slavery

• 
• SOURCE: Hard Histories (Johns Hopkins University)
  6/14/2022
  

  What Reparations Can Look Like

  by Martha S. Jones

  Are directed cash grant programs undertaken by churches, cities, or other civic organizations a viable way to deliver reparations as part of those institutions' efforts to acknowlege the harm of their past actions? 

• 
• 6/19/2022
  

  "Oh, We Knowed What Was Goin’ On": The Myths (and Lies) of Juneteenth

  by Clyde W. Ford

  After the myths of Juneteenth are stripped away, the day symbolizes the incompleteness of the promise of emancipation. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/3/2022
  

  Harvard Holds Remains of 7,000 Native and Enslaved Persons

  by Gillian Brockell

  A university task force convened last year to investigate the provenance of human remains in Harvard's museums and collections condemned the leak of the report while defending their committee's work toward returning remains to appropriate tribal authorities and memorializing the deceased. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Varsity
  6/3/2022
  

  Cambridge Slavery Researcher Quits Citing Pressure to Censor Report

  A postdoctoral researcher investigating the involvement of two of Cambridge's colleges in the slave trade reported pressure from senior fellows who objected to focus on the past faults of the institution. 

• 
• SOURCE: High Country News
  6/6/2022
  

  Considering the Full Life of Wilma Mankiller

  by Alaina E. Roberts

  Wilma Mankiller's career as an activist included a stint as the first female head of the Cherokee Nation, but she must also be remembered for the mass disenrollment of the descendants of Cherokee Freedmen from the tribe's rolls and their exclusion from a share of new income to the tribe. 

• 
• SOURCE: Christianity Today
  6/7/2022
  

  Judging Jefferson: Ideals or Actions?

  by Daniel N. Gullotta

  Thomas Kidd's intellectual and spiritual biography of Jefferson engages with the contradictions of the ideals he proclaimed and seeks to engage with the ambiguities of his subject in ways that defy both iconoclasm and hagiography. 

• 
• SOURCE: Virginia Mercury
  6/2/2022
  

  Why the Voices of the Enslaved's Descendants Matter at Montpelier and Other Historic Sites

  by Stephen P. Hanna, Amy Potter and Derek H. Alderman

  Descendant communities have put themselves front and center in discussions of how to discuss slavery at public monuments to the nation's founders, which is vital to ensuring that the significance of slavery is not minimized. 

• 
• 6/5/2022
  

  Discarding Legal Precedent to Control Women's Reproductive Rights is Rooted in Colonial Slavery

  by Clyde W. Ford

  The colonial Virginia lawsuit of Elizabeth Key, who won freedom in 1656, pushed colonial authorities to reverse precedent to ensure that the law would be a tool for maintaining hierarchies of race, gender, and class, and Black women's bodies would be the battleground of those conflicts.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  6/1/2022
  

  Draft Report Says Harvard Holds Remains of 19 Possible Enslaved People and Thousands of Native Americans

  "A leaked draft report by a Harvard committee says the university has the remains of at least 19 people who were likely enslaved and nearly 7,000 Native Americans, according to the Harvard Crimson."

• 
• 5/29/2022
  

  We Need a National Emancipation Monument at Point Comfort – Where American Slavery Began, and Began to End

  by Steven T. Corneliussen

  While parts of the site are honored as the Fort Monroe National Monument, Point Comfort should be made a national monument to emancipation. 

• 
• 5/25/2022
  

  A Century After its Dedication, the Lincoln Memorial's Meaning is Still Contested

  by Patrick Malone

  From its dedication to the present, the meaning and legacy of Lincoln and his memorial have been the focus of struggle between those who see Lincoln as the savior of the Union and those who claim him as the great emancipator.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/24/2022
  

  Like Haiti, Washington DC Paid Reparations to Slave Owners

  by Gillian Brockell

  When the District abolished slavery, it compensated more than 900 former enslavers for the emancipation of more than 3,000 people. The formerly enslaved got nothing. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/16/2022
  

  Inside the Reversal of the Montpelier Board

  The board approved the appointment of 11 members nominated by the Montpelier Descendants Committee, and the resignation of the board chair who led the resistance to the appointments is pending. 

• 
• SOURCE: Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
  3/16/2022
  

  Montpelier Board Appoints 11 Members from Descendants Committee

  The move may finally deliver on the board's promise to grant parity in the governance of the James Madison estate to the descendants of persons enslaved at Montpelier. 

• 
• SOURCE: James Madison's Montpelier
  4/27/2022
  

  Montpelier Board Pushes Back Against Accusation they Excluded Descendants' Committee Leadership

  The Montpelier Foundation board argues that the organization representing the descendants of those enslaved at James Madison's estate has rejected good faith cooperation in order to score political points in the latest escalation of the battle over how the Founder's relationship to slavery should be portrayed. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/26/2022
  

  Harvard President and Dean: Slavery Shaped the University

  by Lawrence S. Bacow and Tomiko Brown-Nagin

  Harvard's financial, infrastructural and intellectual legacies are unavoidably entangled with slavery. A new report is meant to signal the university's efforts at reckoning and reconciliation. 

• 
• SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  4/21/2022
  

  TCU Faculty and Students Prepare to Grapple with the Past

  "TCU formed the Race and Reconciliation Initiative in August in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, which prompted TCU and many other universities to research their history with slavery."

• 
• SOURCE: Richmond Times-Dispatch
  4/19/2022
  

  Reversal on Power-Sharing Shows Montpelier Really Wants to Stop Talking About Slavery

  by Michael Paul Williams

  “They wanted to yank the narrative of Montpelier away from slavery, despite all of their protestations to the contrary,” said board member James French, chair of the Montpelier Descendants Committee.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  4/20/2022
  

  Montpelier Descendants Call Foul on Board over Firings

  The firing of three senior staff members who support the involvement of the Montpelier Descendants Committee in the public presentation of James Madison's estate, and the slavery practiced there, has raised questions about whether Montpelier is committed to historical honesty. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/18/2022
  

  Montpelier Staffers: We Were Fired for Backing Descendants' Group

  The firings suggest that there is a backlash by members of the Montpelier board against recent changes in the presentation of James Madison's participation in slavery.