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, […]
African American history
The Author’s Corner with Elliott Drago
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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!
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
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
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
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?”
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
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
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 […]
The Author’s Corner with Melissa Ford
Melissa Ford is Assistant Professor of History at Slippery Rock University. This interview is based on her new book, A Brick and a Bible: Black Women’s Radical Activism in the Midwest during the Great Depression (Southern Illinois University Press, 2022). […]
Why does an image of the lynching of a Black man in Texas appear in a family photo album with vacation and wedding photos?
I will let historian Jeffrey Littlejohn explain. Here is a taste of his piece at The Conversation: As a historian and director of the Lynching in Texas project, which has documented more than 600 racial terror lynchings, I receive regular emails from journalists, scholars […]
The Buffalo shooting in historical context
Historian Chad Williams places the shooting in the larger context of Buffalo history. Here is a taste of his piece at The Washington Post: Historical context is necessary to fully grasp the significance of the Buffalo shooting. White-supremacist terrorism targeting […]
Who was Jim Limber and what was his connection to the Confederate Lost Cause?
Here is Sydney Trent at The Washington Post: The little Black boy in the Civil War-era photograph stands atop a gilded chair, grasping its tall back with his small fist. His clothing is quotidian — striped pants and a matching […]