What Andy Griffith and The Andy Griffith Show did for our family—and many others like ours—what brought us all together was how he showed that North Carolina could be a place to be proud of, and not a place always belittled on TV. Continue Reading Notes from Mayberry, North Carolina
Southern Cultures has just released the 2011 Music Issue–in print, online, and in eBook formats–including an enhanced Kindle edition that includes all the tracks from this year’s free CD. The Avett Brothers headline our CD, which also features Doc and Merle Watson and a blend of many more new and classic Southern artists. Continue Reading Announcing the Southern Cultures Music Issue and enhanced ebook
Today, over at the First Peoples blog, UNC Press author Celia Naylor writes about the history and current events surrounding the Cherokee freedmen controversy. In particular, she draws our attention to the historical import of the Dawes Commission, especially as regards sovereignty, race, and citizenship. Continue Reading The Lost History of the Cherokee Freedmen Controversy
Independent bookseller Steve Brumfield of Manteo Booksellers asks for assistance after Hurricane Irene flooded the store. Please contact NC Sen. Kay Hagan. Continue Reading Manteo Booksellers, flooded during Irene, needs your help
Today, we leave you with a lovely essay by Georgann Eubanks, author of Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains and Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont. Here, she writes about the life and work of Reynolds Price–what he meant and continues to mean to her, to all of us readers, to North Carolina, and the world of… Continue Reading Remembering Reynolds
North Carolina has a new publishing house! It’s true, and we’re happy to announce it here. We’ve just heard that UNC Wilmington, Ecotone, the Creative Writing Program’s literary magazine, and the Publishing Laboratory at the University, have joined forces to help create and foster Lookout Books, under the direction of Emily Smith and Ben George. This new house is an… Continue Reading Look Out for Lookout Press, a new literary publisher in our state
This weekend is Waterfowl Weekend at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center at Harkers Island, North Carolina. Our authors, Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor will surely be there. Their book is The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country. What it is, it seems to me, is a love letter to the southern part of the NC coast—its… Continue Reading Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor at Harkers Island’s Waterfowl Weekend
Hello all and happy weekend! Before we head off into the literal and very beautiful fall sunset today, we want to remind you about Pauli Murray’s 100th birthday celebration on Sunday. We do hope you’ll attend, or click around the interwebs in her honor if you can’t be there in person. This Sunday, from 3 to 5, there will be… Continue Reading Celebrate Pauli Murray this Sunday in Durham
Sing along with me . . . there’s a party going on right here . . . Read on to discover the missing link between dollbaby carriages, Truman Capote, Jay Leno, fruitcake, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, dark rum, and Harper Lee. The website for the Fruitcake Festival in Monroeville, Alabama proclaims, “It’s Fruitcake Weather!” and it is, indeed. It’s the time… Continue Reading Celebrate fruitcake! Come on!
You’ve probably already heard: last Friday President Obama called President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala to apologize for a public health outrage committed 64 years ago. In 1946, American doctors, with the support of the Public Health Service, conducted experiments on prisoners, the insane, soldiers, and prostitutes, who were initially used to infect the prisoners. Though the institutions and governments involved… Continue Reading Susan Reverby Uncovers History of U.S. Medical Testing on Guatemalans
The following are rulings on and objections to books in the last year. Read on to see which books these are. 1. “The teacher must appropriately prepare students for parts of the book that may be considered provocative; limit the book to juniors and seniors; should a parent object to the book, board policy is currently in place that allows… Continue Reading Banning Books is Alive and Well in America
On July 26, a mural named SERVICE was dedicated at UNC’s School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. The mural depicts a gathering of African-American leaders at the counter of a diner, painted by Colin Quashie as a creative interpretation of the historical 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in. We are featuring each of the eight panels in a series, highlighting… Continue Reading The Story of Service, Part 7: Somerset Place Plantation
On July 26, a mural named SERVICE was dedicated at UNC’s School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. The mural depicts a gathering of African-American leaders at the counter of a diner, painted by Colin Quashie as a creative interpretation of the historical 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in. We are featuring each of the eight panels in a series, highlighting… Continue Reading The Story of Service, Part 6: The US Colored Regiment
We write today in anticipation of Gerda Lerner’s 90th birthday, coming up Friday, April 30. Her students and colleagues and publishers who know her as the founder of her field all shout “Happy birthday!” But whether you know her by name or not, she has certainly shaped the world of ideas around you. And for that, as well as for… Continue Reading Gerda Lerner’s 90th
From Mississippi to Manhattan, I learned that African American postal workers’ decades-long challenge to the post office and postal union status quo–that for years included segregation and discrimination–was a key factor in transforming the post office. Continue Reading A Retired Postal Worker’s Tax Day Recollections
Today we’d like to send you over to the website for ABC 11 Eyewitness News because today, John Clark, who is an anchor and reporter over there, writes about Leonard Rogoff’s book, Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina. In his book, Rogoff chronicles Jewish life in the Tar Heel State from colonial times to the present as he explores… Continue Reading Jewish Life in NC–Leonard Rogoff’s book is blogged at ABC 11’s website!
A Virginian, whose father was friends with Thomas Jefferson An accomplished orator, known for his sweet voice and famously aquiline nose Fathered fifteen children Named his estate on the James River “Sherwood Forest” after the setting of the Robin Hood tales, because he saw himself as a political renegade and outlaw Voted for Virginia’s secession and was a representative-elect to… Continue Reading His Accidency
Today is the 42nd anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, certainly not a happy memory—in fact , the opposite of that—but one well worth stopping to ponder. On this day in 1968, during the Vietnam War, the massacre was carried out by United States troops. Under the direction of Lt. William L. Calley Jr., a unit of the army tortured,… Continue Reading Remembering My Lai in the year of Calley’s apology
We are happy as clams—and horses and chickens and goats and all creatures, really—to announce that today, at the American Society for Environmental History’s annual meeting in Portland, our author Carolyn Merchant, receives the Distinguished Scholar Award for her significant contribution to environmental history scholarship. Professor Merchant has focused, throughout her career, on human interactions with the natural environment—how we… Continue Reading Congrats to Carolyn Merchant, winner of ASEH’s Distinguished Scholar Award
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