Mississippi: A March Resurrects a Movement
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Overcoming disunity, out-of-fashionableness, poverty, and aching feet, the civil rights movement was reborn Sunday on the grounds of the Mississippi state capitol, before the...
View ArticleBill Barr: The “Cover-Up General”
This article is part of a series—At 250, Who Will America Be?—reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026. ∼ ∼ ∼ ATTORNEY GENERAL...
View ArticleMugging the White Liberal
Imagine three goldfish dropped into a fish tank filled with sharks. Or imagine Billy Budd mugged by the Emperor Jones. Then you might have some idea of the malevolent and paranoid violence that...
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First Draft of History: Covering Civil Rights in the Sixties
The Voice and the Sixties were very loose. That combination made it possible for me to make an unprofessional debut at the paper. It made it easy for an unknown caller like me to get founding editor...
View ArticleDigging Up Alton Maddox
When the history books are written about confrontational African American defense attorney Alton H. Maddox Jr., his most rabid critics will accuse him of masterminding the assailable late 1980s hoax...
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Last Refuge of a Rock Critic: A Bicentennial Search for Patriotism
This article is part of a series—At 250, Who Will America Be?—reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026. ∼ ∼ ∼ Editors’ note, June 29,...
View ArticleThe Mayor Who Didn’t Want To Know
The Mayor Who Didn’t Want To Know — And the Whistleblowers Who Tried To Alert Him Perhaps the fairest way to judge the competence, integrity, and character of a government is how it responds when...
View ArticleAnarchy in the U.S.A. – The GOP Plays a Dangerous Game With Its Far-Right Fringe
This article is part of a series—At 250, Who Will America Be?—reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026. ∼ ∼ ∼ WASHINGTON, D.C. —...
View ArticleThe Romans Tried to Save the Republic From Men Like Trump. They Failed.
∼ ∼ ∼ This article is part of a series—At 250, Who Will America Be?—reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026. ∼ ∼ ∼ A man stands...
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Before the “Goldwater Rule” and Trump: Diagnosing Hitler in 1943
Editor’s note: This is an updated and revised version of an article that was first published on October 25, 2017. ∼ ∼ ∼ This article is part of a series — At 250, Who Will America Be? — reporting on...
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Our Nixon: Whose Life Was It Anyway?
1. Nixon is Everywhere I’m going to put on an old record, if you don’t mind. Let’s see if I remember how this damned hi-fi works. The needle’s kind of scratchy, but — ah, there we go. You’ll...
View ArticleCelebrating Obama’s Birthday in Harlem
(click image for slideshow) This past Sunday night, photographer Deidre Schoo attended a birthday party for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at St. Joe Nick’s Pub. Despite a cake that...
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No Future
Originally published in the April 19, 1994, issue of The Village Voice. People couldn’t believe the photograph. The day after Kurt Cobain shot himself faceless in his million-dollar home, his friends...
View ArticleProm Balloons
Nineteen-year-old Manhattanite Peter Cincotti just doubled Diana Krall’s record sales, becoming Billboard‘s top trad-jazz seller of the moment. He burst into national consciousness recently with...
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Losing Joshua
Phoenix, New York—Debra Graham sat at her dining room table on a recent Wednesday morning and riffled through a stack of loose-leaf notebook paper, each page covered with the tortured scrawl of her...
View ArticleThe Age of ‘Reason’
Wired founder Louis Rossetto has been fascinated with Reason for over 30 years. Recently, he played a role in the magazine’s redesign. The following interview was conducted via e-mail, with Rossetto...
View ArticleDoes City Owe Squat?
The squat at 537-539 East 5th Street is long gone, demolished by the city after a fire broke out there on February 9, 1997. But next week marks not only the third anniversary of the razing of the...
View ArticleIsle of White
In the summer of 1948, during a heat wave, E.B. White came down from Maine and holed up at the Algonquin Hotel to write a piece for Holiday, an elegant travel magazine of the day. The assignment was to...
View ArticleNude Awakening
The streets of New York City are all but deserted at 6:15 a.m. on a Sunday morning, yet there is an isolated chaos. Shoes are kicked off. Elbows bump elbows as hands rip shirts over heads. Pants fall...
View ArticleNY Mirror
Sumptuous free press junkets aren’t always as great as they sound— I’ve dodged empty beer bottles in Iceland, vaginal Ping-Pong balls in Thailand, and severe boredom in Russia— but the one two weeks...
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