Ruth Simmons made a big news splash a decade ago when she was named president of Brown University, making her the first Black president of an Ivy League institution. She made another splash three years later by naming a committee to investigate Brown's role in the slave trade and make recommendations on possible reparations. Reflecting on her…

After two elections and several recounts and court decisions, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has installed a new principal chief for the first time in a dozen years. Unlike his predecessor, Chief Bill John Baker has not opposed descendants of the tribe's former slaves, known as the Cherokee Freedmen, having rights as tribal citizens. That legal…

In this article, the author profiles Dr. Tony Martin, a historian who has spent 34 years teaching at Wellesley College, a small all-female school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. While he wishes to be remembered in his role as a prolific scholar of Marcus Garvey, the public knows him mostly as a controversial figure--his much smaller body of work on…