Scholar and author Dylan Penningroth. (Provided)

African Americans were fighting for their rights through common law long before what many people know conventionally as the Civil Rights Movement. That’s the conclusion award-winning scholar and author Dylan Penningroth came to in his book “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.”

Chief Justice Earl Warren speaks at the Washington National Archives during a ceremony marking the 175th anniversary of congressional passage of legislation establishing the federal judicial system in the U.S., on Sept. 22, 1964. (AP Photo / Bill Allen, File)

The “Brown Revisited” recreation is being made available at brown.oyez.org. It will be part of a website, painstakingly put together by former Northwestern University professor Jerry Goldman, that allows people to hear oral arguments in decades worth of Supreme Court cases and follow along with written transcriptions.

The Rev. Frederick Haynes III (at podium) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson (seated, right) at a news conference for Rainbow PUSH on July 18, 2023. (WTTW News)

The Rev. Frederick Haynes III announced last week he would step down as president and CEO after just months on the job. It has raised questions about the future of the historic civil rights organization.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump appears on “Chicago Tonight” in an interview that aired Feb. 20, 2024. (WTTW News)

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is responsible for making household names out of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others.

Children and instructors at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning. (Erica Gunderson / WTTW News)

Every year, the Carole Robertson Center for Learning holds ceremonies and social justice activities in remembrance of Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carol McNair — the four little girls killed in a 1963 white supremacist attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, second from right, joins Martin Luther King III, the son of Martin Luther King Jr., third from left, his wife Arndrea Waters King and their daughter Yolanda King as they march to honor the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)

A host of Black civil rights leaders and a multiracial, interfaith coalition of allies rallied attendees on the same spot where as many as 250,000 gathered in 1963 for what is still considered one of the greatest and most consequential racial justice and equality demonstrations in U.S. history.

A memorial sign at Graball Landing, the spot where Emmett Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River just outside of Glendora, Miss., is photographed Monday, July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

When President Joe Biden signs a proclamation on Tuesday establishing a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, it will mark the fulfillment of a promise Till’s relatives made after his death 68 years ago.

 An undated portrait of Emmett Louis Till, a Black 14-year-old Chicago boy, whose weighted down body was found in the Tallahatchie River near the Delta community of Money, Mississippi, August 31, 1955. (AP Photo, File)

Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. 

“Encendidas: Women of the Young Lords” is on display at The Honeycomb Network, 2659 W. Division St., on Paseo Boricua through July 29.

Throughout much of Chicago’s history, immigrant communities have made their voices heard socially and politically through the formation of street gangs. During the 1960s in Lincoln Park, a Puerto Rican gang called the Young Lords came together after being pushed out of the barrio due to urban renewal projects.

The Rev. Frederick Haynes III appears on the July 18, 2023, episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The new president and CEO of Rainbow PUSH Coalition says he’s learned so much from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. that he’s basically a graduate of University of Jesse Jackson Sr. The Rev. Frederick Haynes III is only sort of kidding.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to attendees at the inaugural Sunday Dinner event, hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, Sunday, March 27, 2022, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo / Meg Kinnard, File)

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson confirmed the long-time civil rights leader would be retiring from the organization.

An aerial shot of the newly constructed Southside Recycling, 11600 S. Burley Ave. (Courtesy of Reserve Management Group)
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A judge’s ruling could force Chicago officials to issue the final permit sought by the parent company of General Iron to operate a metal shredding and recycling operation on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

This image released by Orion Pictures shows Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till, left, and Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Mobley in "Till." (Lynsey Weatherspoon/Orion Pictures via AP)

As “Till” debuts, the studio and production companies behind the film have partnered in a campaign to recognize Black women and Black mothers who are continuing Till-Mobley’s legacy and fight for justice, equality and equity. 

Protests against General Iron's relocation to the Southeast Side have been ongoing for months, including a march on the mayor's house in November 2020. (Annemarie Mannion / WTTW News)
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The board voted 6-0 to reject the recommendation from Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez that teachers Lauren Bianchi and Charles “Chuck” Stark be terminated for violating safety rules involving protests and a trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Instead, they each got a warning and were directed to undergo training.

An aerial shot of the newly constructed Southside Recycling, 11600 S. Burley Ave. (Courtesy of Reserve Management Group)
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Chicago could lose of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development if it does not resolve federal officials’ concerns over a metal shredding and recycling operation.

(WTTW News)

“Chicago Tonight” co-host and “Chicago Tonight: Black Voices” host Brandis Friedman moderated the latest edition of our “Chicago Tonight: Black Voices” community conversation series in a discussion focused on the state of voting rights.