Author: MassCommons

Among Virginia Durr’s many contributions to the civil rights movement, arguably the most consequential was persuading Rosa Parks to attend a workshop at the Highlander School in the summer of 1955, in the wake of the...

Chapter 7 of Rosa Parks’ story is titled “White Violence Gets Worse”.  Among other things it’s a reminder of how ugly the aftermath of wars can be.  Mrs. Parks recounts story after story of...

Institutions matter.  Alexis de Tocqueville came to the conclusion that mediating institutions (churches, lodges, clubs, caucuses) were what kept American democracy from devolving into a tyranny of the majority (well,...

Pay attention all you: *progressives who are thoroughly disgusted with Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, et al, for their endless compromises the past two years; *liberals who are disheartened at the current state of national politics...

I promise I’ll eventually get to 1955 and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but first it’s important to appreciate that it would not have happened without the deep, fierce and abiding commitment to the importance of...