Since its founding in 1865, The Nation has been a home for writers instigating, reporting on, and arguing about struggles for social and economic justice. We have held fast to our “Nation Ideals”— from racial justice to feminism, from environmentalism to civil liberties—throughout our 150-year history. This month, we’re celebrating the fight for a fair economy for all. Above, you’ll find a multimedia timeline that presents that history, complete with archival photographs and video.
Research by Richard Kreitner and Stacie Williams Design by Stacie Williams
Check out all of our timelines!
On environmentalism: Radical Histories: The Fight for a Sustainable Future, 1872 – 2014.
On feminism, sex, and gender: Part I, From Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ in 1851 to FDA approval of the birth control pill in 1960. Part II, From Helen Gurley Brown in 1960 to the criminalization of pregnancy in 2014.
On race and civil rights: Part I, From the Memphis riots of 1866 to the first anti-lynching conference, in New York City, in 1919. Part II, From the “Red Summer” of racial violence in Chicago, in 1919, to Rosa Parks’s bus protest, in 1955. Part III, From the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. Part IV, From the ban on segregation in housing, in 1968, to freedom for Nelson Mandela, in 1990. Part V, From the LA riots of 1992 to the release of Selma, in 2015.
The NationTwitterFounded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.