Robert S. Levine is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Maryland. This interview is based on his new book, The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (W. W. Norton & Company, 2021). JF: […]
African American history
National Trust for Historic Preservation will award $3 million to landmarks of Black history
The money will go to Houston’s Freedmen’s Town, Martha Vineyard’s African American Heritage Trail, Historic Athens (Georgia), Denver’s Black American West Museum and Heritage Center, Cherokee State Resort Historical Park (KY), Fort Monroe (VA), Asbury United Methodist Church (DC), Roberts […]
A North Carolina anti-critical race theory bill that makes some sense
North Carolina House Bill 324 forbids K-12 teachers from teaching: One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex. An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, […]
Juneteenth is the answer to Frederick Douglass’s question: “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”
Here is historian Peniel Joseph at CNN: Juneteenth commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the end of slavery by a Union major general in Texas. Long celebrated in Black communities from coast to coast, it has been a Texas state holiday […]
Juneteenth roundup
Here’s what you need to know about Juneteenth: Some basics It is now a federal holiday. NPR staff members read the Emancipation Proclamation: A Juneteenth playlist Kate Masur: Juneteenth is just the start Can the Juneteenth holiday be Black and […]
The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act passes House, Senate.
When Biden signs the bill June 19th, the day celebrating the emancipation of enslaved Americans, will become a federal holiday. On Tuesday, the Senate endorsed the bill unanimously. Yesterday, the House passed the bill by a vote of 415-14. Here […]
Veteran speaks about the Black history behind Memorial Day. His mic gets cut.
It was no accident. Here is Andrea Salcedo of The Washington Post: Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter was midway through his speech at a Memorial Day ceremony in an Ohio cemetery when he started discussing the role that freed […]
How did local newspapers cover the Tulsa race massacre?
Get up to speed on the Tulsa Race Massacre here. The image at the top of this post is the front page of the Tulsa World on June 1, 1921: There was another edition from that day. The above addition […]
Some resources on the Tulsa Race Massacre
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Tulsa Race Massacre. If you are unfamiliar with this tragic event in American history, start here. If you want to go deeper, here are some pieces from the last few […]
People of hope
White Christians must learn about hope from the African-American experience. Today, on the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, University of Pennsylvania historian Anthea Butler reflects on hope. Here is a taste of her piece at Faith & […]
A 107-year-old survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre testified before Congress
Here is NPR’s “All Things Considered”: The day that a white mob came to Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Okla., Viola Fletcher was just 7 years old. During emotional testimony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Fletcher, who is now 107, recalled […]
Fannie Lou Hamer webinar for teachers
Current‘s Managing Editor Jay Green, will join Chris Burkett and Sarah Beth Kitch on Saturday, April 10, 2021 for a webinar on civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The webinar readings include: Testimony Before Congress, Fannie Lou Hamer, 1964 Voting […]
The Author’s Corner with Allison Schottenstein
Allison Schottenstein is Annual Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash College. This interview is based on her new book, Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era (University of North Texas Press, […]
Historian Leon Litwack at 91
Leon Litwack is the author of several books on the history of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. The University of California-Berkeley professor is known by his students […]
Esau McCaulley’s Christian view of social justice
I am looking forward to reading Wheaton College professor Esau McCaulley‘s book Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation As An Exercise in Hope. He talks about it here: And here: Over at The New York Times, David Brooks writes […]
Video of the Day
March 7, 2015:
The Author’s Corner with Sebastian Page
Sebastian Page is a historian of the 19th century United States and the Atlantic world. This interview is based on his new book, Black Resettlement and the American Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2021). For those who wish to purchase […]
The Author’s Corner with Van Gosse
Van Gosse is Professor of History and Chair of Africana Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. This interview is based on his new book, The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (The John […]
Are you watching “The Black Church” on PBS?
I haven’t had a chance to watch the new PBS series, “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song,” but I am reading some rave reviews. Henry Louis Gates‘s series is streaming here. I am hoping to […]
Melvin Banks, RIP
Here is a taste of Daniel Silliman’s obituary of a major player in twentieth-century evangelicalism. I am guessing most white evangelicals have never heard of him: Melvin E. Banks, founder of the largest black Christian publishing house in the United […]