On October 26, 1921, President Warren G. Harding traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to participate in the city’s fiftieth-anniversary celebration. The Republican Harding, just seven months into his first term, was immensely popular. But the speech he gave that day was… Read More ›
As the United States entered the 20th century, Reconstruction slowly receded into popular memory. Historians began to debate its results. William Dunning and John W. Burgess led the first group to offer a coherent and structured argument. Along with their… Read More ›
The movement toward the abolition of the system of enslavement has been remembered as one of the great humanitarian initiatives in modern history. Occurring as it did in a world that was rent by the slaveholding republics and empires of… Read More ›
From History by Yohuru Williams: Were U.S. slaves in any way responsible for their own misery? Were there any silver linings to forced bondage? These questions surface from time to time in the American cultural conversation, rekindling a longstanding debate… Read More ›
Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in major league baseball on April 15, 1947. He went 0 for 3. He reached base once, scoring a run in a Brooklyn Dodgers victory. As a statistical line it was not… Read More ›
From We’re History by John Bardes: When did America desegregate public transportation? Most people would probably answer 1955, when Rosa Parks’s refusal to surrender her seat ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. But the story begins at least 88 years before… Read More ›
From O Say Can You See: Stories from the National Museum of American History by Alexandra Piper: A civil rights protest often invokes the vivid images of sit-ins, boycotts, and marches, but the fight for racial equality took many different… Read More ›
Lynching is often described as a form of extralegal, vigilante violence or justice; however, its meaning has evolved over time—from the tarring and feathering of individuals in the Colonial period to the lethal, racial violence that proliferated in the South…. Read More ›
From The New Republic by Caleb Gayle: When it comes to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, there are two kinds of monuments in America. There are memorials that seek to honor this country’s fitful march toward civil rights…. Read More ›
From History News Network by Michael Brenes author of The Price of Loyalty: Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson and the Struggle for American Liberalism: Almost a year and a half later, there remains an insatiable public demand for an explanation of… Read More ›
From The Chronicle of Higher Education by Donald Yacovone: There it sat on a library cart with 50 other elementary, grammar, and high-school history textbooks, its bright red spine reaching out through time and space. As I opened the book’s… Read More ›
From Sport in American History by Jonathan Mercantini author Who Shall Rule at Home?: The Evolution of South Carolina Political Culture, 1748-1776: The 1968 baseball season was scheduled to start on April 8. Not every team was slated to play on… Read More ›
From History New Network by Alan Singer author of New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee: April 12 is the 154th anniversary of the Civil War battle and massacre at Fort Pillow, located on the Mississippi River near Henning, Tennessee. It was a… Read More ›
From The Washington Post by Tom Jackman: In the five decades since Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead by an assassin at age 39, his children have worked tirelessly to preserve his legacy, sometimes with sharply different views on… Read More ›
From OUP Blog by Melissa Milewski author of Litigating Across the Color Line: Civil Cases Between Black and White Southerners from the End of Slavery to Civil Rights: In 1868 North Carolina, Henry Buie’s former master sought to take his mule away… Read More ›
From History News Network by Marc Perrusquia author of A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement: Bobby Doctor understood the movement came with peril. Eagerly, he dodged fists and boots while… Read More ›
From Black Perspectives by Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders: Between 1948 and 1950, a radio series called Destination Freedom aired on WMAQ, a local Chicago NBC station. Richard Durham created Destination Freedom in an attempt to profile significant African American historical figures and their contributions to American democracy and… Read More ›
It is November 2, 1930, and National Geographic has sent a reporter and a photographer to cover a magnificent occasion: the crowning of Haile Selassie, King of Kings of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. There are trumpets, incense, priests,… Read More ›
From US History Scene by Christina Regelski: While many American regions and cities have famous fare, few will argue that the South wears the culinary crown. Southern identity is stronglylinked to its cuisine, and food has long been an enticing… Read More ›
From AHA Today by Dionne Danns: As a child, I always enjoyed watching Eyes on the Prize on PBS during Black History Month. I was fascinated both by the history of discrimination and the courageous efforts of young people to fight back… Read More ›