Historians in the News

Just Who Was Rebelling in Nat Turner's Rebellion?

University of Kentucky Historian Vanessa Holden will discuss her new community-oriented history of the rebellion of the enslaved in Southampton, Virginia in an online forum on Thursday, arguing that women and children were essential in planning and executing the rebellion associated with Nat Turner.

There’s Less Than Two Years to Save American Democracy

Voting Rights scholar Ari Berman discusses the past, present, and future of the ballot, and the parallels between the overthrow of Reconstruction-era voting rights and today's proposals to empower state legislatures and suppress the vote. 

Johns Hopkins Enslaved People. Or Did He?

As a university-sponsored report comes under fire, historians debate the evidence for the claim that Johns Hopkins owned slaves, and some question whether one university's relationship to slavery is an important research question at all. 

Where Gender-Neutral Pronouns Come From

The invention of pronouns to better address gender has been part of the English language for a long time, as has moral panic about the degradation of culture and speech. 

Sundown Towns in Metro DC's History? Yes, Says James Loewen

James Loewen tells a DC-area TV station that the capital region has had "sundown towns" where African Americans have been excluded from living by law, custom, or terror. 

Who Gets to Decide What is History?

Education Historian Jonathan Zimmerman tells the Monitor that denying the presence of racism in the past is bad policy and that students must be able to consider and debate expert views on what racism has meant in American history. 

Keisha N. Blain on Fannie Lou Hamer’s Fight for Civil Rights and Her Message for Today

by Daniel José Camacho

Keisha N. Blain discusses her upcoming book on the life and activist legacy of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party leader Fannie Lou Hamer, and its relevance to both grassroots politics and the fight to protect voting rights today. 

Germany Faced its Horrible Past. Can the US Do the Same?

by Michele Norris

"A full accounting of slavery is one of terror and trauma, and for decades the natural inclination was to ask, why would anyone want to claim that history?... What happens if we don’t?" Michele Norris's essay features University of Texas historian Daina Ramey Berry.

On Public Art, Historical Memory, and Racial Violence

by Melanie Chambliss

"Anniversaries are useful for focusing the public’s attention on historically significant events, including the Tulsa Race Massacre, but we must ask ourselves what happens next?"

Robin D.G. Kelley: The Tulsa Race Massacre Went Way Beyond “Black Wall Street”

Historian Robin D.G. Kelley warns what has been truly hidden are the class politics of the Tulsa Race Massacre, both in terms of the economic agendas of the white elites who condoned and covered up violence and the impact on the city's Black working class. 

Time to Challenge Argentina’s White European Self-Image, Black History Experts Say

A new generation of historians is challenging Argentina's self-understanding as a nation of Europeans and arguing that that mythology helps conceal anti-Black racism in the past and today.

The Internet’s Favorite Catalog of Weird Places Rewrites History

The popular internet site Atlas Obscura has undertaken to rewrite many of its articles to include more diverse perspectives on the unusual places they describe. 

Interview with Philip Shenon: Lessons from the Uncensored History of the 9/11 Commission

Philip Shenon, author of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" says that historian Philip Zelikow exerted great influence over the commission's work, but his talent for documentary investigation was blunted by his closeness to the Bush administration. This is a lesson any 1/6 Commission should heed.

Food Network Says it’s Dedicated to Teaching. But it Never Let Me Say ‘Slavery’ on Air

"You will not be shocked to learn that the reasons foods travel are often unsavory: enslavement, conquest, climate change and war."

The Forgotten Women of Black Wall Street

"Emerging scholarship on Greenwood is showing that Black women were as critical to building Greenwood as they were to helping Black people survive the massacre, and rebuild the neighborhood afterward."

The Women Who Preserved the Story of the Tulsa Race Massacre

Mary E. Jones Parrish and Eddie Faye Gates researched and published some of the most important accounts of the Greenwood massacre in Tulsa, but their names and work were consigned to obscurity as white authorities suppressed knowledge of the events. 

Was the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms Designed to Protect Slavery?

Randall Kennedy reviews Carol Anderson's "The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America," and charges that Anderson overstates the influence of suppressing slave rebellion on the drafting of the Second Amendment. 

Can Critical Race Theory and Patriotism Coexist in Classrooms?

Some intellectual historians argue that the "social studies wars" are entering their second century. But today's political polarization makes the struggle over what can be taught in history classrooms even more contentious. 

Confronting the Myth of Objectivity: Karlos Hill Writes on the Tulsa Massacre

by David M. Perry

Karlos Hill has researched the Tulsa race massacre and developed an institute to train teachers to examine it in their classrooms. This experience has led him to question whether objectivity can be a core principle of historiography. 

Can Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities?

The infrastructure bill debate has prompted historical reflection on the urban consequences of highway construction and imagination of alternatives.