Southern history

Emily Meggett, Preserver of Gullah Geechee Foodways of the Coastal South, Dies at 90

Mrs. Meggett cooked for decades for her family and church, and as a domestic worker for white families in South Carolina. Her book represents the work of many women who preserved food traditions passed from Africa through slavery and Jim Crow. 

Pride in the South is a Story of Resistance and Resilience

by La Shonda Mims

In the urban south, LGBTQ residents are drawing on a half century of claiming public space through pride celebrations in the face of efforts to label them a threat to society. 

Florida's AP Fight Latest Battle in a Very Old Education War

by Bethany Bell

The state's rejection of the proposed curriculum as "indoctrination" stands on the foundation laid by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to establish the Lost Cause myth as the center of history education in the South for generations. 

Glenda Gilmore's Bio Shows Artist Romare Bearden Reckoning with the South

"Gilmore sets a timeline, critiques some striking artworks, and leaves the reader wondering why hardly anyone writes about art this succinctly."

Stanley Nelson Lauded for Work Preserving Records of Violence Against Civil Rights Workers

Nelson wrote two books on "cold cases" linked to Klan activity in Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Review: When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress

by Jeff Shesol

Jefferson Cowie's new book traces the current resurgence of racist and antigovernment radicalism through the history of George Wallace's Alabama home county. 

From the Archives: Bob Maurer on Charles Sherrod and New Communities Farm

Nearly 50 years ago, activist Robert Maurer reported on the successes and challenges of a Georgia agricultural cooperative conceived as a step toward securing Black economic empowerment in the post-civil rights South. 

Baldwin Lee's Rediscovered Photos Deepen Understanding of the South

Many white photographers documented the south with a paternalistic frame on their Black subjects. The New York-born son of Chinese immigrants, Lee proceeded from the premise that he knew nothing about the post-Jim Crow South and had to learn. 

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall Kept the Identities of Enslaved from Archival Oblivion

After retiring from a career as a Latin Americanist, Hall documented the identities of thousands of people brought to Louisiana in slavery in the 18th century, an achievement others had thought neither possible nor necessary. 

The Geographical Correlation Between Slavery Then and Guns Now

by Matthew Rozsa

A new study finds a strong county-level correlation between the number of slaves owned before the Civil War and the number of guns owned today. Is the answer in the violent history of white supremacy in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras? 

There is a Real "Great Replacement" – But Not the One the Right Talks About

by Guy Lancaster

Arkansas history shows how the true Great Replacement in the United States has been organized by oligarchs hoping to use immigrant labor to undercut Black people's demands for economic fairness and human rights. 

The Intellectual History of the Black "New South"

by Robert Greene II

A new generation of African American thinkers is examining whether the South is the place where Black advancement can best be achieved. Intellectual history warns that myths of a "New South" have come and gone before, undermined by their inattention to power. 

Mill Mother's Lament: The Legacy of Ella May Wiggins

by Karen Sieber

The city of Gastonia has struggled to agree on the commemoration of the bloody 1929 Loray Mill strike, including how to account for the murder of pregnant union activist Ella May Wiggins. 

The Power and Urgency of Public History

by David M. Chamberlain

After a tour of the South's historical sites, I maintain a teacher’s optimism that knowledge of our nation’s imperfect past offers us the necessary wisdom to walk ourselves back from the edge of the political ledge on which we are so perilously perched.

Zora Neale Hurston's Complicated Relationship to Black Race Pride

by Lauren Michele Jackson

A new edited collection of the folklorist, anthropologist and novelist reveals the broad, category-defying intellectual life of a "genius of the South."

U of Alabama to Rename Building for Desegregation Pioneer Autherine Lucy (Without Name of KKK Leader)

A massive public outcry pushed the university's trustees to name the building solely after Lucy, without the name of former governor and Klansman Bibb Graves. 

Songs for a South Underwater: Music that Carried People Through the Great 1927 Flood

After the devastating flooding of 1927, and an indifferent response from the government, another flood of songs of protest and resilience ensued, creating a southern musical and cultural tradition. 

Manchin's Self-Proclaimed "Principled" Acts Mean Shunning His Constituents

by Ashley Steenson

Joe Manchin's torpedoing of the Build Back Better legislation reflects a historically prominent principle, though maybe not one the Senator would like to acknowledge: contempt for most of his constituents.

Erasing Black Leadership from Reconstruction History Still Distorts Our Understanding

by Robert Greene II and Tyler D. Parry

The actions of southern Black leaders during Reconstruction shed light not just on their efforts to secure political power but the kind of multiracial democracy and society they hoped to achieve.

Art and the Free South

"For the Free Southern Theater’s members, bringing the stage to the countryside made political education accessible while enabling artists to participate in politics."