Skip to content
Navigating a New Political Landscape: View real-time updates about the impact of and Northeastern’s response to recent political changes.
Apply
Stories

Mass. scholars reflect on how Jan. 6 insurrection has affected democracy, racial justice

People in this story

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WBUR, January 2022

The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol one year ago has contributed to lasting questions about the state of our democracy, the weight of disinformation in American society and progress on issues surrounding race. On WBUR’s All Things Considered, we asked three Massachusetts scholars—Ted Landsmark, of Northeastern University; Amel Ahmed, of UMass Amherst; and Ibram X. Kendi, of Boston University—to discuss the ramifications of the Capitol attack and where we are a year later.

Ted Landsmark

Landsmark is a distinguished professor and director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern. He’s a researcher with the university’s Institute on Race and Justice and a longtime civil rights activist. He’s also widely known as the Black man photographed as he came under attack by a white teen with an American flag on Boston’s City Hall Plaza in 1976. Landsmark was also punched in the face and injured in the incident, which took place during a protest against court-ordered busing and school desegregation in Boston.

Continue reading at WBUR.

More Stories

Millions of Résumés Never Make It Past the Bots. One Man Is Trying to Find Out Why.

06.23.2025

Karen Read Acquittal Exposes Flaws in Police Practices, Supporters and Critics Say

06.19.2025
Residential apartments and homes sit across Kilani Avenue from a security camera at the George F. Wright Wahiawā District Park swimming pool Friday, June 20, 2025, in Wahiawā. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)

Honolulu Wants To Put More Cameras In Public Parks To Reduce Crime

06.23.25
In the News