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February 22, 2021

Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: New and Noteworthy

Save 40% on all UNC Press books with discount code 01DAH40. Visit the sale page to browse more recommended titles in African American History, or view our full list of books in African American Studies. Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop Southby Regina N. Bradley This vibrant book pulses with the beats of a new American South, probing the ways music,… Continue Reading Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: New and Noteworthy

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/Music/Politics/Southern Studies/UNC Press News
February 19, 2021

Root Cause Analysis

The following excerpt is taken from Robin D.G Kelly’s new foreword to Black Marxism: The Making of a Radical Tradition, Revised and updated Third Edition by Cedric J. Robinson Racial capitalism has been the subject of a robust body of scholarship and has become virtually a field unto itself since the re-publication of Black Marxism. In fact, the term has become… Continue Reading Root Cause Analysis

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Political Science/Politics/UNC Press News
February 18, 2021

The Nation of Islam, Caring for the Black Body, and Vaccine Hesitancy

Guest post (unrolled from a thread that appeared originally on Twitter) by Edward E. Curtis IV, author of Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975 The history of the Nation of Islam helps to explain why some U.S. African Americans do not want a foreign substance injected in their arms. As COVID Black and others have revealed, the horrible… Continue Reading The Nation of Islam, Caring for the Black Body, and Vaccine Hesitancy

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Health / Medicine/Islamic Studies
February 17, 2021

Black Arts, Black Artists, and Black History

Guest post by James Smethurst, author of the forthcoming Behold the Land: The Black Arts Movement in the South. One fascinating and frightening aspect of our current moment in the United States is ways that history has been brought to the fore of contemporary political conversations and policy.  The heated, sweeping, and seemingly endless debates over the 1619 Project and… Continue Reading Black Arts, Black Artists, and Black History

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/Literature
February 16, 2021

“From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” Winner of the Inaugural ASALH Book Prize

The University of North Carolina Press heartily congratulates William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kristen Mullen for the inaugural Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 2021 Book Prize recognition of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. Among its countless, notable accomplishments, the ASALA are the Founders of Black History Month.… Continue Reading “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” Winner of the Inaugural ASALH Book Prize

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/History/UNC Press News
February 15, 2021

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

Categories African American Studies/Food Studies
February 14, 2021

Celebrating Mary Church Terrell on Douglass Day 2021

Happy Douglass Day! This year, DouglassDay.org has dedicated part of the annual recognition of Frederick Douglass’s adopted February 14th birthday date weekend celebration to recognizing the life and work of Mary Church Terrell. Part of this celebratory weekend has included a virtual group effort to transcribe, read, and teach the papers of Terrell, a pioneering Black activist and leader, in… Continue Reading Celebrating Mary Church Terrell on Douglass Day 2021

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/History/UNC Press News
February 12, 2021

The First Reconstruction

The following excerpt is taken from The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War by Van Gosse, now available from UNC Press. “We are Americans. We were born in no foreign clime.… We have not been brought up under the influence of other, strange, aristocratic, and uncongenial political relations. In this respect, we profess… Continue Reading The First Reconstruction

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/History/UNC Press News
February 11, 2021

On the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture

Guest post by Waldo E. Martin, co-editor (with Patricia A. Sullivan) of the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture Over two decades ago, when Pat Sullivan and I began talking with editor Lew Bateman about starting a new series at UNC Press that would publish transformative and engaging work in African American History and Culture, we… Continue Reading On the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/History/UNC Press News
February 9, 2021

The Philanthropists Behind Early Black Institutions

Guest post by Tamika Y. Nunley, author of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. I remember the day I went into the archives at Howard University where librarians generously gave me access to a lovely rendering of Alethia Browning Tanner, a formerly enslaved woman who earned enough income to purchase her own freedom.… Continue Reading The Philanthropists Behind Early Black Institutions

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/History/UNC Press News
February 8, 2021

Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: Biographies of Notable Women

This week for our Black History Month reading list series we are featuring five biographies of groundbreaking women who challenged and altered the course of Black life in the United States, from the 20th and into the current century. For more background on the founding and annual themes of Black History Month, check out the website of the Association for the… Continue Reading Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: Biographies of Notable Women

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/UNC Press News
February 5, 2021

“A beautiful ode to a grande dame of Southern cuisine.”—Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original, Now in Paperback

