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September 1, 2021

“Fake News” and Racial Violence after the Civil War

The following is a guest blog post by William A. Blair, author of The Record of Murders and Outrages: Racial Violence and the Fight over Truth at the Dawn of Reconstruction. Blair uses the accounts of far-flung Freedmen’s Bureau agents to ask questions about the early days of Reconstruction, which are surprisingly resonant with the present day: How do you prove… Continue Reading “Fake News” and Racial Violence after the Civil War

Categories African American Studies/Civil War/History
August 31, 2021

New Orleans, A Resilient People: A Reading List

To help the victims of Hurricane Ida, visit these links to learn more about the local organizations who need your financial support in serving those affected: How to Help Hurricane Ida Victims Right Now Want to donate or volunteer to assist those affected by Hurricane Ida? Here’s how to help If you’ve been keeping up with the national news, you… Continue Reading New Orleans, A Resilient People: A Reading List

Categories African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Gender Studies/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Law / Legal History/LGBT Studies/Political Science/Women's Studies
August 19, 2021

Left of Black web series featuring LaKisha Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans

LaKisha Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans, was featured on John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute’s Left of Black web series. Left of Black is a web series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars created and hosted by James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies Mark Anthony Neal.… Continue Reading Left of Black web series featuring LaKisha Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans

Categories African American Studies/Gender Studies/History/Video/Women's Studies
August 17, 2021

Tainted Tap: Preface

To spread awareness of National Water Quality Month, I decided to post an excerpt from one of the titles featured last week on our “Happy National Water Quality Month!” recommended reading list. This excerpt is from the Preface of Katrinell M. Davis’ Tainted Tap: Flint’s Journey from Crisis to Recovery. Assessing the challenges that community groups faced in their attempts… Continue Reading Tainted Tap: Preface

Categories African American Studies/Environmental Studies/Sociology
August 13, 2021

Happy National Water Quality Month! A Recommended Reading List

Did you know “Every year, more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war”? With statistics like that, spreading the knowledge behind National Water Quality Month is a necessity. Most communities affected by unsafe water were never cared for from the beginning, so it’s important that those who have the means fight for those who don’t. We’ve… Continue Reading Happy National Water Quality Month! A Recommended Reading List

Categories African American Studies/Environmental Studies/History/Sociology
August 12, 2021

The Center for the Study of Southern Culture SouthTalks series featuring B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life, and filmmaker Zaire Love

In April, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture hosted a talk between B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like The Blues: Race, Black and Backbeat of Black Life, and award-winning filmmaker Zaire Love. Watch as they discuss the collaborative visual they created for Foster’s book, the many sides of black identity in Mississippi, the escapism most black art forms… Continue Reading The Center for the Study of Southern Culture SouthTalks series featuring B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life, and filmmaker Zaire Love

Categories African American Studies/Music/Sociology
August 5, 2021

The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Fireside Chat with Crystal Lynn Webster, author of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North

Last week, The Library Company of Philadelphia hosted a Fireside Chat with Crystal Lynn Webster, author of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North. Drawing evidence from the urban centers of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, Crystal Webster’s innovative research yields a powerful new history of African American childhood before the Civil War. Watch below… Continue Reading The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Fireside Chat with Crystal Lynn Webster, author of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North

Categories African American Studies
August 2, 2021

The Shot Heard Round The World

The following is a guest blog post by Robert G. Parkinson, author of Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence, published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press. In Thirteen Clocks, Parkinson argues that patriot leaders used racial prejudices to persuade Americans to declare independence. Sixty… Continue Reading The Shot Heard Round The World

Categories African American Studies/American History/History/Political Science
July 29, 2021

“Half in Shadow: Black Women in Academia”, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Conversation with UNC Press Author Dr. Shanna Greene Benjamin and Dr. Janaka Bowman Lewis

Hosted by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Dr. Shanna Greene Benjamin, author of Half In Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay, and Dr. Janaka Bowman Lewis, discuss topics related to Benjamin’s book Half In Shadow. Watch below as Dr. Benjamin and Dr. Lewis examine academia’s relationship with black women, who Nellie Y. McKay is and what she represented. Shanna… Continue Reading “Half in Shadow: Black Women in Academia”, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Conversation with UNC Press Author Dr. Shanna Greene Benjamin and Dr. Janaka Bowman Lewis

Categories African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Women's Studies
July 27, 2021

The Last News Story of Colonial America

Guest blog post by Robert G. Parkinson, author of Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence What was the tipping point that pushed Americans into taking the step of declaring their independence? After all, the colonies had been at war with Britain for more than a year by the end of the spring of 1776.… Continue Reading The Last News Story of Colonial America

Categories African American Studies/American History/History/Political Science
July 26, 2021

“Colored Conventions Show Us Where Democracy Really Happens”, Democracy Works Podcast featuring P. Gabrielle Foreman and Jim Casey

