Tag: african american history

Biographies to Read During Black History Month

February is Black History Month and to celebrate we’ve been sharing book excerpts and reading lists of our African American studies titles here on the blog. Black History cannot be understood without taking an individual look at the lived experiences and stories of Black people themselves. As such, we have curated a list of Biographies highlighting the Black experience. Ranging… Continue Reading Biographies to Read During Black History Month

The Multiracial Promise: Read an Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from The Multiracial Promise: Harold Washington’s Chicago and the Democratic Struggle in Reagan’s America by Gordon K. Mantler, available wherever books are sold. THEY CALLED IT the promised land. The warmth of other suns. The Black Metropolis. For at least four generations, African Americans flocked to Chicago to escape the living hell of the South’s Jim… Continue Reading The Multiracial Promise: Read an Excerpt

Black History Month Reading List: Biographies

To celebrate Black History Month we have been sharing reading lists of relevant Black history titles for you to enjoy all month long. The final installment of our reading lists focuses on biographies, telling the stories of Black lives and experiences. Make sure to also browse our full list of African American studies titles, learn about our new Black Women’s History Series, and keep… Continue Reading Black History Month Reading List: Biographies

Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Coca Cola Scenario”

Sunday, August 28, we celebrate the anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. In the following guest post, Daniel T. Fleming, author of Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day—available NOW wherever books and e-books are sold—writes about the history surrounding the copyright of the… Continue Reading Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Coca Cola Scenario”

New in Paperback for Spring 2022

The following titles are all newly available in paperback from your favorite bookseller. And, if purchasing direct from UNC Press, take 40% off during our 100th Anniversary Sale using promo code 01DAH40 at checkout, and ground shipping is free on U.S. orders that are $75+ (also good on any print book, as well as preorders; a few restrictions apply). Stone… Continue Reading New in Paperback for Spring 2022

Adrian Miller Wins Second Beard Foundation Award for “Black Smoke”

Congratulations are in order for Adrian Miller, aka Soul Food Scholar, for winning the 2022 James Beard Foundation Media Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship for Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue Miller previously won a Beard Award in 2014 for Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time. About… Continue Reading Adrian Miller Wins Second Beard Foundation Award for “Black Smoke”

Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development

The following is an excerpt from Cedric J. Robinson’s Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand Black people’s history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European… Continue Reading Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development

2022 African American Intellectual History Society Annual Meeting

We hope you’ll visit our virtual booth for the 2022 African American Intellectual History Society annual meeting! There you can browse our new & recent titles on display, learn more about our Justice, Power, and Politics series, and connect with editors Andrew Winters, Brandon Proia, and Debbie Gershenowitz. Our Justice, Power, and Politics series publishes new works that explore questions… Continue Reading 2022 African American Intellectual History Society Annual Meeting

Happy Pub Day to Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue

We are thrilled that today marks the official on sale date for UNC Press’s third book authored by James Beard Award winner Adrian Miller, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Black Smoke is the fourth book published in the Ferris & Ferris Imprint for high-profile, general-interest books about the American South. You can preview Black Smoke… Continue Reading Happy Pub Day to Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue

African American Presidential Cooks in Antebellum America

In light of Black History Month’s annual coinciding with Presidents Day, the following excerpt relevant to that reality is taken from The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas by Adrian Miller. “You know, the White House is really modeled after a plantation big house.” Chef… Continue Reading African American Presidential Cooks in Antebellum America

To Renew American Democracy, Look to Black Freedom Fighters like Lawrence Reddick

Guest post by David A. Varel, author of The Scholar and the Struggle: Lawrence Reddick’s Crusade for Black History and Black Power The Trump era has made painfully clear how much the United States needs to revitalize its democracy. There is no better guide to doing so than African Americans, who have labored ceaselessly to make American founding ideals of… Continue Reading To Renew American Democracy, Look to Black Freedom Fighters like Lawrence Reddick

Kate Dossett: Women Upstage

Today we welcome a guest post by Kate Dossett, author of Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal, out now from UNC Press. Between 1935 and 1939, the United States government paid out-of-work artists to write, act, and stage theatre as part of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a New Deal job relief program. In segregated “Negro Units” set up… Continue Reading Kate Dossett: Women Upstage

Jill D. Snider: A Macro-Micro Approach to Biography

Today we welcome a guest post from Jill D. Snider, author of Lucean Arthur Headen: The Making of a Black Inventor and Entrepreneur, out now from UNC Press. Born in Carthage, North Carolina, Lucean Arthur Headen (1879–1957) grew up amid former slave artisans. Inspired by his grandfather, a wheelwright, and great-uncle, a toolmaker, he dreamed as a child of becoming… Continue Reading Jill D. Snider: A Macro-Micro Approach to Biography

Book Giveaway: Enter to win a selection of new UNC Press books in African-American History!

UNC Press is raffling off a selection of our newest books in African American History. To enter, simply follow us on Twitter (@uncpressblog), re-Tweet this contest, or send us your email address. The winner will be selected randomly from all entries received.  Winner will be selected at the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting in Sacramento — April 14, 2018,… Continue Reading Book Giveaway: Enter to win a selection of new UNC Press books in African-American History!

#CharlottesvilleCurriculum, #CharlottesvilleSyllabus: UNC Press edition

Over the past few days, UNC Press (like many of our sister presses) has received an influx of requests from readers for books that provide context around the tragic events in Charlottesville. UNC Press has a longstanding commitment to publish books that examine histories of racial violence. Many of our authors over the years have given especially deep consideration to way the Civil War era is remembered and commemorated in the South and the nation as a whole—a question once more at the center of public debate and struggle. Continue Reading #CharlottesvilleCurriculum, #CharlottesvilleSyllabus: UNC Press edition

Congratulations to Tiya Miles, 2011 MacArthur Fellow

We’re thrilled to offer our heartiest congratulations to historian Tiya Miles for being awarded a 2011 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (aka the “Genius Grant”). Miles is the author of “The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story”. From the announcement: “A scholar of range and promise, and increasingly an authoritative voice in reframing and reinterpreting the history of our diverse nation, Miles is adding texture and depth to the mosaic that was our shared past and that is our heritage.” Continue Reading Congratulations to Tiya Miles, 2011 MacArthur Fellow

Jill Ogline Titus: Back-to-School Reflections

Jill Ogline Titus reflects on how Prince Edward Co., VA, responded to Brown vs. BoE by closing all public schools for 5 years to avoid integrating them. Continue Reading Jill Ogline Titus: Back-to-School Reflections

Rebecca de Schweinitz: More Than Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

Rebecca de Schweinitz looks at the many people who share Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision as we approach the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington. Continue Reading Rebecca de Schweinitz: More Than Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

“Why they sang about John Brown”–R. Blakeslee Gilpin for the Boston Globe

Yesterday’s Boston Globe features an article by R. Blakeslee Gilpin, author of the forthcoming John Brown Still Lives!: America’s Long Reckoning with Violence, Equality, and Change.  Gilpin explains how what we now know as the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” originated as “John Brown’s Body” among soldiers in Boston.  John Brown, the subject of Gilpin’s book, was a radical abolitionist–he… Continue Reading “Why they sang about John Brown”–R. Blakeslee Gilpin for the Boston Globe