There is no constitutional right to a high-quality public education. Should there be?
Africana Studies
In this Washington Post story, written in honor of Constitution Day, Noliwe Rooks, associate professor in Africana Studies and Feminist, Gender, Sexuality Studies, argues that there should be a federal right to a high-quality public education, even though public education is not mentioned in the Constitution, with that responsibility left to the states.
"This is a holiday that has always demanded, but has yet to receive, guidance and direction from the American people as to how best we can have — and celebrate — an inclusive expression of American citizenship and identity," Rooks writes. "What better place to start than by enshrining into the Constitution the right of all children in America, regardless of race, ethnicity or economic background to receive a quality education?"
Devin Flores/Cornell University
Enslavers posted as many as a quarter-million newspaper ads and flyers before 1865 to locate runaway slaves. Ed Baptist is leading the public crowdsourcing project, Freedom on the Move, that has digitized tens of thousands of these advertisements in an open-source site accessible to the public.