Shannon King

“Oprah Winfrey brings 60 Minutes cameras into a new memorial dedicated to the thousands of victims of lynching that took place over a 70-year period following the Civil War. It will be the first time the […]

Here’s some recent context for Katie’s blog post.

Boston. Racism. Image. Reality
To our readers:
​The Spotlight Team began this project ​on race ​with deep humility. ​Taking on​ ​this topic ​has to be one of […]

“Red-State Teachers Unrest Just Keeps Spreading” by Ed Kilgore
“Eight Kentucky school districts — including those in Louisville and Lexington — are closed today as teachers stay home to protest the GOP leg […]

I hope you all attended Kathleen Cleaver’s talk. You’ll all have to tell me what you learned on Thursday evening. We will cover some of this in class, but not in depth. Here’s a documentary, The Black […]

As we discussed again Schuyler’s socialist views in the 1920s and eventually his shift to conservatism, I meant historian Leah Wright Riguer’s book, The Loneliness of the Black Republican and this provocative […]

“Race, Racism, and Southern Myths”

by William Sturkey

“In 2010, two historians edited a collection of thirteen essays written by white historians about “The Myth of Southern Exceptionalism.” Admittedly, I a […]

Manisha Sinha “Today’s Eerie Echoes of the Civil War” 
“In 1858, Abraham Lincoln launched his campaign for the Senate seat from Illinois with his now famous “A House Divided” speech. While he did not predict disu […]

“Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans at rates far higher than their […]

Tennessee School Removes Confederate Flag, lynching murals
“A painting of a Confederate flag and a mural depicting a lynching have been removed from the walls of a Tennessee school gymnasium.

The mural […]

In 1967, over 100 cities, large and small, exploded in fire and violence, the result of decades of discrimination against black populations in places like Cleveland, Nashville, Boston and Newark. The biggest riot […]

Conversations in Black Freedom Studies: Revisiting the Uprisings of the 1960s

“Mose People Think I’m white.”
“One of the best birthday presents anybody ever gave me was a “calling card” by the conceptual artist Adrian Piper. I was in college at the time, and it felt like the ultimate ins […]

“I Live Paycheck to Paycheck”

By Jess Bidgood

“Public schools in West Virginia were closed for a sixth day on Thursday, as teachers striking over health care costs and pay largely rebuffed a deal this week […]

“The unwelcome revival of ‘race science'” by Gavin Evans

“One of the strangest ironies of our time is that a body of thoroughly debunked “science” is being revived by people who claim to be defending truth aga […]

Restrictive Covenants Stubbornly Stay on the Books
“RICHMOND, Va. – NEALIE PITTS was shopping for a house for her son three years ago when she spotted a for-sale sign in front of a modest brick bungalow here. […]

Today we discussed the New Negro Renaissance’s cultural response to cultural racism, represented by in popular culture and scientific scholarship. While scientific racism permeated different disciplines, […]

“How New York City became the capital of the Jim Crow North” by Brian Purnell and Jeanne Theoharis

“Ninety years ago, Donald Trump’s father was arrested at a Klan parade — in Queens. Fifty-five years ago, mor […]