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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
June 19, 2020

Douglas J. Flowe: “Uncontrollable Blackness” in Context

Today we welcome a guest post from Douglas J. 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 J. Flowe: “Uncontrollable Blackness” in Context

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Sociology/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 6, 2020

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

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Theatre & Performing Arts/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 4, 2020

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

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Biography / Autobiography/Guest Bloggers/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 28, 2020

Jessica Ingram: When Justice Will Never Come

Today we welcome a guest post from Jessica Ingram, author of Road Through Midnight: A Civil Rights Memorial, available now from UNC Press. At first glance, Jessica Ingram’s landscape photographs could have been made nearly anywhere in the American South: a fenced-in backyard, a dirt road lined by overgrowth, a field grooved with muddy tire prints. These seemingly ordinary places, however,… Continue Reading Jessica Ingram: When Justice Will Never Come

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Author blog entry/Documentary Studies/Photography/Southern Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 26, 2020

Kate Dossett: Making Theatre Dangerous Again

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: Making Theatre Dangerous Again

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Theatre & Performing Arts/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 17, 2020

Author Interview: Jill D. Snider on Lucean Arthur Headen

In this Q&A, Jill D. Snider discusses her book 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 an inventor. His… Continue Reading Author Interview: Jill D. Snider on Lucean Arthur Headen

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Biography / Autobiography/Interviews/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 12, 2020

Jessica Ingram: On the Importance of Historical Markers as a Community Acknowledgment of History

Today we welcome a guest post from Jessica Ingram, author of Road Through Midnight: A Civil Rights Memorial, available now from UNC Press. At first glance, Jessica Ingram’s landscape photographs could have been made nearly anywhere in the American South: a fenced-in backyard, a dirt road lined by overgrowth, a field grooved with muddy tire prints. These seemingly ordinary places, however,… Continue Reading Jessica Ingram: On the Importance of Historical Markers as a Community Acknowledgment of History

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Documentary Studies/Photography/Southern Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
December 20, 2019

New Talking Legal History Interviews with Kimberly M. Welch and Jane Hong

The fourth and fifth episodes of the Talking Legal History podcast series featuring UNC Press works are up! The fourth episode features Siobhan Barco talking with Kimberly M. Welch about her book Black Litigants in the Antebellum American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Kimberly Welch is Assistant Professor of History and Assistant Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. She is a… Continue Reading New Talking Legal History Interviews with Kimberly M. Welch and Jane Hong

Categories African American Studies/American History/Asian Studies/Interviews/Law / Legal History/Political Science/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
December 10, 2019

Silvan Niedermeier: Justice Then and Justice Now – The Unending History of Police Violence in the United States

Today we welcome a guest post from Silvan Niedermeier, author of The Color of the Third Degree: Racism, Police Torture, and Civil Rights in the American South, 1930–1955, out now from UNC Press. Available for the first time in English, The Color of the Third Degree uncovers the still-hidden history of police torture in the Jim Crow South. Based on a wide… Continue Reading Silvan Niedermeier: Justice Then and Justice Now – The Unending History of Police Violence in the United States

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News