Blog - Tracing Center

What I hope Obama’s second inaugural will address

Posted January 21st, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: Public History Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Civil rights movement, Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King Jr., Sesquicentennial of the U.S. Civil War

Today marks only the second time that Inauguration Day has coincided with our national holiday commemorating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and on this occasion, our first black president will be taking the oath of office for the second time.

Here is what I hope the president will include in his second Inaugural Address:

This year marks the coming together of two powerful anniversaries, the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Today, 50 years after the civil rights movement and 150 years after the end of slavery, we have come a long way towards realizing the visions of Lincoln and King for a more just and inclusive society. Yet the legacies of slavery and race—the unfinished business of Civil War and civil rights—remain a crisis in our nation.

Read the rest of this entry »

The argument against fairness

Posted January 14th, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: Modern issues Tags: Affirmative action, Prejudice, Racial discrimination, Stephen T. Asma

Stephen T. Asma, Against Fairness (2012) Philosopher Stephen T. Asma is causing quite a stir these days with his new book, Against Fairness.

The crux of Asma’s argument is that favoritism, and not fairness or egalitarianism, ought to guide our morality and our civic life. His philosophy welcomes such modern, democratic values as compassion and the fight against prejudice, while urging us to reject liberalism’s belief in meritocracy and the equal worth of all persons. Instead, Asma would have us embrace our instinct to prefer, and to preferentially support, the members of our “tribes”—those we feel close to by reason of blood, social relationships, or such markers as religion, social class, or cultural affinity.

This philosophical approach represents a major challenge to those who believe that our society can, and should, work to overcome bias of all kinds, expanding the circles ((See Peter Singer, The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1981).)) of those we consider “us” until we become, as Asma puts it, “one giant tribe.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The history of lynching across the United States

Posted January 8th, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: History Tags: American South, Jim Crow, Lynching, Northern complicity

Today Slate shared with their readers an historical map depicting the incidence of lynching in the United States during the years 1900-1931.

This map, offered by Slate through its new history blog, “The Vault,” was originally compiled by researchers at the Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington.

The map is a dry, statistical compilation of death at the hands of communities across the country:

Lynching in the U.S., 1900-1931

Read the rest of this entry »

Reparations for the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Posted January 7th, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: Repair and reparations Tags: H.R. 40, Rep. John Conyers, Reparations for slavery, Tulsa Race Riot, U.S. Congress

Tulsa Race Riot of 1921Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 Last week, we reported that Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) had re-introduced before Congress his bill, H.R. 40, to establish a commission to study reparations for slavery and racial discrimination.

Today we write to say that Rep. Conyers has also re-introduced legislation to provide reparations for the victims of the Tulsa Race Riot and their descendants.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rep. John Conyers re-introduces H.R. 40 on reparations for slavery and discrimination

Posted January 4th, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: Repair and reparations Tags: H.R. 40, Rep. John Conyers, Reparations for slavery, U.S. Congress

Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) has re-introduced legislation before the 113th U.S. Congress to acknowledge slavery and racial discrimination, study their impact, and propose remedies.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Emancipation Proclamation’s 150th anniversary in context

Posted January 1st, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: Public History Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Civil rights movement, Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King Jr., Sesquicentennial of the U.S. Civil War

Emancipation Proclamation Today is the first day of 2013. This is an anniversary year that we’ve been talking about, and anticipating, for a long time here at the Tracing Center.

In 2013, we will celebrate the 50th anniversaries of major civil rights era milestones, including the March on Washington and Dr. King’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech.

Over the coming year, the nation will also mark the 150th anniversaries of the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, as well as the New York City Draft Riots (the violence of which was aimed mostly at the city’s free black population) and a host of other Civil War battles and dates.

The anniversaries of the Civil War and the civil rights movement are directly connected, as they represent two different, but closely related, stages in our society’s slow process of reckoning with its centuries-long embrace of slavery and racism. Exploring these anniversary dates, their connections, and their broader significance for racial healing and justice will constitute much of the Tracing Center’s work in the years 2013-2015.

Today, however, marks the 150th anniversary of perhaps the greatest of all of these events: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Katrina Browne on being “White in America”

Posted December 17th, 2012 by Katrina Browne
Category: Race and Ethnicity Tags: Abraham Lincoln, American South, Emancipation Proclamation, Katrina Browne, Northern complicity

Katrina Browne, our founder, appeared earlier today on a roundtable at the Huffington Post’s “HuffPost Live.” The topic was “White in America?“, inspired by a blogger’s recent call for CNN to complement its “Black in America” series with a look at what it means to be white in our society today.

I’m having one of those: “I wish I had said” moments. I’m thinking about what I would have said more bluntly than I did, to tie together: Susan Bodnar talking about poor/working class whites not getting enough love (my word) in our culture, as well as talking about their racism; host Alicia Menendez asking why they aren’t covered much on TV; and then Morley Winograd talking about the film Lincoln showing how far we’ve come as a society.

I half-said what I wanted on the show at that point; here’s the more I’d say:

Read the rest of this entry »

« Previous Entries Next Entries »

	Facebook	Twitter
	YouTube	RSS
Hablamos Español