What the Colfax "Riot" Marker Got Wrong How a state historical marker turned a massacre into a monument to forgetting

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Colfax Massacre. Here is a reflection on how it has been misremembered. #CivilWarMemory open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

The ‘Terrible Intimacy’ of Black and White Americans Amid Slavery’s Horror

Historian @katemasur.bsky.social reviews Melvin Ely's new book. 🗃
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/b...

April 13, 1873: Colfax Massacre The Ku Klux Klan carried out the Colfax Massacre in response to a Republican victory in the 1872 elections.

#tdih 1873 Louisiana: Colfax Massacre 💔 on Easter Sunday.

Republicans had narrowly won 1872 election to retain control of state & a Black militia defended the victory, but KKK & more white supremacists used brutal violence to overturn results. #terrorism

⬇️ 🧵
www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/co...

Honestly still in shock by its placement, but my article (and job talk paper), “Indigenous Constitutionalism,” is officially out in the Harvard Law Review. A brief thread on this project🧵

harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...

Book cover for Rachel A. Shelden, The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History

Not sure whether this is apt or terrible timing but here’s the official cover of my book due out with @uncpress.bsky.social W. Hodding Carter III imprint this fall. 🎉

ABA names 2026 finalists for Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts WASHINGTON, March 11, 2026 —The American Bar Association today announced the 31 finalists for the 2026 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts, which recognize outstanding work that fosters the Ame...

Wow! Books by Michelle Adams, Jill Lepore,
@johnfabianwitt.bsky.social & @bradsnyderprof.bsky.social up for the ABA Silver Gavel Award!
www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

My book is available for pre-order! Get your copy here: www.cambridge.org/us/universit...

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 The second volume of the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography that The Washington Post hailed as “an engrossing masterpiece.”In this final magisterial ...

David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. DU BOIS: THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY, 1919-1963

Stories of Scottsboro Stories of Scottsboro [Goodman, James] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Stories of Scottsboro

Jim Goodman, STORIES OF SCOTTSBORO

This book is so incredibly moving. What a remarkable human being. #BlackHistoryMonth

Words can't fully express how excited I am at the news that Liz Magill will be the next Dean of @georgetownlaw.bsky.social.

(But I'm REALLY EXCITED.)

A great hire for us, and exactly the kind of leader our institution needs for the myriad challenges and opportunities ahead of us.

Big news coming out of higher ed!

A bracing and essential piece.

A photo of teenage Claudette Colvin in glasses and a sweater.

Friends, Claudette Colvin—the 15-year-old who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in March 1955 & joined the federal case against bus segregation that went to the Supreme Court — died today at age 86. But there are lots of myths and mis-impressions about her. A short corrective thread:

Really fantastic new piece by my colleague Dave Rapallo. The most comprehensive treatment I've seen of minority investigative powers in Congress. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

How a Scholar Nudged the Supreme Court Toward Its Troop Deployment Ruling

The #SupremeCourt majority adopted an argument from a friend-of-the-court brief by Georgetown Law professor @martylederman.bsky.social in a Tuesday order declining to allow the federal deployment of the National Guard in Illinois, writes @adamliptak.bsky.social in @nytimes.com.

Big ups to Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social who flagged this argument that SCOTUS relied on (that regular forces refer to military forces, not federal law enforcement).

Manuscript stack of The Political Supreme Court: The Forgotten History of Justices, Parties, & the People’s Constitution, by Rachel A. Shelden

Totally surreal that after 12 years of working on this thing, it’s out of my hands.

Coming to you in the Hodding Carter III imprint at @uncpress.bsky.social next fall!

Huge thanks to @simpsonvos.bsky.social & the many, many people who helped along the way.

Steve Cropper, Guitarist, Songwriter and Shaper of Memphis Soul Music, Dies at 84

Steve Cropper, Guitarist, Songwriter and Shaper of Memphis Soul Music, Dies at 84 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/a...

Paul Butler on Judith Resnik on abolition and the carceral state. I'll just stand over here

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

Pauli Murray - Wikipedia

Today is Pauli Murray's 115th birthday. If you're a law student (or just a curious person) and don't know who they are, look them up! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_M...

(And if you're in Durham, go check out @paulimurraycenter.bsky.social ! I had the privilege of visiting yesterday and it's great.)

I am thrilled to be the new #ASLH president, receiving the gavel yesterday from former president Barbara Welke at our Detroit conference awards ceremony. My term is 2025-27. Excited to get to work! #legalhistory

Happy Birthday, Felix Frankfurter. Born OTD in 1882. He encouraged generations of law students and law clerks to go into public service. And he was the last justice who espoused James Bradley Thayer's theory of justice restraint.

Nov. 14, 1960: Gomillion v. Lightfoot SCOTUS ruled 9-0 that redrawing city boundaries in Tuskegee, Alabama to exclude African-American voters violates the 15th Amendment.

Today in redistricting and civil rights history

www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/go...

So excited to be at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History over the next few days! Check out the program here: aslh.net/wp-content/u... #ASLH #LegalHistory

Reminder for 2025 Detroit #ASLH people: check out our *new* table for recently pub. legal history books not otherwise represented @ book sale! Authors donate a copy & everyone else can enter raffle for each book. I'll pull names of winners on Sat. morning & winners pick up books before end of day

“Nearer to Thee”: The Still Evolving Legacy and Politics of Sam Cooke by Mark Anthony Neal All I knew was that there was something that I heard in the man’s voice. This was me, in the mid-1970s watching TV in our South Bronx…

“Nearer to Thee”: The Still Evolving Legacy and Politics of Sam Cooke by Mark Anthony Neal medium.com/@tnimixtape/... 🤎

Opinion | The Empty Promises of Trump’s Imperial Presidency

Great column by @jamellebouie.net on how a future Congress can wield its "broad array of powers" to restore our democracy. With quotes from excellent books by @richardprimus.bsky.social and my @georgetownlaw.bsky.social colleague @joshchafetz.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Bearded man in coat & tie in profile. “George Thomas Downing, businessman and civil rights leader.” New York Public Library Digital Collections.

George Downing (b. 1818) was an entrepreneur & civic leader who participated in the Underground Railroad & achieved the desegregation of Newport, RI schools. His father, Thomas Downing, born in Virginia to formerly enslaved parents in 1791, was Manhattan’s 1st eminent purveyor of oysters.

I am delighted to announce that I have signed a contract with Cambridge University Press to publish my new book, “One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence.” Look for it in 2026, for the 250th anniversary!