Violence against African Americans has been a persistent feature of American life—which is why “racial violence and resistance” is one of the organizing themes of the Legacies of American Slavery initiative. Racists have used violence to bar African Americans from exercising their rights to vote, work freely, live where they want, or simply exist.
Historian Felix Harcourt and his colleagues at Austin College (Sherman, TX) have worked with faculty members from other colleges in the region, local K–12 teachers, and members of the community to promote a deeper understanding of racial violence and resistance in northern Texas and beyond. Prof. Harcourt recommends the following articles and books as a starting place to explore the topic.
The resources are listed alphabetically by author. The “purchase” buttons are for convenience only: CIC does not make any commission on book sales. Part 2 of the reading list will be posted next week. As always, we encourage you to share this post with others.
Saidiya Hartman, “Venus in Two Acts,” Small Axe 12, no. 2 (June 2008), pp. 1-14: https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1.
Abstract: “This essay examines the ubiquitous presence of Venus in the archive of Atlantic slavery and wrestles with the impossibility of discovering anything about her that hasn’t already been stated. As an emblematic figure of the enslaved woman in the Atlantic world, Venus makes plain the convergence of terror and pleasure in the libidinal economy of slavery and, as well, the intimacy of history with the scandal and excess of literature. In writing at the limit of the unspeakable and the unknown, the essay mimes the violence of the archive and attempts to redress it by describing as fully as possible the conditions that determine the appearance of Venus and that dictate her silence.”
Karlos Hill, “Community-Engaged History: A Reflection on the 100th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre,” American Historical Review 126, no. 2 (June 2021), pp. 670-684: https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhab193 (subscription required). Listen to an interview with the author.
Abstract: “How does scholarship live in the world, connected to real-world issues? Why should historians embrace community-engaged history as a means to effect social change? This essay addresses these questions by chronicling one historian’s efforts to align his scholarly expertise with addressing the polarizing legacies of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the deadliest outbreaks of anti-Black violence in American history.”
Sherrilyn A. Ifill, On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century (Beacon Press, 2007).
Publisher’s description: “Nearly five thousand black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960, and the effects of this racial trauma continue to resound. Inspired by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and drawing on techniques of restorative justice, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, offers concrete ways for communities to heal. She also issues a clarion call for communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy.”
Kellie Carter Jackson, Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).
Publisher’s description: “In Force and Freedom, Kellie Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists. Through rousing public speeches, the bourgeoning black press, and the formation of militia groups, black abolitionist leaders mobilized their communities, compelled national action, and drew international attention. … Through tactical violence, argues Carter Jackson, black abolitionist leaders accomplished what white nonviolent abolitionists could not: creating the conditions that necessitated the Civil War. Force and Freedom takes readers beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.”
Elliott Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America (Basic Books, 2006).
Publisher’s description: “‘Leave now, or die!’ Those words—or ones just as ominous—have echoed through the past hundred years of American history, heralding a very unnatural disaster—a wave of racial cleansing that wiped out or drove away black populations from counties across the nation. While we have long known about horrific episodes of lynching in the South, this story of racial cleansing has remained almost entirely unknown. These expulsions, always swift and often violent, were extraordinarily widespread in the period between Reconstruction and the Depression era. In the heart of the Midwest and the Deep South, whites rose up in rage, fear, and resentment to lash out at local blacks. They burned and killed indiscriminately, sweeping entire counties clear of blacks to make them racially ‘pure.’ Many of these counties remain virtually all-white to this day. In Buried in the Bitter Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elliot Jaspin exposes a deeply shameful chapter in the nation’s history—and one that continues to shape the geography of race in America.”
1 Comment
Comments are closed.