In what has become a typical occurrence these days, President Trump continues his efforts to undo the accomplishments of his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Here’s today’s history lesson: At the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner in 2011, Obama, in his typical charismatic manner mocked, and some would say humiliated the future President. Watch the many [...]
The Museum Grappling With the Future of Black America The Smithsonian's memorial of African American history and culture turns 1 at a time when its lessons are particularly resonant. Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) “It is an act of patriotism to understand where we’ve been.” So said [...]
Why Texas leaders erected Confederate monuments at the Capitol The Confederate Soldiers Monument at the Capitol. Credit: JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN (Austin American-Statesman) Between 1903 and 1910, three Confederate monuments would be installed on the Capitol grounds. During each unveiling, Confederate war heroes and high-profile politicians of the day used the opportunity [...]
Thurgood Marshall: Activist, judge and the story of his quest for racial justice in America Thurgood Marshall (The Guardian) The first African American to sit on the highest court is the subject of a film that retells his relentless and epochal quest to achieve racial justice in America. By the time the [...]
When Jack Daniel’s Failed to Honor a Slave, an Author Rewrote History Mementos from the photo album of Annabelle Mammie Green, a granddaughter of Nearest Green. Credit Nathan Morgan for The New York Times (The New York Times) Fawn Weaver was on vacation in Singapore last summer when she first read about [...]
Black Women, Agency, and the Civil War By Karen Cook Bell Lucy Higgs with her daughter Mona escaping slavery from Grays Creek, Tennessee to the Union lines, June of 1862. (Credit: Kathy Grant, artist) (Black Perspectives) Throughout much of the twentieth century historians framed the Civil War as a political and [...]
