activism

Margaret Burnham is the director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project and university distinguished professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

How do today’s Black Lives Matter protests compare to the civil rights movement of the 1960s?

Margaret Burnham, university distinguished professor of law, and director of Northeastern’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, offers a lifetime of perspective on how to confront systemic racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer.

by Ian Thomsen June 4, 2020

Charlotte Nelson, seen here near City Hall, began volunteering with the NAACP in the 1960s. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

‘I chose what I did because I had to serve’

Charlotte Mathews-Nelson describes her decades of activism with an air of inevitability. She grew up volunteering with the NAACP. She helped usher in equitable practices in the development of Roxbury. She reactivated the college chapter of the NAACP here at Northeastern. What else was there to do?

by Molly Callahan August 1, 2018

A gender non-binary, queer, disabled person of color, Brown is self-described as “multiply-marginalized.” Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

The autistic, non-binary, queer, law student fighting for disability justice

Lydia X. Z. Brown is self-described as “multiply-marginalized,” something that's spurred the third-year law student, whose resumé of activism and pro bono disability justice work spans nearly 20 pages, to work tirelessly toward disability justice—until there’s no more work to be done.

by Molly Callahan April 19, 2018

In a Q&A at Blackman Auditorium on Friday, civil rights activist Shaun King described his four-pronged approach to

Civil rights activist Shaun King outlines strategy for ‘making change happen’

In a Q&A with associate professor Adam Omar Hosein, King extolled the virtues of grassroots activism. “Most of the change you want to see will come from the ground up,” he told a capacity crowd in Blackman Auditorium. “It will come from you.”

by Jason Kornwitz February 12, 2018

Many of the signs from last year's Women's March in Boston are now available to the public as a searchable digital archive, thanks primarily to the efforts of several Northeastern professors.

Digital archive preserves groundbreaking moment in civic activism

Protest signs from the 2017 Women’s March still exist. They’re available as a searchable digital archive, thanks primarily to the efforts of several Northeastern professors.

by Joan Lynch January 30, 2018

11/07/17 - BOSTON, MA. - Scenes during the Women Who Empower event held on the 17th Floor, East Village on Nov. 7, 2017. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Speakers at Women who Empower Summit encourage forging bold paths

The second annual Women who Empower Summit featured a group of speakers from diverse backgrounds and fields who shared a common thread—their paths to success were anything but straightforward. “Each of us has a narrative of our journey that gets reshaped as we go,” said Philomena Mantella, senior vice president at Northeastern. “If we strengthen ourselves and our connections, we strengthen Northeastern University.”

by Allie Nicodemo November 8, 2017

Northeastern University hosted Bryan Stevenson, one of the country's most visionary legal thinkers and social justice advocates at the John D. O'Bryant African American Institute on June 15, 2017. A MacArthur fellow and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson is a founding leader of the movement against mass incarceration in the U.S. He recently served on President Obama's task force on 21st-century policing. Photo by Casey Bayer for Northeastern University

Social justice advocate examines how to change ‘a broken system’

“There are some things we need to do to change the world, and there’s a great need for it. This country is in a challenging place, and a lot of people have become indifferent to the plight of this crisis,” said lawyer and social justice advocate Bryan Stevenson told a standing-room-only crowd last week during a lecture on campus. Those things—and there are four of them, Stevenson said—include going to the source, changing the narratives, staying hopeful, and getting uncomfortable.

by Molly Callahan June 20, 2017

Jeff Chang, left, and Sarah Jackson discuss the intersection of race, art, and politics in the event space on the 17th floor of East Village on Feb. 16, 2017. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

Cultural critic Jeff Chang talks race, activism

In a Q&A with Northeastern professor Sarah Jackson on the intersection of race, art, and politics in modern-day America, Chang extolled the virtues of social activism in the wake of the presidential election. “Social justice movements have never been at a higher state of alert than at this moment,” he said.

by Jason Kornwitz February 21, 2017

01/19/17 - BOSTON, MA. CEO and President of the NAACP Cornell William Brooks was the Keynote speaker of an event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in the Curry Student Center Ballroom on Jan. 19, 2017. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern

Northeastern, NAACP president consider ‘What would Dr. King do now?’

As part of Northeastern’s weeklong commemoration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the university hosted Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, and other leaders to discuss civil rights issues facing America today and in the future.

by Molly Callahan January 20, 2017

Students look ahead to Trump’s inauguration

It’s Inauguration Day. We caught up with students to ask them if they’ll be watching and what they hope to hear from the next president of the United States. “It’s a big moment for America,” one student said.

by Jason Kornwitz January 20, 2017