Follow the Blog

Enter your e-mail address to receive notice of new posts by e-mail.

Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Post Categories
"From Emancipation to Equality"
From Emancipation to Equality
This new campaign explores the unfinished business of civil war and civil rights.
Interpreting Slavery at Museums and Historic Sites
Interpreting Slavery at Museums and Historic Sites offers best practices based on our public history workshops and consultations.

        Learn about our public history programs

Join our mailing list:

Go back

Your message has been sent

Modern slavery and the challenge of seeing our society for what it is

Posted November 7th, 2013 by
Category: Modern issues Tags: , ,

Global Slavery IndexWhen I speak with audiences about my family’s prominent role in the transatlantic slave trade, I often suggest that while none of us can change what others did in the past, one response to this history is to consider seriously what future generations may think of us. In particular, I ask people to imagine what what institutions or social realities we take for granted today that our descendants may find it hard to believe we were aware of , and yet chose not to oppose or speak out against.

In a very similar vein, Nicholas Kristof offers this thought to readers of his New York Times column this morning, contrasting the evils depicted in Twelve Years a Slave to modern-day slavery:

I fear that a century from now, someone may put together a movie about slavery in 2013, leading our descendants to shake their heads and ask of us: What were they thinking?

Read the rest of this entry »


Katrina Browne appears on “Democracy Now!” with Amy Goodman and Juan González

Posted November 4th, 2013 by
Category: News and Announcements, Outreach

On Wednesday, Katrina Browne, producer/director of Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North and co-founder of the Tracing Center, was interviewed live on Democracy Now! by Amy journalist Goodman.

Katrina appeared following an interview with Craig Steven Wilder, author of the new book, Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities, which explores the historical dependence of U.S. colleges and universities on slavery and on financial support generated by the economics of slavery, as well as the role of these institutions in the propagation of the ideology that supported slavery and racism.

In the interview, Katrina talks about being a descendant of the nation’s leading slave-trading family, which motivated her to produce Traces of the Trade and to co-found a center devoted to exploring the historical involvement of U.S. families and institutions, North and South, in slavery. She also speaks about the stew of emotional issues that can come up for many white Americans in the course of addressing this history and its legacy today.

Here is Katrina’s portion of the interview:

For the earlier portion of the hour with Professor Wilder, see here.


Juror B29’s full interview airs on ABC; comments “devastating” to Trayvon Martin’s family

Posted July 26th, 2013 by
Category: Living consequences Tags: ,

Juror B29, "Maddy," speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America"This morning, as ABC airs its full interview with juror B29 in the George Zimmerman case for the first time, Trayvon Martin’s mother says the juror’s most explosive comment, that Zimmerman “got away with murder,” is “devastating” for their family.

A portion of ABC’s interview with juror B29, a 36-year-old nursing assistant and mother of eight named Maddy, aired last night and has already generated considerable controversy.

Juror B29’s revelations about the Zimmerman case

This morning, the full interview revealed more about the jury’s deliberations, juror B29’s views on the case, and how well the jury verdict reflected an impartial view of the law. We also learned that she is of Puerto Rican descent and, until recently, lived in Chicago.

Read the rest of this entry »


“The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”

Posted July 4th, 2013 by
Category: History Tags: , , , , , ,

Frederick DouglassIt is always worth making time, on the Fourth of July, to remember those people and movements whose courage and sacrifice advanced and improved upon the ideals on which the United States was founded. This is true even for those which may have seemed radical, subversive, or even unpatriotic at the time.

In that light, we highly recommend the Fourth of July oration delivered by abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Rochester, N.Y. on July 5, 1852, entitled “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” ((Our thanks to Mass Humanities, among others, for laboring diligently to make this speech, and its spirit, an integral part of our Independence Day celebrations each year.))

The following brief excepts from Douglass’ speech illustrate not only his burning hatred for slavery and his withering scorn for those who would not extend the nation’s liberty to all its children, but also his praise for all that is good in the American experiment, and his optimism for the future:
Read the rest of this entry »


What, to the slave, was the Battle of Gettysburg?

Posted July 1st, 2013 by
Category: History Tags: , , , , , , , ,

'Harvest of Death,' Battle of Gettysburg, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, between July 4 and 7, 1863What, to the slave and to free blacks, was the Battle of Gettysburg? ((The title and first line of this essay are a paraphrasing of Frederick Douglass’ famous line, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?”, in his 1852 July 4th address, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,”  in Rochester, N.Y.))

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gettysburg, which ran from July 1 to 3, 1863.

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most well-known events of the Civil War, and its sesquicentennial has been widely anticipated for years. Elsewhere, there are expert military historians to offer the most modern understanding of the battle’s tactical and strategic significance, as well as renowned civil war scholars to interpret the battle’s political and social significance in 1863, and to analyze the public’s memory of the battle in the last century and a half.

At the Tracing Center, we focus on the role of slavery and race in the causes, conduct, and consequences of the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg was certainly of strategic importance in determining the outcome of the war, namely, that the Confederacy would be re-incorporated back into the Union, and that emancipation would eventually become a reality throughout the nation. ((Even so, the Battle of Antietam was arguably more significant for the course of the war, and for its role in determining that emancipation would result at the end of the war.))

Beyond the battle’s military significance, though, what does the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg tell us about the role of slavery and race in the war, and about the battle’s importance at the time for free and enslaved blacks?

Read the rest of this entry »


50 years ago today: Birmingham integrates its golf courses

Posted June 29th, 2013 by
Category: History Tags: , , ,

Detail from the front page of the Birmingham (Ala.) Daily News, June 20, 1963Fifty years ago today, on June 29, 1963, the city of Birmingham, Alabama re-opened its municipal golf courses, making them available for the first time to both white and black citizens.

In October 1961, a federal district court had ordered the integration of Birmingham’s public recreation facilities, holding that their  segregation along racial lines was unconstitutional. This plan met with resistance from the city’s commissioner of public safety, Bull Connor, who is best known to history for the use of police dogs and fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators. Connor announced that he intended to close some 67 city parks, 38 playgrounds, 6 swimming pools, and 4 golf courses, and even the city’s football stadium and, if necessary, to sell them all to private citizens rather than accept the court’s integration order.

Read the rest of this entry »


What did the Supreme Court just do to the Voting Rights Act?

Posted June 25th, 2013 by
Category: Living consequences Tags: , ,

In 2006, the U.S. Congress voted 98-0 to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another quarter-century.

This re-authorization included Section 5, which requires certain states (or parts of states)  to seek federal approval, in advance, for any changes to their voting procedures (known as “preclearance”). It also included Section 4, which provides the “coverage formula” defining which states (or parts of states) are subject to preclearance, based upon their historic use of voting procedures to discriminate against black voters.

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the coverage formula is no longer unconstitutional constitutional. The majority opinion found that the formula was justified in 1966, by the “‘blight of racial discrimination in voting’ that had ‘infected the electoral process in parts of our country for nearly a century.'” Today, however, a majority of the justices agreed that “Nearly 50 years later, things have changed dramatically.”

Read the rest of this entry »


« Previous Entries Next Entries »
Copyright 2010-2026 by the Tracing Center | All Rights Reserved | Website design and coding: James DeW. Perry