Posted in Emancipation Proclamation Frederick Douglass Lincoln Memory of Reconstruction Monuments Suffrage

David Blight: Don’t Tear Down the Lincoln Statue in Washington

David Blight has an op ed in the Washington Post contra calls to remove the statue of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator in D.C.  Here…

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Posted in Book Reviews Civil War

Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy by Earl J. Hess

Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy by Earl J. Hess, Published by The University of North Carolina Press (2016) 368 pp. $35.00 Hardcover,…

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Posted in Jim Crow Ku Klux Klan Memory of Reconstruction Monuments White Supremacy

Family of KKK Leader General John B. Gordon Asks that His Statue Be Removed in Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the family of Ku Klux Klan leader and Confederate general John B. Gordon be removed from the grounds of…

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Posted in Memory of Reconstruction Monuments

New Virginia Highway History Markers Will Include Reconstruction Sites

Virginia will soon be erecting new roadside history markers for sites involving the state’s African American people. You can read the full list here. Here…

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Posted in Memory of Reconstruction Monuments White Supremacy White Supremacy Apologetics

Confederate Monument Dedications in NC Often Were Explicitly Racist

In a 2017 newspaper article, scholar Brian Fennessy wrote that in researching Confederate monument dedication speeches in North Carolina “I searched for dedication speeches that…

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Posted in African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction Memory of Reconstruction

NY Times Podcast on the History and Meaning of Juneteenth

The New York Times has an interesting interview with Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, on…

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Posted in African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction

National Archive Finds An Original Juneteenth Proclamation!

An original handwritten version of the June 19, 1865 Juneteenth proclamation appears to have been found in the National Archive on June 18, 2020. According…

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Posted in African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction

NY Times Publishes Special Section on Juneteenth

The New York Times has a whole suite of materials today celebrating Juneteenth. One article is an interview with 93 year old Opal Lee, the…

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Posted in Book Reviews Slavery Texas

Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel

Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel published by Oxford University Press (2019). Here is…

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Posted in African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction

The Spread of “Juneteenth” in Reconstruction Era Texas

Juneteenth was not called “Juneteenth” the first time it was celebrated. It was called “Emancipation Day” or “Jubilee Day” in most early accounts. And while…

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