Because the national voting age wasn’t lowered to 18 until 1971, it’s worth remembering that a fair amount of the most memorable civil rights and antiwar protests of the '60s were staged by people who couldn’t vote yet. #ParklandStudentsSpeak
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Olivia B. Waxman
@OBWax
Staff Writer , covering all things History. Native New Yorker. olivia.waxman@time.com and @obwax@journa.host on Mastodon
Olivia B. Waxman’s Tweets
I write about all things History for TIME and am updating my list of historians on Twitter for the new year. Who should I be following? #twitterstorians #AHA2020 #AHA20 #History #medievaltwitter
My latest: This week's cover story on the controversy about critical race theory and the fight over what kids learn about America's history time.com/6075193/critic
Excited to keep covering all things history for TIME in 2022. If there are historians doing timely research I should follow/know about in the new year, I'd love to connect. #twitterstorians #AHA22 #AHA2022 #History #medievaltwitter
“Despite the fact, as we say in the intro of the film, that the United States let in more people than any other sovereign nation—we didn’t do enough. We failed,” Ken Burns tells . New doc #USandTheHolocaustPBS airing now on
Years before Rosa Parks, Sarah Keys refused to give up her seat on a bus. Now she’s being honored in the city where she was arrested. A monument to Evans will be unveiled in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
TIME replaced its logo on the cover for the first time in its nearly 100-year history
"Hate never disappears. It just takes a break for a while."
A look at how Asian-American history is—and is not—taught in K-12 U.S. schools
What Thanksgiving means today to the Native American tribe that fed the pilgrims 400 years ago
400 years after the ‘first Thanksgiving,’ the tribe who fed the Pilgrims continues to fight for their land amid another epidemic ti.me/2USly4r
I've spent the last week doing Zoom calls and phone calls with Holocaust survivors to see how they're coping during the pandemic. Video by
Teachers who were in school during 9/11 are now teaching kids about 9/11. I talked to them about what that experience is like, and I also went down to the 9/11 Memorial and asked kids what they knew about the terrorist attacks.
Today is #MLK's birthday. The lessons from his sermons at Ebenezer, as well as many of the social problems he railed against, still ring true today.
A bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday is expected to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. Here's the history behind the push to make Juneteenth a national holiday: ti.me/3hBxmlU
One of the women who paved the way for the leadership of Black voting rights organizers like Stacey Abrams is Rosa Parks. Parks’ activism started with wanting to register to vote during World War II.
More Americans voted in 2020—and voted by mail—than in any other election in U.S. history
Understanding how things got so tense in Minneapolis requires understanding the history of the city’s racial geography.
Nobody quite knows how the COVID-19 pandemic will end. Here's what we can learn from the 1918 flu
Strong words from the Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona: Supreme Court was ‘wrong’ and ‘backwards’ on student loans and affirmative action. interview here:
Barred owl chases a squirrel around 115th-114th St. in Riverside Park. cc:
Talked to about his latest doc #USandTheHolocaustPBS and whether the U.S. could have done more to stop the worst of the atrocities
60 schools nationwide are piloting AP African American Studies this year. An inside look at the program:
While Warnock’s win is historic, it’s also an important moment to learn from history. Such gains towards representation have been followed by devastating losses and setbacks from those who resent such progress.
For the final #GameOfThrones season premiere, re-sharing my feature on how the show has changed the way scholars study the real Middle Ages
Celebrating my 10th anniversary of writing and reporting for TIME today, in the field.
Ukrainian museums and archives have been scrambling to protect artifacts and documents that represent Ukrainian history.
We asked historians to pick a moment in 2020 that future historians will—or at least should—write about when they study the momentous year that is drawing to a close, and whether that moment signals a new chapter or turning point.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine has continued over the past week, displaying sunflowers has become one of the many ways the world is showing solidarity for the Ukrainian people.
Decorating Ukrainian Easter eggs has become a gesture of peace, as war has brought new meaning to an old tradition
"Black political rights can’t be divorced from economic justice. Why Fannie Lou Hamer’s message and fight endure today" via ti.me/3Blu4M0
"She took it up years before Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich." Learned a lot from this rundown of the Hilma af Klint exhibit : ourtownny.com/city-arts-news
What Martin Luther King Jr. said at the March on Washington about police brutality ti.me/2ECtPov #MarchOnWashington2020
I spoke to Pulitzer Prize winner David Hackett Fischer about his latest book, an encyclopedia of enslaved people's experiences in the U.S.
Long-forgotten cables reveal what TIME correspondent Sidney Olson saw at the liberation of Dachau. As the world promises again never to forget what happened 75 years ago, Olson's family hopes what he saw will never be forgotten either.
10 experts weigh in on the moments from American history that can help us better understand the George Floyd protests
Got my second vaccine shot today. I will continue to wear a mask and keep six feet of space between myself and others (roughly the length of a week’s worth of CVS coupons)
A sneak peek at a new report on how little Reconstruction is discussed in state social studies standards
The same precautions urged more than a century ago—social distancing, wearing masks—are getting new life, in hopes that Halloween won’t make this year even scarier than it already is. ti.me/3msFirh
For Juneteenth, historian talks about when slavery actually ended in the U.S. and the misconception that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation.
As Trump skips Biden's inauguration, what to know about Presidents who did not go to their successors' inauguration
Jackson’s nomination marks the latest milestone in a history of Black women lawyers that dates back 150 years. TIME asked historians what women paved the way for this moment.
