    By Mary Frances Berry and Josh Gottheimer | It’s fair to say that no one could have expected what resulted from Barack Obama’s prime-time speech at the July 2004 Democratic National Convention. Not the Senate candidate himself nor his two key aides and traveling companions, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, nor Mary Beth Cahill, the…

  • North Carolina and the Evolution of Voter Suppression

    By Mary Frances Berry Since the Supreme Court in 2013 effectively lifted preclearance requirements for states and counties with a history of race discrimination, states have passed a raft of new voter ID laws and taken other steps which they claim will prevent voter fraud. The challenge to North Carolina’s voter Identification law underway in…

  • The Broadside’s Greatest Hits: 2015 in Review

    2015 has been, to say the least, rather momentous, and continues to be as it draws to a close. We at Beacon Press are so grateful to our brilliant authors who have offered their time and insights to analyze and comment on this year’s events. Their posts—with topics ranging from race to cultural or class…