Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (May 1954), racial tensions in Alabama heightened considerably. When in February 1956 Autherine Lucy, a black student, began attending class at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, white students and community membe

Maurice Isserman the William R Kenan Jr Professor of History at Hamilton College in Clinton N Y has a well-earned reputation as a leading historian of the American political left His specialty has led him to explore the life of the socialist activist Michael Harrington (1928-89).

From the archives: Highlights from a 1998 U.S. bishops’ document on “an essential part of the Catholic faith.”