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May 14, 2021

In The Smoke With Marie Jean: A Barbecue Woman Who Built a Freedom Fund

Happy National Barbecue Month! We’re here with a guest blog post from Adrian Miller, author of Ferris and Ferris book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. In this post, Adrian gives us some insight into the life of a black woman pitmaster from nineteenth-century Arkansas named Marie Jean. Don’t miss Adrian’s next virtual event this Sunday,… Continue Reading In The Smoke With Marie Jean: A Barbecue Woman Who Built a Freedom Fund

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Cooking / Food/Food Studies/Guest Bloggers
May 10, 2021

Do Boycotts Work?

Guest post by Allyson P. Brantley, author of Justice, Power and Politics series book Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors and Remade American Consumer Activism Boycotts seem to be everywhere these days. Most recently, the April 2021 passage of Georgia’s new, restrictive voting law sparked significant backlash and boycotts – ranging from Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star… Continue Reading Do Boycotts Work?

Categories African American Studies/Business/Economics/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Labor Studies/Latino Studies/Political Science
April 30, 2021

Jason Berry’s City Of A Million Dreams film premieres at the 2021 Sarasota Film Festival

Author of City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300 Jason Berry is premiering his film City Of A Million Dreams, for which he is co-screenwriter, producer, and director, today at the 2021 Sarasota Film Festival. The premiere of Jason Berry’s City of A Million Dreams is virtual, so grab your popcorn and visit this… Continue Reading Jason Berry’s City Of A Million Dreams film premieres at the 2021 Sarasota Film Festival

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies
April 28, 2021

Happy National Guitar Month!

A little late to the party, but we would like to wish a happy national guitar month to all of you rockstar readers. We’ve created this reading list of some of our favorite guitar-related titles to hopefully inspire your next riff. STONE FREE: JIMI HENDRIX IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER 1966 – JUNE 1967 BY JAS OBRECHT A compelling portrait of rock’s… Continue Reading Happy National Guitar Month!

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Music/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
April 27, 2021

Happy Pub Day to Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue

We are thrilled that today marks the official on sale date for UNC Press’s third book authored by James Beard Award winner Adrian Miller, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Black Smoke is the fourth book published in the Ferris & Ferris Imprint for high-profile, general-interest books about the American South. You can preview Black Smoke… Continue Reading Happy Pub Day to Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Food Studies/Native American History/UNC Press News
April 26, 2021

West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire

Reblogged with permission by ANZASA Online; by Kevin Waite, author of West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire I was born and raised in California, but it wasn’t until I moved to Pennsylvania to begin my PhD that I learned about the history of slavery in my native state. The subject never came up when I was a student… Continue Reading West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History
April 22, 2021

Earth Day 2021 Recommended Reading List

Happy Earth Day and Earth Week from the UNC Press Staff! In celebration of the times, we’ve created a recommended reading list of some of our latest environmental justice books. DEFENDING THE ARCTIC REFUGE: A PHOTOGRAPHER, AN INDIGENOUS NATION, AND A FIGHT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE BY FINIS DUNAWAY Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the… Continue Reading Earth Day 2021 Recommended Reading List

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Environmental Studies/Labor Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Public Policy/Sociology
April 21, 2021

Reflecting on the Past Year Since the Publication of From Here to Equality

Guest post by  William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, whose groundbreaking and critically acclaimed book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century was published one year ago this week. The year since the publication date of our UNC Press book, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century (FHTE),… Continue Reading Reflecting on the Past Year Since the Publication of From Here to Equality

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Civil Rights/Current Events/Economics/Guest Bloggers
April 20, 2021

Swann at 50

Guest blog post by Pamela Grundy, author of Color & Character: West Charlotte High and the American Struggle over Educational Equality, and Tom Hanchett, author of Sorting Out the New South City, Second Edition: Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875-1975 Fifty years ago, on April 20, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Swann v. Charlotte… Continue Reading Swann at 50

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Education/Guest Bloggers
April 15, 2021

Lawrence Reddick and Recent Antiracism Initiatives in the American Historical Profession

Guest post written in conjunction with the start of the Organization of American Historians’s annual conference #OAH21, by David A. Varel, author of The Scholar and the Struggle: Lawrence Reddick’s Crusade for Black History and Black Power Black historian and activist Lawrence Reddick (1910-1995), the subject of my new UNC book, died over a quarter century ago, but his legacy… Continue Reading Lawrence Reddick and Recent Antiracism Initiatives in the American Historical Profession

