Fine Print

Historic New England, with inspiration from the Stolpersteine memorials in Europe that honor victims of the Nazi regime, has a different mission: immortalize formerly enslaved people, too often voiceless and forgotten, as a way of reminding New England (and America) where we’ve been and how far we have still to go.​ It is in its retelling that history becomes part of public memory—public memory is the successful transformation of history from a static record into a dynamic narrative that circulates among people in the present moment.

The 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence has inspired the revisiting of stories from our shared past. ​ It is in its retelling that history becomes part of public memory—public memory is the successful transformation of history from a static record into a dynamic narrative that circulates among people in the present moment.

Now is not the time to bemoan how our votes don’t matter. It’s time to prove that they do, both by showing up just like we did in 2020 and fighting any attempt to stop us.

For many people, America’s rapid authoritarian turn came out of nowhere. Not Ibram X. Kendi. The author of Stamped From the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist shows in his new book Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age that America’s anti-democratic policies are part of a worldwide trend—one that long predates the current administration.

In an age where fewer Americans trust the government than 70 years ago, Ta-Nehisi Coates reminds us that the road to reestablishing that trust heading into its next 250 years must be bold, consistent, and inclusive.