Black lives matter.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Racial justice - Editorial

When the news broke about the grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner, we republished James Baldwin's "Letter to My Nephew" from our December 1962 issue online.

"The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you," Baldwin wrote. "Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority, but to their inhumanity and fear."

The Progressive has stood against racism, inhumanity, and the politics of fear for more than a century. This month, in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we put together a special issue on racial justice.

This issue features Black Voices and Latino Voices writers from our Progressive Media Project, which distributes opeds to newspapers across the country. With help from the Ford and Brico Foundations, media project writers reach millions of newspaper readers each week.

Fred McKissack, Jr., a star contributor and former editor of the Progressive Media Project, writes a heartbreaking personal story about growing up black in St. Louis, and his love/hate relationship with his hometown, on page 18.

Clarence Lusane, another op-ed writing star, as well as author, journalist, and political science professor at American University, gives us his analysis on page 32 of the Republicans' explicitly racist electoral strategy and how progressives can respond.

The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, who is leading that response, speaks about the Moral Mondays movement on page 29.

The great novelist and essayist Edwidge Danticat contributes a poignant reflection on page 15 on talking to...