Here is Gregory Scheneider at The Washington Post: James Madison’s Montpelier estatedrew national attention last year when the board that manages the historic home announced plans to share authority equally with descendants of people who were once enslaved there. But […]
African American history
The African American Intellectual History Society announces the finalists for its 2022 Pauli Murray Book Prize
The finalists are: Tamika Nunley, At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. (University of North Carolina Press) Jarvis Givens, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching (Harvard University Press) Karen Cook Bell, Running From Bondage: […]
Pennsylvania governor Thomas Wolf invests $4 million in York African-American History & Lecture Center
Here is the press release: Governor Tom Wolf today visited the future site of the Crispus Attucks York African American History & Lecture Center which received a $4 million state investment through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) in downtown […]
Biden will nominate Katanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court
Amid all the Ukraine coverage, the Supreme Court has not received much coverage on cable news in recent days. But today Joe Biden nominated the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. Her name is Katanji Brown Jackson. Here is […]
A St. Louis anti-vaxxer was arrested, strapped down by four men, and vaccinated after trying to convince Blacks from the South not to take the vaccine
The article is from the St. Louis Dispatch, August 6, 1923. Thanks to historian Andrew Wehrman for bringing this to my attention. Here is his Twitter commentary:
“The moral arc of the universe not only bends toward justice, but takes an occasional twist toward irony as well”
The Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia will decide the fate of Richmond’s Robert E. Lee monument. Here is Michael Paul Williams at Richmond.com: The prophesy that John Mitchell Jr. issued about the Robert E. Lee monument continues […]
Bringing the Bible to the Jim Crow South
In 1900, Henry Nelson Payne, a missionary and president of Mary Holmes Seminary in West Point, Mississippi, a school for Black women, was frustrated that many Bible societies in the former Confederacy were not willing to distribute Bibles to African […]
Why is Black History Month celebrated in February?
Jonathan Franklin explains at NPR: Critics have long argued that Black history should be taught and celebrated year-round, not just during one month each year. It was Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black history,” who first set out in 1926 […]
Henry E. Hayne represented the promise of Reconstruction. Why don’t we know more about him?
Robert Greene II and Tyler D. Parry are trying to correct that. Here is a taste of their piece on Hayne at The Washington Post: In 1872, Hayne became South Carolina’s secretary of state. This elective position probably provided him […]
Meme of the day
Learn more about Ruby Bridges here.
What will happen to the Robert E. Lee statue that once stood in Charlottesville, Virginia?
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center will melt it down and turn it into a new piece of public art. Here is Eduardo Medina at The New York Times: The City Council of Charlottesville, Va., voted on Tuesday to […]
Black Americans have a long history of creating spaces against violent white resistance
Alicia Jackson teaches history at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Here is a taste of her Washington Post piece, “Black Americans have long envisioned and created spaces of sanctuary”: On a plot of land near Toomsboro, Ga., three dozen people […]
The Author’s Corner with Nik Ribianszky
Nik Ribianszky is Lecturer of American History at Queen’s University Belfast. This interview is based on her new book, Generations of Freedom: Gender, Movement, and Violence in Natchez, 1779-1865 (University of Georgia Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Generations […]
Albert Raboteau, RIP
Princeton University religion professor Albert Raboteau‘s book Slave Religion was the first book I ever read on the history of the religion and the African American experience. Here is Adelle Banks at Religion News Service: Albert J. Raboteau, an American […]
The Author’s Corner with Robert S. Levine
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: […]
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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1xOPt455pg A Juneteenth playlist Kate Masur: Juneteenth is just the start Can the Juneteenth holiday be Black […]
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 […]