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Racial Justice: Historical Perspective

Primary Documents

13th Amendment - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

14th Amendment - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former slaves—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.”

15th Amendment - The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Civil Rights Act of 1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) - Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal."

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.

Literature About African American History in the US

"Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passag" by Sowande' Mustakeem

The book by Mustakeem, an associate professor of history and African and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, explains the violence and regulation of the process called “the Middle Passage,” which was the part of the slave trade that took place at sea.

"Trouble in Mind" by Leon F. Litwack

The book by Litwack, a professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley, is an account of the brutal age of Jim Crow.

"Stamped From the Beginning" by Ibram X. Kendi

The book by Kendi, an award-winning Africana studies historian who is moving to Boston University in July to launch the BU Center for Antiracist Research, is a definitive history of anti-black racist ideas and their impact on American history.

"The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition" by Manisha Sinha

The book by Sinha, the Draper chair in American history at the University of Connecticut, reveals the often-ignored role that African Americans played in their emancipation, from the American Revolution through the Civil War.

"In the Face of Inequity: How Black Colleges Adapt" by Melissa E. Wooten

The book by Wooten, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, looks at how race and racism shaped America’s black colleges and universities in the mid-20th century.

"Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom" by Keisha Blain

The book by Blain, an associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, is the first to examine how black nationalist women engaged in national and global politics from the early 20th century to the 1960s.

"Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence" by Kellie Carter Jackson

The book by Carter Jackson, an assistant professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College, is the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists to provoke social change.

"They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the America South" by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

The book by Jones-Rogers, an associate professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley, reshapes current understandings of white women’s economic relationships to slavery using the testimony of formerly enslaved people.

"The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America" by Khalil Gibran Muhammad

The book by Muhammad, a professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard University, explores how the myth of black criminality became deeply embedded in American thought and was important in the making of urban America.

"Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery" by Katrina Dyonne Thompson

The book by Thompson, an associate professor of history at St. Louis University, explores how black musical performance was used by white Europeans and Americans to justify slavery and hide the brutality of the domestic slave trade.

"They Left Great Marks Upon Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I"" by Kidada E. Williams

The book by Williams, associate professor of history at Wayne State University, provides a history of racial violence taken from testimony by African Americans.

The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History

Should white people care about the whitewashing of black history? Most people will likely answer yes to this question, if only because it sounds politically correct to do so. What will hopefully become clear is that whites have as much to lose by whitewashing black history as their African American peers. David Ikard is a Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. His research and teaching interests include African American Literature, black feminist criticism, hip-hop culture, black masculinity and whiteness studies. He is the author/co-author of four books, including "Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism" (2007), "Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama's Post-Racial America" (2012; co-authored with Martell Teasley and winner of the 2013 Best Scholarly Book Award by DISA), "Blinded by the Whites: Why Race Still Matters in 21st-Century America" (2013), and "Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs" (2017). His essays have appeared in African American Review, MELUS , Palimpsest, African and Black Diaspora Journal, The Journal of Black Studies, and Obsidian III. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Timeline

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Literature About the Civil Rights Movement

"Why We Can't Wait" by Martin Luther King, Jr.

King was best known for his speeches and sermons, but his writing also could be inspirational, including his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, part of this collection.

"Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference" by David Garrow

A Pulitzer Prize-winning account of King's religious faith and education, civil rights accomplishments and personal demons.

"Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963" by Taylor Branch

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the first volume in a trilogy that traces King's rise to greatness, his courage and personal conflicts.

"Malcolm & Martin & America: A Dream or a Nightmare" by James Cone

A theologian questions if Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were as much polar opposites as is popularly thought.

"Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s" by Henry Hampton & Steve Fayer

The creator and a writer of the acclaimed public TV series Eyes on the Prize draws upon 1,000 interviews with those who took part in the marches, sit-ins and Freedom Rides.

"Carry Me Home: Birmingham. Alabama, The Climatic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution" by Diane McWhorter

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, an investigation of the author's hometown and own segregationist family during 1963 when the civil rights movement came into its own.

Films

undefined Selma (2014)

undefined If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

undefined Do the Right Thing (1989)

undefined 12 Years a Slave (2013)

undefined Moonlight (2016)