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Two Anniversaries from Last Week:
The Links:
- Derek Seidman, “Legacy of John Brown’s Abolitionist Raid Lives On, 165 Years Later,” Truthout (October 16, 2024): LINK. On the anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, an interview with historian Manisha Sinha.
- Gerald Horne, “Panthers, Communists, Black Nationalists, and Liberals in Southern California,” Black Perspectives (October 16, 2024): LINK. Horne calls on other scholars to help explain why so many African Americans (and their allies) took to the streets in the 1960s to protest Jim Crowism. This is the topic of his latest book, Armed Struggle? Panthers and Communists; Black Nationalists & Liberals in Southern California through the Sixties and Seventies (International Publishers, 2024).
- Marissa Spear, “Black Panther Women’s Organizing in Baltimore,” Black Perspectives (October 15, 2024): LINK. Black women joined the Black Panther Party in different chapters and branches for a variety of reasons—some having to do with very local issues. In Baltimore, recruits were inspired by high school students that led protests for Black education, SOUL School courses, and acts of defense.
- Tyler Parry, “How the 1969 Uprising Challenged Police Brutality in Las Vegas,” Black Perspectives (October 14, 2024): LINK. A standoff in October 1969 between local police forces and a Black neighborhood in Las Vegas (“the fifth worst Jim Crow area in the nation”) exemplified a period of urban rebellion.
- David Greenberg, “The Story You Haven’t Heard About John Lewis, Segregation and Nashville,” Politico Magazine (October 14, 2024): LINK. After the dramatic sit-ins at segregated establishments in the South, John Lewis and others continued the fight in Nashville, and after much strife, forced the city to desegregate all public places. The story is often forgotten because it culminated at the same time as the heavily documented Birmingham campaign of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963.
- Heather Ann Thompson, “Reflections of the 60th Anniversary of Urban Uprisings in America,” Black Perspectives (October 17, 2024): LINK. Despite clear messaging from protestors at the time, popular media has largely shifted the violence of urban uprisings onto the protestors themselves, distorting how subsequent movements for racial justice have been perceived and how the demands for justice have been discussed.
- Laura Barczewski, “St. Louis Reparations Commission delivers full report to mayor’s office,” KSDK (October 17, 2024): LINK. The commission has delivered its 124-page report assessing race-based harms in St. Louis. Of many recommendations, the report calls for housing and neighborhood development, targeted cash payments to Black residents subject to specific historical harms, public health reform, education reform, economic justice and wealth creation, and state violence and legal reform.
- Aallyah Wright, “Why the Political Power of Black Rural Voters Is Often Invisible,” Capital B News (October 17, 2024): LINK. In places like Wadesboro, NC, rural Black voters feel ignored and lack political power — and they face challenges such as misinformation and a lack of candidates campaigning in their areas.
- Gary Franks, “Will there be another Great Migration?” Minot Daily News (October 15, 2024): LINK. A syndicated column by Gary Franks, a retired Black politician who represented Connecticut as a Republican member of Congress in the 1990s, who reflects here on the historical shift in allegiance by Black voters from the Party of Lincoln to the modern Democratic party.
- Javier C. Hernández, “‘We Are Not a Monolith’: Black Artists Gather at the Philharmonic,” New York Times (October 15, 2024): LINK. Though vastly underrepresented in classical music, Black composers and artists put themselves front and center at the New York Philharmonic to “shatter stereotypes about Black American culture.” (Learn more about “How Black Composers Shaped the Sound of American Classical Music” from this article.)