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African American history

Found: A new Phillis Wheatley poem

John Fea   |  January 20, 2023

Here is a press release from the State University of New York at Albany: A University at Albany professor has discovered the earliest known full-length elegy by famed poet Phillis Wheatley (Peters), widely regarded as the first Black person, enslaved...

The Author’s Corner with Leslie M. Alexander

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 16, 2023

Leslie M. Alexander is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of History at Rutgers University. This interview is based on her new book, Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States (University...

The Author’s Corner with Jacqueline Jones

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 13, 2023

Jacqueline Jones is Ellen C. Temple Professor of Women’s History Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin. This interview is based on her new book, No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the...

Goodbye Roger Taney

John Fea   |  December 16, 2022

Earlier this week my U.S. history survey students answered a final exam essay question on the short-term causes of the American Civil War. I haven’t graded their essays yet, but if their blue books do not contain something about Roger...

The Author’s Corner with Leah Mickens

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 15, 2022

Leah Mickens is August Wilson Project Archivist at the University of Pittsburgh. This interview is based on her new book, In the Shadow of Ebenezer: A Black Catholic Parish in the Age of Civil Rights and Vatican II (NYU Press,...

The Author’s Corner with Elliott Drago

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 17, 2022

Elliott Drago is Editorial Officer of the Jack Miller Center. This interview is based on his new book, Street Diplomacy: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom in Philadelphia, 1820-1850 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Street...

Eric Foner on C. Vann Woodward

John Fea   |  October 18, 2022

Over at London Review of Books, Columbia University Eric Foner reviews James Cobb’s new biography of C. Vann Woodward. It is a fascinating review. Here is a taste: As he approached retirement, Woodward entered what one former student called his...

The Author’s Corner with Trent Brown

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 4, 2022

Trent Brown is Professor of American Studies at Missouri University of Science and Technology. This interview is based on his new book, Roadhouse Justice: Hattie Lee Barnes and the Killing of a White Man in 1950s Mississippi  (LSU Press, 2022)....

Advanced Placement African American Studies: a progress report

John Fea   |  October 3, 2022

Back in August we brought your attention to Advanced Placement African American Studies. Sixty high schools around the country are piloting this new course during the 2022-2023 academic year. Over at CNN, Brandon Tensley reports on how things are going...

A Philadelphia man walks 400 miles to honor Harriet Tubman

John Fea   |  September 14, 2022

Over at NBC News, Claretta Bellamy tells the story of Kenneth Johnston. Here is a taste: Kenneth Johnston of West Philadelphia always had a deep appreciation for Harriet Tubman and her work of freeing enslaved Black people. But instead of...

The FBI on the trail of Aretha Franklin

John Fea   |  September 14, 2022

Nina Corcoran and Jazz Monroe explain at Pitchfork: The FBI has declassified its file on the late Aretha Franklin. The document, which spans 270 pages and includes reports from more than a dozen states, shows that the FBI extensively tracked Franklin’s civil...

The labor rights radical behind the 1963 March on Washington

John Fea   |  August 31, 2022

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place 59 years ago this week (August 28, 1963). Shawn Gude ofJacobin interviews historian William P. Jones about A. Philip Randolph, the Black socialist who spoke at the 1963 event and...

The Author’s Corner with Jesse Olsavsky

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 29, 2022

Jesse Olsavsky is Assistant Professor of History at Duke Kunshan University. This interview is based on his new book, The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835–1861 (LSU Press, 2022). JF: What led you to...

Advanced Placement African American Studies is here!

John Fea   |  August 23, 2022

This academic year students at 60 high schools around the country are taking AP African American Studies. Here is Olivia Waxman at Time: The course will be the College Board’s 40th Advanced Placement course, and the first new AP course...

The Author’s Corner with Jeroen Dewulf

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 19, 2022

Jeroen Dewulf is Queen Beatrix Professor in the Department of German & Dutch Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. This interview is based on his new book, Afro-Atlantic Catholics: America’s First Black Christians (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022)....

The Author’s Corner with Davis Houck

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 27, 2022

Davis Houck is Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies at Florida State University. This interview is based on his new book, Black Bodies in the River: Searching for Freedom Summer (University Press of Mississippi, 2022). JF: What led you...

The Author’s Corner with Daniel J. Broyld

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 5, 2022

Daniel J. Broyld is Associate Professor of African American History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. This interview is based on his new book, Borderland Blacks: Two Cities in the Niagara Region during the Final Decades of Slavery (LSU Press,...

“Slavery” or “involuntary relocation?”

John Fea   |  July 1, 2022

Here is Brian Lopez at The Texas Tribune: A group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of Education that slavery should be taught as “involuntary relocation” during second grade social studies instruction, but board members have...

The Author’s Corner with Paul Escott

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 8, 2022

Paul Escott is Reynolds Professor of History Emeritus at Wake Forest University. This interview is based on his new book, Black Suffrage: Lincoln’s Last Goal (University of Virginia Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Black Suffrage? PE: My two...

The International African American Museum will open in Charleston

John Fea   |  June 6, 2022

It was one of the busiest slave trading posts in early America. Here is CNN: The International African American Museum will open the weekend of January 21, 2023, the museum announced Wednesday. The 150,000-square-foot facility will be at the former site...

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Episode 51: “The Politics of Tinky Winky”

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

He was Florida’s professor of the year in 2006. Today his courses would be illegal.

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

Zakaria: The nation’s policy on classified documents and “secrecy” is “out-of-control”

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Teaching John Henry Newman’s “What is a University”

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