Ted Widmer, a consulting editor for this special issue of Globe Ideas, is the author of “Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days ...

Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., has hosted funerals for Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and welcomed American presidents.

It made history again this year: Thanks to a lawsuit, Metropolitan AME now controls the trademark to the Proud Boys, the far-right group that once vandalized the church’s property in Washington.

Are our lawmakers, all Republicans, willing to write off the concept of three branches of government included in our ...