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November 25, 2019

Silvan Niedermeier: “All These Scars, There and There.” Fighting Forced Confessions in the Pre-1954 South

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… Continue Reading Silvan Niedermeier: “All These Scars, There and There.” Fighting Forced Confessions in the Pre-1954 South

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
November 18, 2019

Interview with William P. Hustwit about Integration Now: Alexander v. Holmes and the End of Jim Crow Education

The third episode in the Talking Legal History podcast’s series featuring UNC Press is live! You can listen to the episode here. This episode arrives with the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Alexander v. Holmes. Half a century after the decision, it is helpful to reflect and talk with William P. Hustwit, through a conversation about his book… Continue Reading Interview with William P. Hustwit about Integration Now: Alexander v. Holmes and the End of Jim Crow Education

Categories African American Studies/American History/Education/Interviews/Law / Legal History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
September 20, 2019

Author Interview: Charles L. Hughes on “Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns”

Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, weighs in on Ken Burns’ new documentary Country Music as well as past and present manifestations of “the central racial paradox at the heart of country music.” In the sound of the 1960s and 1970s, nothing symbolized the rift between black and white America… Continue Reading Author Interview: Charles L. Hughes on “Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns”

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Cultural Studies/Music/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
June 26, 2019

Paul Musselwhite: 1619 – The Origins of America’s Paradox

Today we welcome a guest post from Paul Musselwhite, one of the editors of Virginia 1619:  Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America, just published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, and UNC Press. Virginia 1619 provides an opportunity to reflect on the origins of English colonialism around the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic… Continue Reading Paul Musselwhite: 1619 – The Origins of America’s Paradox

Categories African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
May 13, 2019

Evan Faulkenbury: What Does Tax Policy Have to Do with the Civil Rights Movement?

Today we welcome a guest post from Evan Faulkenbury, author of Poll Power:  The Voter Education Project and the Movement for the Ballot in the American South, just published by UNC Press. The civil rights movement required money. In the early 1960s, after years of grassroots organizing, civil rights activists convinced nonprofit foundations to donate in support of voter education… Continue Reading Evan Faulkenbury: What Does Tax Policy Have to Do with the Civil Rights Movement?

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Political Science/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
May 6, 2019

Evan Faulkenbury: Who Deserves Credit for the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

Today we welcome a guest post from Evan Faulkenbury, author of Poll Power:  The Voter Education Project and the Movement for the Ballot in the American South, just published by UNC Press. The civil rights movement required money. In the early 1960s, after years of grassroots organizing, civil rights activists convinced nonprofit foundations to donate in support of voter education… Continue Reading Evan Faulkenbury: Who Deserves Credit for the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Political Science/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 26, 2019

Wendy Gonaver: Jailing People with Mental Illness, Part 2

Today we welcome a second guest post from Wendy Gonaver, author of The Peculiar Institution and the Making of Modern Psychiatry, 1840–1880, just published this month by UNC Press.  You can read the first installment here. Though the origins of asylums can be traced to Europe, the systematic segregation of the mentally ill into specialized institutions occurred in the Unites… Continue Reading Wendy Gonaver: Jailing People with Mental Illness, Part 2

Categories African American Studies/Author blog entry/Health / Medicine/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 19, 2019

Aline Helg: Slave runaway communities: the ongoing struggle

Today we welcome a guest post from Aline Helg, author of Slave No More:  Self-Liberation before Abolitionism in the Americas, just published this month by UNC Press. Commanding a vast historiography of slavery and emancipation, Helg reveals as never before how significant numbers of enslaved Africans across the entire Western Hemisphere managed to free themselves hundreds of years before the… Continue Reading Aline Helg: Slave runaway communities: the ongoing struggle

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 13, 2019

Wendy Gonaver: Jailing People with Mental Illness, Part 1

Today we welcome the first of two guest posts from Wendy Gonaver, author of The Peculiar Institution and the Making of Modern Psychiatry, 1840–1880, just published this month by UNC Press. Though the origins of asylums can be traced to Europe, the systematic segregation of the mentally ill into specialized institutions occurred in the Unites States only after 1800, just… Continue Reading Wendy Gonaver: Jailing People with Mental Illness, Part 1

Categories African American Studies/Author blog entry/Health / Medicine/Science/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 6, 2019

Aline Helg: Beyond the image of the “male slave rebel”

Today we welcome a guest post from Aline Helg, author of Slave No More:  Self-Liberation before Abolitionism in the Americas, just published this month by UNC Press. Commanding a vast historiography of slavery and emancipation, Helg reveals as never before how significant numbers of enslaved Africans across the entire Western Hemisphere managed to free themselves hundreds of years before the… Continue Reading Aline Helg: Beyond the image of the “male slave rebel”