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Guest Bloggers/Politics
April 13, 2021

Policing and Ongoing Social Injustice Towards Black Lives in America: A Reading List

In response to recent events in Brooklyn Center MN, the following curated reading list provides information regarding ongoing injustices and discriminatory practices perpetuated by a lack of criminal justice reform that’s historically targeted Black Americans. In the aftermath of the police killing of Daunte Wright, here are resources for donating and healing. The Punitive Turn in American Life: How the… Continue Reading Policing and Ongoing Social Injustice Towards Black Lives in America: A Reading List

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/Civil Rights
April 7, 2021

Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery

Guest post by Dale W. Tomich, co-author of Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery: A Visual History of the Plantation in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World, on sale April 19, 2021 The terms “plantation” and “plantation landscape” commonly conjure up the image of the Big House of the great planters of the Americas. The Big House is how the plantation was meant… Continue Reading Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Guest Bloggers
March 11, 2021

Marietta Webb, Christian Science, and Race in America

Follow the UNC Press Blog for a celebration of women’s histories and women historians throughout March. Guest post by Amy B. Voorhees, author of A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture Marietta Webb was a founding member of a Christian Science congregation attended almost entirely by African Americans on the east side of Los Angeles. Local… Continue Reading Marietta Webb, Christian Science, and Race in America

Categories African American Studies/Christian Studies/Religion
March 9, 2021

Breath and Contemporary Black Women Writers

Follow the UNC Press Blog for a celebration of women’s histories and women historians throughout March. Guest post by Aneeka Ayanna Henderson, author of Veil and Vow: Marriage Matters in Contemporary African American Culture The year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of “Women’s History Week,” which preceded the establishment of March as Women’s History Month. It is an exciting time,… Continue Reading Breath and Contemporary Black Women Writers

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Gender Studies/UNC Press News
March 5, 2021

The Private Life and Public Work of Nellie Y. McKay

Follow the UNC Press Blog for a celebration of women’s histories and women historians throughout March. The following preview excerpt is taken from the introduction to Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay by Shanna G. Benjamin, available April 2021 Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay traces twentieth-century Black literary history… Continue Reading The Private Life and Public Work of Nellie Y. McKay

Categories African American Studies/Literature/Women's Studies
March 1, 2021

Happy Book Birthday to Michael Twitty’s “Rice”

As I sit in my office at UNC Press on a rare day’s visit to the premises, given our collective pandemic caution, I gaze—lovingly, it’s fair to say—at the Savor the South cookbook collection sitting on my bookshelf. Twenty-four cookbooks, twenty-four southern foods and food traditions. And on March 1, with the publication of Michael Twitty’s Rice: A Savor the… Continue Reading Happy Book Birthday to Michael Twitty’s “Rice”

Categories African American Studies/Food Studies
February 26, 2021

Conventions and Black Print Culture

Closing out our blog posts for Black History Month 2021, the following excerpt by P. Gabrielle Foreman is taken from The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century (available March 2021), edited by P. Gabrielle Foreman, Jim Casey, and Sarah Lynn Patterson The Black press served not only as a conveyer of information but as a convener of audiences and ideas;… Continue Reading Conventions and Black Print Culture

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/History/UNC Press News
February 25, 2021

Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: Coming Soon

Preorder any of the following titles and 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. White Evangelical Racism:The Politics of Morality in Americaby Anthea Butler Available March 2021 | In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American… Continue Reading Five Weekly Reads for Black History Month: Coming Soon

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/History/UNC Press News
February 24, 2021

Letting the Stank Out: OutKast and the Rise of the Hip-Hop South

The following excerpt is taken from the introduction to Regina Bradley’s Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South While I do not suggest that hip-hop’s presence in the South is the sole marker of its contemporary existence, I do suggest that hip-hop is integral to updating the framework for reading the South’s modernity. Although southern hip-hop existed before OutKast,… Continue Reading Letting the Stank Out: OutKast and the Rise of the Hip-Hop South

Categories African American Studies/Music/UNC Press News
February 23, 2021

Black in the Ivory

Guest post by Dr. Shardé M. Davis, editor of an anthology of #BlackintheIvory experiences coming 2022 from UNC Press. Also included below are details regarding an open call for stories to be considered for inclusion in the book; deadline is March 15, 2021. On June 6, 2020, I created the viral, Twitter hashtag #BlackintheIvory to document the overt and covert… Continue Reading Black in the Ivory

Categories African American Studies