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Civil Rights movement

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)....

Kareem Abdul Jabbar on Bill Russell

John Fea   |  August 2, 2022

Here is Kareem at his Substack page: I always knew I wanted to be active in civil rights, but I didn’t always know how I would do that. I had attended some anti-war and civil rights protests rallies while at...

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 Canadian convoy was not the first protest group to tie-up traffic

John Fea   |  March 7, 2022

As Rutgers University historian David Greenberg reminds us, this practice has a long history. Here is a taste of his Politico piece: “The History of Trying Up Traffic for Civil Rights”: The Ottawa truckers’ protests, which shut down Canada’s capital...

Meme of the day

John Fea   |  December 28, 2021

Learn more about Ruby Bridges here....

Episode 19: “The Black Church and Gay Marriage”

John Fea   |  September 8, 2021

The Christian Right was not the only opponent of same-sex marriage in early 2004. Episode 19: “The Black Church and Gay Marriage” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser:...

Rip Patton, freedom rider, RIP

John Fea   |  August 27, 2021

Today I learned from my friend and colleague Todd Allen that yet another veteran of the civil rights movement has passed away. Here is the Associated Press: Ernest “Rip” Patton, a member of the Nashville Freedom Riders and civil rights...

Episode 85: Reckoning with Confederate Monuments

John Fea   |  June 27, 2021

Historian Karen L. Cox argues that “when it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground.” In this episode, we talk with Cox about the history of Confederate monuments and how the recent racial unrest in the United States...

A Third Reconstruction?

John Fea   |  May 18, 2021

Matt Ford gives us a lot to think about in this piece at The New Republic. titled “Our 250-Year Fight for Multiracial Democracy.” A taste: Some scholars and activists, by the same token, break down American history into presidencies or...

The John R. Lewis Memorial 10 Highway

John Fea   |  May 8, 2021

Glad to see this. Here is WSFA 12 News: The Alabama legislature passed a bill Thursday to name a portion of U.S. Highway 80, from Selma to Montgomery, after the late civil rights icon and congressman, John R. Lewis. According to...

Fannie Lou Hamer webinar for teachers

John Fea   |  April 8, 2021

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

Annie Thorn   |  March 29, 2021

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,...

The longest filibusters in U.S. history were launched to stop the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964

John Fea   |  March 28, 2021

Here is Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post: At his first White House news conference Thursday, President Biden said he agreed with former president Barack Obama that the filibuster is “a relic of the Jim Crow era.” This follows a Tuesday statement...

Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King

John Fea   |  January 18, 2021

James Taylor:...

Why white evangelicals criticize the Black church

John Fea   |  December 22, 2020

In the 1980s, when I was a student at a small Christian college, some of my professors warned us about the “liberal theology” of the civil rights movement. What Martin Luther King Jr. did was notable, they said, but he...

Episode 76: Howard Thurman: Theologian, Mystic, Activist

John Fea   |  November 22, 2020

Howard Thurman was a mid-20th century theologian, writer, activist, and mystic who had a profound influence on the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Thurman’s writings–especially his 1949 work Jesus and the Disinherited–provided an intellectual and spiritual guide to those trying to...

“Negro troublemakers have listened to and followed Communists too long”

John Fea   |  September 8, 2020

Last night I stumbled across this letter to the editor in The Shreveport (LA) Journal (1966): Mon, May 30, 1966 – 4 · The Shreveport Journal (Shreveport, Louisiana) · Newspapers.com I am assuming Mr. Joe Vance of Forth Worth, Texas...

Barack Obama’s 2020 DNC convention address, democratic virtues, and the failure of Trumpism

John Fea   |  August 20, 2020

Watch Barack Obama speak to the nation on Wednesday night from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bps3m4eFTuE&w=560&h=315] Obama’s choice of venues speaks volumes. At a time when many on the Left are disparaging the American Revolution...

What Donald Trump said about John Lewis

John Fea   |  August 4, 2020

Watch Trump’s interview with journalist Jonathan Swan on Axios on HBO: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaTZkqsaxY&w=560&h=315] The section on the late civil rights activist John Lewis begins at the 35:23 mark, right after Trump says he has done more for the African American...

Bebe and Marvin Winans: “Good Trouble”

John Fea   |  August 1, 2020

At John Lewis’s funeral service: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjSIvRprSUY&w=560&h=315]   Born in Troy, Alabama; to Eddie and Willie Mae Share-croppers workin’; in the heat of the day He knew there was much more, so he asked the Lord to show All he...

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