As always, we encourage you to share this post with students, colleagues, or anyone else who might be interested. A link here does not necessarily indicate agreement or endorsement by the Council of Independent Colleges or the Mellon Foundation.
Museums:
- Kate McMahon, “Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad,” The Conversation (February 3, 2025): LINK. The lead historian and researcher for In Slavery’s Wake (a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture) discusses the enslaved participants in the Amistad mutiny (1839)—an event that inspired decades of litigation and helped put an end to the international slave trade.
- Isa Farfan, “The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Is Turning 100,” Hyperallergic (February 4, 2025): LINK. To celebrate its centennial, the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center will display rare and notable items from a staggering collection of 11 million books, manuscripts, photographs, artifacts, etc.
- Natasha Brown, “Philadelphia museum celebrates Black history while giving unfiltered glimpse into slavery,” CBS News (February 5, 2025): LINK. The Lest We Forget Museum of Slavery, a small museum outside of Philadelphia, is the only institution in the area with “actual artifacts from the transatlantic slave trade.”
New Books:
- Robert Colby, “After Confederate Forces Captured Their Children, These Back Mothers Fought to Reunite Their Families,” Smithsonian Magazine (February 6, 2025): LINK. From the author of An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South (Oxford University Press, 2024): “During the Civil War, Confederates targeted free Black people in the North, kidnapping them to sell into slavery. After the conflict ended, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones.”
- Iris Crawford, “Brea Baker on the Legacy of Stolen Farmland in America,” Civil Eats (February 3, 2025): LINK. The author of Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership (Random House, 2024) “talks about her family’s farming history, the lasting impact of land loss for Black people, and the case for reparations.”
- Erin L. Thompson, “The Reckless Creation of Whiteness,” The Nation (January 29, 2025): LINK. A discussion of Sarah Lewis, The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America (Harvard University Press, 2024), which “examines how an erroneous 18th-century story about the ‘Caucasian race’ led to centuries of prejudice and misapprehension.”
Education:
- Noah Nelson, “Black Educators as Movement Leaders,” Black Perspectives (February 3, 2025): LINK. “Throughout the history of Black struggle and the social movements it has fueled, education and the transmission of knowledge have been central to advancing sociopolitical change.” Discusses educators from Anna Julia Cooper through the Black Panther Party and today.
- Aziah Siid, “Schools Can Still Teach Black History—Very Carefully,” Word in Black (February 3, 2025): LINK. “Education experts say there are ways around President Trump’s threat to defund K-12 schools who ‘indoctrinate’ students with honest Black history.”
- LaGarrett J. King, “What We Lose When We Only Teach ‘Respectable’ Black History,” Education Week (January 30, 2025): LINK. A leading education professor proposes a “Black Historical Consciousness framework” with eight principles: “Studying history can teach us how to make a difference in our communities today. Our students need to learn from the contentious past and realize that their own imperfections do not hinder them from becoming historically relevant and making a difference.”
Other Links:
- Brent Hallenbeck, “Vermont African American Heritage Trail tells stories of Black history in the state,” Burlington Free Press (February 6, 2025): LINK. Middlebury College—home to abolitionists before the Civil War, a pioneer in racial integration—is one of several Black history sites mentioned in this article. (Today, Vermont is the second whitest state in the country.)
- Aallyah Wright, “The Battle for Land, Identity, and Survival of Gullah Geechee Communities,” Capital B News (February 4, 2025): LINK. In the shadow of a local tragedy and amidst various economic and environmental assaults, residents of Sapelo Island, Georgia, fight to ensure that the distinctive history of their African American community is not lost.
- Angela Davis, “Reporter’s notebook: Minneapolis police, Black men find common ground in Alabama’s past,” Minnesota Public Radio (February 5, 2025): LINK. A fascinating account of a visit to Alabama by members of the Minneapolis Police Department and members of the local Black community, as part of a healing process in the wake of the Jamar Clark and Philando Castile murders.