African American history

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  4/17/19
  

  Politics, Public History, and Memory: An Interview with Niya Bates

  by J.T. Roane

  As the Director of African American History at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, she is responsible for engaging local and national audiences in conversations about slavery and its legacies.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/15/19
  

  The first African American major league baseball player isn’t who you think

  As the country celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, let’s consider the career of Fleet Walker.

• 
• 4/14/19
  

  Ilhan Omar is a Reconstruction Reformer

  by William Horne

  The failure to hold the race-baiting press, politicians, and vigilantes responsible during Reconstruction undermined any semblance of equality for more than 100 years. We can't make the same mistake. 

• 
• 4/14/19
  

  Trump’s War on Civil Rights and Beyond: A Conversation with Acclaimed Political Analyst and Civil Rights Historian Juan Williams

  by Robin Lindley

  "We need to understand how much blood, sweat, and tears it took to create the thriving Black America of today and protect us from those who, like President Trump, couldn’t care less."

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  4/8/19
  

  From ‘40 acres and a mule’ to LBJ to the 2020 election, a brief history of slavery reparation promises

  by John Torpey

  Does the United States owe descendants of slaves reparations?

• 
• SOURCE: Times Literary Supplement
  3/19/19
  

  The self-made man

  by Manisha Sinha

  Manisha Sinha on the long and eventful life of Frederick Douglass.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  3/31/19
  

  The Real Roots of ‘Black Capitalism’

  by Mehrsa Baradaran

  Nixon’s solution for racial ghettos was tax breaks and incentives, not economic justice.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  4/1/19
  

  Waking Up to History

  by Margaret Renkl

  At new museums, the past is finally becoming more than the story of men and wars.

• 
• SOURCE: Pacific Standard
  4/1/19
  

  Ken Woodley's new book recounts a local history of reparations in Virginia

  Ken Woodley recounts the shameful history of resistance to civil rights in Prince Edward County, Virginia—and how, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the county finally began to make amends.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  3/30/19
  

  50 Years of Affirmative Action: What Went Right, and What It Got Wrong

  A look back through the decades shows what went right in the early years of affirmative action in college admissions, but also what can go wrong even with the best of intentions.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  3/27/19
  

  Mammy Jars Mock Black People. Why Are They Still Collected?

  Racist objects, created as propaganda tools during the Jim Crow era, reflect ugly stereotypes about black people. Yet some people see nostalgia, not dehumanization, in the memorabilia.

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/1/19
  

  Thirteen professors withdraw from Yale's Ethnicity, Race and Migration program in protest

  Their move is casting doubt on a big faculty-diversity initiative.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  3/26/19
  

  Senator Doug Jones Writes Book on the Birmingham Church Bombing That Changed the Course of Civil Rights

  With this book, Jones invites us — indeed, challenges us — to look anew at the central paradox of the case.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/26/19
  

  The danger of denying black Americans political rights

  by Kellie Carter Jackson

  Without access to political rights, violence becomes a crucial tool in the fight for freedom.

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  3/25/19
  

  Justin Rose's New Book explores how Martin Luther King Jr. transformed the Christian notion of service into a politically salient concept

  Dr. Rose’s book aims to fill an important gap in the literature on Martin Luther King Jr. by exploring King’s notions of political service.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian.com
  3/25/19
  

  Smithsonian’s “Double Exposure” photo book series depicts black Americans championing their lives through photography

  For Turn-of-the-Century African-Americans, the Camera Was a Tool for Empowerment

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian.com
  3/26/19
  

  A Previously Unknown Portrait of a Young Harriet Tubman Goes on View at NMAAHC

  “I was stunned,” says director Lonnie Bunch; historic Emily Howland photo album contains dozens of other abolitionists and leaders who took an active role.

• 
• 3/24/19
  

  Vernon Johns: An Often Forgotten Controversial Civil Rights Activist

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  Johns was a critical figure in the push for racial equality, chiefly because he was not merely a pusher, but also a shover.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  3/18/19
  

  The History of Reparations

  by Katherine Franke

  From the Civil War to today. 

• 
• SOURCE: Diverse Education
  3/1219
  

  Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham: Shaping a Legacy Through History

  “History, for me, is a way to talk not just about the past, but to use the past for inspiration, for information, for a lot of different things,” says Higginbotham.