Civil Rights

Paula Bartley takes issue with those historians who depict the suffragettes of the Pankhursts' Women's Social and Political Union as elitists concerned only with upper- and middle-class women.

By adulating King for his work in the Civil Rights campaigns, we have misrepresented the complexity of those struggles and ignored some of the equally challenging campaigns of his last years.

Brian Ward, author of a new book on the links between Rhythm and Blues music and the Civil Rights movement, tells of Martin Luther King’s little-known experiences as a recording artist.

Martin Pugh charts the Women's Movement's origins and growth 1850-1939.

Since the 1860s Women's History has sought to recapture the experiences of a previously submerged half of the population. Sarah Newman looks to the feminist struggle to overcome prejudice and win the most basic right of all.

Susan Cole looks at how, though formally excluded from the political process, Athena's sisters nevertheless made their mark.

Peter Ling compares the impact of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X on black culture in the 90s.

Nicholas Mirzoeff chronicles the struggle of deaf people for recognition and identity over the past 200 years.

Paul Moorcraft looks at the war to maintain white supremacy in what is now Zimbabwe, a hundred years after Cecil Rhodes carved out a British colony.

The newly-found voices of the slaves caught up in the American Civil War, and heard through letters to their families, are a testimony to their tenacity and unity in the struggle for emancipation.