Month: June 2020
New Report Says 2,000 Blacks Lynched During Reconstruction Era
A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) says that from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the traditional close of…
Confederate Veteran William Simkins Describes His Role in the Ku Klux Klan
William Simkins was a professor of law at the University of Texas in Austin on Thanksgiving in 1914 when he decided to use his speech…
Tour of University of Texas Racial Geography, Emancipation, and The Lost Cause
The University of Texas now has a Racial Geography Tour of the famous campus in Austin. The tour can be explored in person or virtually…
Brooks Simpson Discusses “Grant” Miniseries
Historian Brooks Simpson is a pioneer in the reevaluation of the life and career of Ulysses S. Grant. His many readers know him as a…
“Gone With the Wind” Is a Confederate Monument Says Historian Nina Silber
Historian Nina Silber has an interesting article in today’s Washington Post titled ‘Gone With the Wind’ is also a Confederate monument, but on film instead…
In 1863 When a Black Man Refused to be Whipped Was He a Murderer if He Killed His Enslaver?
Here is an incident that I read about recently set during the early period of Reconstruction while the Civil War was still raging. I found…
The Curious Incident of the “Girl” Who Won the Daughters of the Confederacy Essay Contest
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) sponsored a lot of essay contests to encourage young people to learn “the true history” of slavery, the…
“The fundamental principle of Democracy is that Negro Suffrage is wrong” Debating the 15th Amendment in Georgia
In March of 1869 states took up the ratification of the 15th Amendment. One state where significant conservative Democratic opposition to the Amendment granting Black…
How Did American History Textbooks Remember the Ku Klux Klan?
The recent book Remembering Reconstruction has an essay titled “The Cultural Work of the Ku-Klux Klan in US History Textbooks, 1883–2015” by Elaine Parsons. The…
Smithsonian: Free Resources for Understanding the History of Racism in the U.S.
The Smithsonian has put together a great collection of free resources for understanding the history of racism in the United States. There are links to…
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