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
February 8, 2019

David Gilbert: James Reese Europe at the Grammys

Today we welcome a guest post from David Gilbert, author of The Product of Our Souls:  The Product of Our Souls: Ragtime, Race, and the Birth of the Manhattan Musical Marketplace. The CD companion to the book came out in the summer of 2018 and his liner note essay has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Album Notes… Continue Reading David Gilbert: James Reese Europe at the Grammys

Categories African American Studies/Awards/Music/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 6, 2019

David Gilbert: Pre-war Ragtime, From UNC Press to the Grammys

We are very proud that two UNC Press authors are nominated for Grammy Awards this year. William Ferris (@WRFerris), noted folklorist who has written and contributed to several publications from UNC Press on Southern history, the oral tradition, and the blues, is nominated for Best Historical Album for “Voices of Mississippi” on @dusttodigital. David Gilbert is nominated for Best Album… Continue Reading David Gilbert: Pre-war Ragtime, From UNC Press to the Grammys

Categories African American Studies/Author blog entry/Awards/Music/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 4, 2019

African American History Month Reading List for 2019

The study of African American history is a year-round endeavor for UNC Press, but in honor of African American History Month 2019, we’d like to highlight some of the great new books we’ve been published in this field recently. Here are books on African American history, culture, and modern society from UNC Press over the past year, plus a few that will be… Continue Reading African American History Month Reading List for 2019

Categories African American Studies/American History
January 15, 2019

LaKisha Michelle Simmons: Surviving R. Kelly: Church and Gendered Respectability in the 1990s

We welcome a guest post today from LaKisha Michelle Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans. What was it like to grow up black and female in the segregated South? In Crescent City Girls, Simmons blends social history and cultural studies, recreating children’s streets and neighborhoods within Jim Crow New Orleans and… Continue Reading LaKisha Michelle Simmons: Surviving R. Kelly: Church and Gendered Respectability in the 1990s

Categories African American Studies/Author blog entry/Cultural Studies/Current Events/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
January 14, 2019

Patricia de Santana Pinho: Traveling Brazil

Today we welcome a guest post from Patricia de Santana Pinho, author of Mapping Diaspora:  African American Roots Tourism in Brazil, just published by UNC Press. Brazil, like several countries in Africa, has become a major destination for African American tourists seeking the cultural roots of the black Atlantic diaspora. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic research as well… Continue Reading Patricia de Santana Pinho: Traveling Brazil

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Travel/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
December 10, 2018

E. Patrick Johnson: Black. Queer. Southern. Women.

Today we welcome a guest post from E. Patrick Johnson, author of Black. Queer. Southern. Women.:  An Oral History, just published by UNC Press. Drawn from the life narratives of more than seventy African American queer women who were born, raised, and continue to reside in the American South, this book powerfully reveals the way these women experience and express… Continue Reading E. Patrick Johnson: Black. Queer. Southern. Women.

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Author blog entry/Gay / Lesbian Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
December 5, 2018

Nina Silber: The Lost Cause in the New Deal Era

Today we welcome a guest post from Nina Silber, author of This War Ain’t Over:  Fighting the Civil War in New Deal America, just published by UNC Press. The New Deal era witnessed a surprising surge in popular engagement with the history and memory of the Civil War era. From the omnipresent book and film Gone with the Wind and… Continue Reading Nina Silber: The Lost Cause in the New Deal Era

Categories African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
November 29, 2018

Michael E. Staub: Ghosts of Bell Curves Past

Today we welcome a guest post from Michael E. Staub, author of The Mismeasure of Minds:  Debating Race and Intelligence between Brown and The Bell Curve, just published by UNC Press. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision required desegregation of America’s schools, but it also set in motion an agonizing multi-decade debate over race, class, and IQ. In… Continue Reading Michael E. Staub: Ghosts of Bell Curves Past

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Author blog entry/Current Events/Education/Public Policy/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
November 27, 2018

Max Felker-Kantor: Resisting Police Power: The Roots of Anti-Police Abuse Movements in Los Angeles

Today we welcome a guest post from Max Felker-Kantor, author of Policing Los Angeles:  Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD, just published by UNC Press. Felker-Kantor narrates the dynamic history of policing, anti-police abuse movements, race, and politics in Los Angeles from the 1965 Watts uprising to the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion. Using the explosions of two large-scale… Continue Reading Max Felker-Kantor: Resisting Police Power: The Roots of Anti-Police Abuse Movements in Los Angeles

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Civil Rights/Current Events/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
November 26, 2018

Nina Silber: ‘Slavery’ in Depression Era America

Today we welcome a guest post from Nina Silber, author of This War Ain’t Over:  Fighting the Civil War in New Deal America, just published by UNC Press. The New Deal era witnessed a surprising surge in popular engagement with the history and memory of the Civil War era. From the omnipresent book and film Gone with the Wind and… Continue Reading Nina Silber: ‘Slavery’ in Depression Era America

Categories African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Civil Rights/Civil War/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News