Field Notes on the Republic

Juneteenth, and the Distance Between a Law and Its Arrival

Juneteenth, and the Distance Between a Law and ...

Michael Fowler

The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. The enslaved people of Texas did not learn of their freedom for two and a half years. Juneteenth marks that gap,...

Juneteenth, and the Distance Between a Law and ...

Michael Fowler

The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. The enslaved people of Texas did not learn of their freedom for two and a half years. Juneteenth marks that gap,...

Equal Protection, the Fourteenth Amendment's Quiet Revolution

Equal Protection, the Fourteenth Amendment's Qu...

Michael Fowler

Some of the most powerful sentences in American law are also the shortest. A close reading of the Fourteenth Amendment's sixteen words on the equal protection of the laws, what...

Equal Protection, the Fourteenth Amendment's Qu...

Michael Fowler

Some of the most powerful sentences in American law are also the shortest. A close reading of the Fourteenth Amendment's sixteen words on the equal protection of the laws, what...

Ida B. Wells and the Discipline of the Record

Ida B. Wells and the Discipline of the Record

Michael Fowler

In 1892 a young Memphis editor lost three friends to a lynch mob, and what Ida B. Wells did next invented much of how investigative journalism is done. Facing a...

Ida B. Wells and the Discipline of the Record

Michael Fowler

In 1892 a young Memphis editor lost three friends to a lynch mob, and what Ida B. Wells did next invented much of how investigative journalism is done. Facing a...

The Lunch Counter in Greensboro

The Lunch Counter in Greensboro

Michael Fowler

On February 1, 1960, four freshmen sat down at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro and asked to be served. It looks like spontaneous courage. It was planned, down...

The Lunch Counter in Greensboro

Michael Fowler

On February 1, 1960, four freshmen sat down at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro and asked to be served. It looks like spontaneous courage. It was planned, down...

The Tennessee Vote That Finished the Nineteenth Amendment

The Tennessee Vote That Finished the Nineteenth...

Michael Fowler

On August 18, 1920, a 24-year-old Tennessee legislator wearing a red rose, the color of a vote against, walked in with a letter from his mother in his pocket. Harry...

The Tennessee Vote That Finished the Nineteenth...

Michael Fowler

On August 18, 1920, a 24-year-old Tennessee legislator wearing a red rose, the color of a vote against, walked in with a letter from his mother in his pocket. Harry...