In April, P. Gabrielle Foreman and Jim Casey, contributors to The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century, were featured on Penn State’s Democracy Works podcast. If you’re not already familiar with these two, they’ve been doing some incredible work to detail the history of The Colored Conventions movement, the nineteenth century’s longest campaign for Black civil rights. The Colored Conventions… Continue Reading “Colored Conventions Show Us Where Democracy Really Happens”, Democracy Works Podcast featuring P. Gabrielle Foreman and Jim Casey

Categories African American Studies/Political Science
July 16, 2021

Mount Vernon’s Virtual Book Talk with Author Tamika Nunley

Tamika Nunley, author of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C., was featured on Mount Vernon’s virtual book talk series earlier this year. During the talk, Tamika discusses her book, the portrait of Elizabeth Keckley used as the books cover, the tradition of education amongst enslaved people and even answers some questions asked by… Continue Reading Mount Vernon’s Virtual Book Talk with Author Tamika Nunley

Categories African American Studies/Gender Studies/Sociology/Women's Studies
July 13, 2021

Harriet, the Moses of Her People: Preface

In celebration of Disability Pride Month, I decided to post an excerpt from one of the titles from our recommended reading list published last week. This excerpt is the preface from Sarah Hopkins Bradford’s Harriet, the Moses of Her People. The title I have given my black heroine, in this second edition of her story, viz.: THE MOSES OF HER… Continue Reading Harriet, the Moses of Her People: Preface

Categories African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography
July 7, 2021

Happy Disability Pride Month! A Recommended Reading List

If you didn’t know already, July is Disability Pride month. The celebration of Disability Pride began in 1990 and has held on strong ever since. “This annual observance is used to promote visibility and mainstream awareness of the positive pride felt by people with disabilities.” Below are a few titles that align with that point of view; shedding light on… Continue Reading Happy Disability Pride Month! A Recommended Reading List

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/History/Labor Studies/Sociology/Women's Studies
July 6, 2021

Time to Reset Your Syllabi, Vast Early America

Guest blog post by Catherine E. Kelly of the Omohundro Institute I came to the project that would become Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence the hard way – through the college classroom. Before joining the Omohundro Institute, I taught American history first at Case Western Reserve University and then at the University of Oklahoma.… Continue Reading Time to Reset Your Syllabi, Vast Early America

Categories African American Studies/American History/History/Political Science/Politics
June 30, 2021

Capitalism and Slavery: The Development Of The Negro Slave Trade

For our last bit of JuneTeenth celebration this month, I decided to pull an excerpt from one of the books featured in our two part commemorative JuneTeenth recommended reading list (Part One, Part Two). This excerpt is from Eric Williams and Colin A. Palmer’s Capitalism and Slavery, Third Edition.  The negro slaves were “the strength and sinews of this western world.”… Continue Reading Capitalism and Slavery: The Development Of The Negro Slave Trade

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American History/African American Studies/American History/Business/Economics/Latin American/Caribbean Hist.
June 28, 2021

Princess Noire: We Knew She Was a Genius

With a few more days left to celebrate Black Music Month, we chose to post this excerpt from Nadine Cohodas’ Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone. This book and a few other titles were featured on a recommended reading list commemorating some of the incredible things black people have brought to music as a whole. John Irvin sang… Continue Reading Princess Noire: We Knew She Was a Genius

Categories African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Music
June 25, 2021

Pauli Murray: A Child of Destiny or A Nobody Without Identity, 1910–1926

To further celebrate Pride Month, the following is an excerpt from Troy R. Saxby’s Pauli Murray: A Personal And Political Life. This book is one of five titles from a reading list we created in commemoration of Pride Month; view the entire reading list here. Pauli Murray long believed that she was born on November 20, 1910, and named Anna Pauline Murray.… Continue Reading Pauli Murray: A Child of Destiny or A Nobody Without Identity, 1910–1926

Categories African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Gender Studies/LGBT Studies
June 24, 2021

Author B. Brian Foster in Conversation with Author William Ferris, Hosted by Square Books

In late January, Oxford, MS-based indie bookstore Square Books hosted a virtual conversation between B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like The Blues: Race, Black and Backbeat of Black Life, and William Ferris, author of Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues. Watch as Foster and Ferris discuss a history of black people’s involvement in sociology,… Continue Reading Author B. Brian Foster in Conversation with Author William Ferris, Hosted by Square Books

Categories African American Studies/Anthropology/Music/Sociology/Southern Studies
June 22, 2021

Happy Black Music Month: A Recommended Reading List

Fresh off the heels of our JuneTeenth reading lists (Part One and Part Two) , I’m back with another celebration of black culture; Black Music Month. “Created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, this month celebrates the African American musical influences that comprise an essential part of our nation’s treasured cultural heritage.” Black people have had a hand in basically… Continue Reading Happy Black Music Month: A Recommended Reading List

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Music