In light of Trump, Pence, and Biden mishandling classified documents, I talked to a former National Archives official during the Bush/Cheney era about how he handled these issues when they came up during his tenure
In social studies standards for 45 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, discussion of Reconstruction is “partial” or “non-existent,” per a new report
You “don’t get a ‘get out of jail free’ card just because you become President.” Constitutional law professors sound off on the question of whether a President can be convicted of a felony.
For #EarthDay50 #EarthDay2020, people who were involved in the early years of the modern environmental movement reflect on missed opportunities over the last 50 years.
Princess Diana died 25 years ago in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36. At the time of her death, she was the glue that held the royal family together. She represented a vision of what the royals could and should be.
In a previously unseen interview, Ruth Bader Ginsburg shares how legal pioneer Pauli Murray shaped her work on sex discrimination
Georgia voting rights activists like Stacey Abrams are part of a long tradition of Black women organizing for the vote. Great to chat with historians + and cite articles featuring +
The idea of an 'America First Caucus' may have hit a snag, but the false—and troubling—understanding of history in that viral proposed platform is still around...and has been around for a long time...so it's worth setting the record straight.
Some trivia on the world's longest reigning monarchs:
A brief history of King Charles III's past controversies:
For this week's issue, I talked to teachers about efforts to change the way Thanksgiving is taught and trace the teaching of the myth of the 'First Thanksgiving' and accompanying school plays back to the panic over immigration btwn the 1890s and 1920s
On Monday, Mike Pence filed paperwork to run for President, making him the first former Vice President to run against the President under whom he served in over 80 years, and only the third ever to do so. More on the other two examples here:
Though real critical race theory, which originated in law schools, is not taught in K-12 public schools, data exclusively provided to TIME shows that the movement to ban it from classrooms is still “going strong, and it’s not slowing down.”
1918 Oakland health officials: “There is not the slightest danger in voting if you wear your mask. If you are staying home you are not being benefited by the fresh air and sunshine that you will enjoy performing your patriotic duty as an American Citizen.”
5 World War II video games worth playing, according to a historian. Plus, some news about the new Medal of Honor VR game out later this year:
President Biden's granddaughter Naomi Biden will be the first presidential granddaughter to get married at the White House. Everything you need to know about the wedding and the history of White House weddings here: time.com/6234924/naomi- and here:
“These stories have been invisible for so long, but they’re not necessarily hidden in the archives, it just takes time to do the research,” says photography scholar Deborah Willis
Where the Proud Boys—and Trump’s ‘stand by’ comment—fit into the history of modern American militia groups ti.me/36npv8n
'Alarmingly similar.' What the chaos around Lincoln's first inauguration can tell us about today, according to historians
Replying to
Coincidentally last night I watched The Americans episode where the family watches The Day After.
For the anniversary of "Custer's Last Stand" (Jun 25-26, 1876), a surprising look at how myths about the battle made it into U.S. history textbooks
A look at how movie theaters navigated reopening during the 1918 flu pandemic. The movie business has changed over the last century, but why people love films has stayed the same.
History shows the problem with focusing on whether a protest is nonviolent:
The most surprising discoveries so far in recently unsealed Vatican documents about what the Catholic Church did—and didn't do—during the Holocaust #YomHashoah #HolocaustRemembranceDay
At the age of 95, a Holocaust survivor finally learned the name her parents gave her.
While Americans across 50 states and Washington, D.C. are voting on Election Day—or already voted early—some states’ votes will be more closely watched than others. How swing states got to be so influential:
In the late 18th century, one of America’s Founding Fathers penned a timely message for parents about the importance of protecting children from infectious disease.
Replying to
Recently I've started covering new ways history is being taught, especially the history of underrepresented groups. Recs for teachers and experts to talk to are welcome! #twitterstorians #AHA2020 #History #sschat #edchat
The history behind the first Black woman Supreme Court justice ti.me/36Aws85
How "Lost Cause" propaganda distorted the truth about Christmas for enslaved people in the Deep South
Barber can shave your fav World Cup player onto your head http://t.co/DvQPLDxsdr Lionel Messi Pic: http://t.co/vVr0D7LEMV
A new book sheds light on the deep roots of Black women's voting rights activism, which often predated the work of the famous white suffragists: time.com/5876456/black-
A memoir by Anne Frank's best friend is out now. Read how the book came together here time.com/6282024/anne-f and an excerpt about Anne Frank's last birthday party here:
For Lincoln's birthday today: "Politicians quote Abraham Lincoln a lot. Historians say they don't always do his words justice"
“We want to make sure that we’re a city that’s not just a museum for the rest of the country," Steven L. Reed told TIME ahead of taking office today as the first African-American mayor of Montgomery, Alabama.
How a 1946 case of police brutality against a Black WWII veteran shaped the fight for civil rights time.com/5950641/blindi
For V-E Day: the biggest myths about World War II, according to a military historian
For Women's History Month, TIME highlights three pioneering Black female doctors, like Dr. Rebecca Crumpler, who got her medical degree in the Civil War era, and Dr. May Chinn, who was one of Harlem's first Black doctors in the 1920s.
Remembering David McCullough (1933-2022). Had a chance to speak with him in 2017 about everything from Trump to the importance of studying history:
Talked to indigenous experts and a survivor of a Canadian residential school for indigenous children ahead of the Pope's visit to Canada, where he's expected to apologize for the church's role in running these schools
5 Black Americans who served heroically in World War II, from Pearl Harbor to D-Day
On #WorldAIDSDay, those who fought the 1980s epidemic find striking differences and tragic parallels in COVID-19
Historians on what Putin gets wrong about ‘Denazification’ in Ukraine, featuring @jasonintrator
"Johnson was the President who called for the War on Crime, who began the unprecedented federal investment in local police forces as his formal strategy to prevent future urban unrest."