Guest blog post by Sarah B. Franklin, editor of Edna Lewis: At the Table with An American Original Edna Lewis: At the Table with An American Original is a collection of 20 essays by chefs, food writers, and scholars that examine and celebrate the life, legacy, and boundary-breaking politics of chef and cookbook author, Edna Lewis, considered the Grand Dame… Continue Reading “A beautiful ode to a grande dame of Southern cuisine.”—Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original, Now in Paperback

Categories African American Studies/Food Studies/Women's Studies
February 4, 2021

BAR Book Forum: Yelena Bailey’s “How the Streets Were Made”

This post was originally featured in Black Agenda Report, and has been reblogged with permission. By Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor The streets permeate dominant understandings of Blackness, and the life-and-death consequences of these perceptions are at the heart of this book. “Even Breonna Taylor was not safe in her own home from the way the streets have shaped perceptions… Continue Reading BAR Book Forum: Yelena Bailey’s “How the Streets Were Made”

Categories African American Studies/UNC Press News
February 1, 2021

Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: Recently Released Highlights

It’s the first day of Black History Month, and over the course of the next four weeks are celebrating books new and old that focus on Black life and culture. For more background on the founding and annual themes of Black History Month, check out the website of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Today we’re… Continue Reading Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: Recently Released Highlights

Categories African American History/African American Studies/History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
December 17, 2020

In Support of Garrett Felber and Scholar-Activists Everywhere

UNC Press is proud to support the statement below from Senior Editor Brandon Proia, in response to the recent firing of historian and author Garrett Felber. ### This week I was dismayed to learn that the University of Mississippi has fired historian Garrett Felber. I have worked with Garrett for years now, both as his editor and as his collaborator in efforts to… Continue Reading In Support of Garrett Felber and Scholar-Activists Everywhere

Categories African American Studies/Islamic Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
November 19, 2020

Douglas Flowe: The Conundrum of Writing About Race and Crime

Today we welcome a guest post from Douglas Flowe, author of Uncontrollable Blackness: African American Men and Criminality in Jim Crow New York, out now from UNC Press. In the wake of emancipation, black men in northern urban centers like New York faced economic isolation, marginalization, and racial violence. In response, some of those men opted to participate in underground… Continue Reading Douglas Flowe: The Conundrum of Writing About Race and Crime

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Sociology/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
August 4, 2020

Troy R. Saxby: What’s in a Name? Pauli Murray’s Many Identities

Today we welcome a guest post from Troy R. Saxby, author of Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life, out now from UNC Press. The Rev. Dr. Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray (1910–1985) was a trailblazing social activist, writer, lawyer, civil rights organizer, and campaigner for gender rights. In the 1930s and 1940s, she was active in radical left-wing political groups… Continue Reading Troy R. Saxby: What’s in a Name? Pauli Murray’s Many Identities

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Biography / Autobiography/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/UNC Press News
July 31, 2020

Amanda Brickell Bellows–Slavery: Past and Present

Today we welcome a guest post from Amanda Brickell Bellows, author of American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination, out now from UNC Press. The abolition of Russian serfdom in 1861 and American slavery in 1865 transformed both nations as Russian peasants and African Americans gained new rights as subjects and citizens. During the second half of the… Continue Reading Amanda Brickell Bellows–Slavery: Past and Present

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Art / Architecture/Author blog entry/European History/Guest Bloggers/History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
July 22, 2020

Siobhan Barco: New Talking Legal History Interview with Robert Chase

The final episode in the yearlong Talking Legal History podcast series featuring UNC Press is online. In this timely episode, I interview Robert Chase about his book We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America (University of North Carolina Press, 2020). Our conversation underscores the important role academic presses play cultivating and disseminating the material… Continue Reading Siobhan Barco: New Talking Legal History Interview with Robert Chase

Categories African American Studies/Guest Bloggers/Interviews/Law / Legal History/Sociology/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
June 20, 2020

Claire Whitlinger–The Money in Memory: Commodifying Civil Rights Memory

Today we welcome a guest post from Claire Whitlinger, author of Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi, out now from UNC Press. Few places are more notorious for civil rights–era violence than Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the 1964 “Mississippi Burning” murders. Yet in a striking turn of events, Philadelphia has become a beacon in Mississippi’s… Continue Reading Claire Whitlinger–The Money in Memory: Commodifying Civil Rights Memory

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Sociology/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News