Below are selected writings by and about Barbara.
To see a more complete list, please refer to her curriculum vitae.

2023

Commentary: Black studies’ impact reaches beyond higher education
Crain’s Chicago Business
Date: May 9, 2023

Ron DeSantis’s Attack on Black Studies Is Textbook Proto-Fascism
Truthout
Date: January 28, 2023

2022

Elections Matter, But What We Do Between Them Matters Even More
Truthout
Date: November 14, 2022

Black Feminism Insists That We Not Treat the Attack on “Roe” as Isolated Issue
Truthout
Date: May 18, 2022

On May Day, Let’s Link the Rising Labor Revolts to Community Struggles
Truthout
Date: May 1, 2022

On a Grim and Bloody International Women’s Day, Let’s Build Feminist Solidarity 
Truthout
Date: March 8, 2022

Remembering bell hooks, a Revolutionary Who Led With Love 
YES! Magazine
Date: January 18, 2022

2021

Bell hooks will forever be a foundational force in Black feminist thought
The Guardian
Date: December 18, 2021

Bob Moses Embodied Collective Struggle for Black Freedom and Human Liberation
Truthout
Date: July 28, 2021

Racism’s Roots and Branches
Dissent 
Date: July 1, 2021

Supreme Court Ruled Against Enslaved Children Even as US Celebrated Juneteenth
Truthout
Date: June 22, 2021

Mass Protests Led to Chauvin’s Conviction. Now They’re Being Criminalized
Truthout
Date: April 21, 2021

2020

Trumpism Can’t Be Voted Away. We Need Radical Social Transformation
Truthout
Date: November 18, 2020

With Biden in Power, Beware the Neoliberal Backlash
In These Times
Date: November 11, 2020

Pence Faked Care for George Floyd, But We Know the Truth of His Administration
Truthout
Date: October 9, 2020

Op-Ed: Bill Clinton Used John Lewis’s Funeral to Disparage the Black Freedom Struggle
Truthout
Date: July 31, 2020

John Lewis’s Fight for Justice Continues With Miracle Boyd: Those who criticize young activists today as too radical or impatient should remember the John Lewis of 1963.
The Nation
Date: July 21, 2020

Op-Ed: The White Left Needs to Embrace Black Leadership: The current uprisings are what class struggle in the 21st century looks like.
The Nation
Date: July 2, 2020

Op-Ed: Our Biden Problem: Movements face a challenge: how to oust Trump while still combating Biden’s neoliberalism.
In These Times
Date: June 16, 2020

Op-Ed: “Mrs. America” Television Series Sidelines Black Feminists
Truthout
Date: June 3, 2020

One Question by Nathan Schneider, Barbara Ransby, Astra Taylor
The Progressive
Date: June 1, 2020

Opinion: Ella Baker’s Legacy Runs Deep. Know Her Name.
Her fighting spirit lives on in today’s social movements.
The New York Times
Date: January 20, 2020

2019

Opinion: Black Women in Chicago, Getting Things Done: How the rest of the country can follow them by Salamishah Tillet
The New York Times
Date: May 18, 2019

Op-Ed: We Need to Defend Progressive Politicians From Right-Wing Attacks
The work that starts the day after elections is key
Truthout
Date: February 15, 2019

Op-Ed: Racist Anti-LGBTQ Violence Is Real. Smollett Doesn’t Change That
Too much focus on Jussie Smollett distracts from the fact that violence against LGBTQ people of color is rising
Truthout
Date: February 26, 2019

Not Here To Behave: What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Shirley Chisholm Have in Common
Like Shirley Chisholm and Ella Baker, when candidates like Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib enter the halls of power, they bring their people with them.
In These Times
Date: February 27, 2019

The Rising Black Left Movement Behind Chicago’s Historic Elections
No matter who becomes mayor on April 2, the landscape of Chicago politics has shifted radically.
The Nation
Date: April 1, 2019

Opinion: A Black Feminist’s Response to Attacks on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy
The New York Times
Date: June 2, 2019

2018

Ford Has Spoken Her Truth. Now The Senate Must Stand Against Sexual Violence
Truthout

Forum Response: MLK Now
Boston Review

2017

Black Lives Matter is Democracy in Action
The New York Times

With Pardon of Arapaio, Trump Gives a Green Light to Racist Cops and Vigilantes
In These Times

MLK Called for a ‘Radical Revolution of Values.’ The Movement for Black Lives Delivers One
In These Times

2016

A reporter on the front lines of police killings of African Americans
The Washington Post

Forum: Black Study, Black Struggle
Boston Review

2015

The Class Politics of Black Lives Matter
Dissent

Students as Moral Teachers: A Survey of Student Activism and Institutional Responses
Association of American Colleges & Universities

Ella Baker’s Radical Democratic Vision
Jacobin Magazine

The (R)evolutionary Vision and Contagious Optimism of Grace Lee Bogs
In These Times (Obituary)

2013

Remembering the Overlooked Life of Eslanda Robeson, Wife of Civil Rights Legend Paul Robeson
Democracy Now!

A Political Obituary of Nelson Mandela
Colorlines

The 1963 March on Washington in Photos
Colorlines

Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson
Yale Press

2011

Quilting a Movement
In These Times

Remembering MLK: The Things We’ve Forgotten Would Guide Us
Colorlines

2010

The Rot of D’Souza’s Rant
In These Times

2005

The Activist Academic
Chicago Tribune

Barbara Ransby: Linking to other struggles for justice
from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, nodeathpenalty.org

2004

Coalition to Community
In These Times

2003

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision
UNC Press