Category: history
Piece 43: Sundown
I cannot articulate a specific moment when I first became aware of green books or sundown towns. Rather, for as long as I can remember, I’ve lived with the awareness that in our nation’s past, there were places and times of day when Black people were unwelcome.
Piece 33: Expanding the Antebellum Narrative
Can you imagine the connection students might feel to history if it were intentionally made concrete and brought near to them rather than remaining an abstract, olden time amoeba?
The Call is Coming From Inside Our House
We cannot hide behind the cross of Christ and the promise of future spiritual unity and reconciliation, declaring thereby that we have transcended all the troubles of the world because Jesus saves. Because the call is coming from inside the church house.
Piece 25: 13th
This post is part of a year-long series. If my work is helpful for you, consider a contribution through Venmo to support this crucial work of unlearning racial bias. Two weeks ago, our country was taking baby steps in the direction of accepting Joe Biden as president-elect. Emotions and temperatures were flaring as caravans of…
Piece 17: Between the World and Me
Is it possible to truly move forward in a positive direction as a country, if we haven’t collectively done the work of examining our past, warts and all?
Piece 14: Where Does it Hurt?
Our babies, the babies they may have one day, and the babies of those babies – all deserve a future brighter than our present.
City Council Special Session
When I came home from work today, I quickly prepared the remarks below to share at a special (virtual) meeting of the City Council this evening. I share my words here so that should I be quoted or referenced, the entirety of my message will be here, published on my own platform, in its entirety….
Piece 10: 12 Years a Slave
To study these two stories and the popular response to both is, I believe, to see with fresh eyes the expectation of the dominant culture in America that it is always the expected position of black bodies to be submissive to their pain and struggles while observers who are not themselves on the margins with black Americans cry for a moment and then move on with their lives: never changing, never changed.
Piece 5: Strange Fruit
This week is about strange fruit.
