2023
December
The December 2023 Issue of The Atlantic
This is a special issue " meant to examine the enduring consequences of Reconstruction's tragic fall at a moment -- yet another moment -- when the cause of racial progress faces sustained pressure..."
We were taken by this issue - "To Reconstruct the Nation" - because it explores the Reconstruction era while our country continues to live with the consequences of its dismantling. We're progressively becoming unhinged from our history and its relevance to the present, leaving us ill equipped to move forward.
Click the cover to access the entire issue!
(Keep in mind that, once you open the issue, you can enlarge the font by clicking the plus sign in the little box at the page bottom.)
Atlantic December2023.pdfThe "Editor's Note" (pages 6-7) provides important context and content highlights.
More about this issue:
Beginning with its founding in 1857, The Atlantic was a strong voice for the abolition of slavery. It continued this connection during Reconstruction starting, in its December 1866 issue, with an essay by Frederick Douglass, who wrote of his hopes for radically reshaping the country as it emerged from the Civil War. In 1901, at the height of Jim Crow, as the country faltered in its commitment to democracy, the magazine published a series of "scholarly, unpartisan studies of the Reconstruction Period" to give readers sufficient knowledge and objectivity to "form a clear opinion of the most significant of our internal problems ... namely, the movement to disenfranchise the Southern Negro".
What was written in 1901 was "both morally and factually indefensible" with one exception - W.E.B. DuBois was invited to make a contribution. His essay introduced him to a national audience and presented a much more truthful narrative. Now, in the December 2023 issue, as once again the country falters, the magazine attempts to rectify their poor judgment in 1901 with eight essays analyzing what has been misrepresented or totally hidden about this crucial period in our history.
"The Atlantic and Reconstruction" by Yoni Appelbaum (pp 14-16) does an excellent job of acknowledging what this lack of veracity reveals. Also, note that the issue reprints the 1866 Frederick Douglass essay with 2023 annotations by his biographer, David G. Blight.
The Atlantic 1901 Reconstruction Series
Click on the graphic at right to read an advertisement for the upcoming series.
Below are the articles!
Click on the title to access.
(Note: If the Atlantic paywall stops your access, click on PDF to see the article as it originally appeared in the 1901 issue.)
January, 1901 The Reconstruction of the Southern States by Woodrow Wilson PDF
February, 1901 The Conditions of the Reconstruction Problem by Hilary A. Herbert PDF
March, 1901 The Freedmen's Bureau by W.E.B. DuBois PDF
April, 1901 Reconstruction in South Carolina by David H. Chamberlain PDF
May, 1901 The Ku Klux Movement by William Garrot Brown PDF
June, 1901 Washington During Reconstruction by S. W. McCall PDF
July, 1901 New Orleans and Reconstruction by Albert Phelps PDF
September, 1901 The Southern People During Reconstruction by Thomas Nelson Page PDF
October, 1901 The Undoing of Reconstruction by WIlliam A. Dunning PDF
The series wraps up with the editorial below. Returning to the issue identified by The Atlantic to be the most significant - "the movement to disenfranchise the Southern Negro," this piece is just as "morally and factually indefensible" as the essays it touts.
October, 1901 Reconstruction and Disfranchisement PDF
November
This month we celebrated Veterans' Day with a long overdue reckoning. After more than a century, some semblance of justice has arrived for Black soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment's Third Battalion (Buffalo Soldiers) who were unjustly accused of mutiny and murder in 1917.
Click HERE to read about the actions taken. Be sure to scroll down and watch the associated NBS Nightly News segment.
Click the graphic on the right to read the Washington Post's coverage (November 13, 2023). Access a PDF of the article below:
Army clears convictions of Buffalo Soldiers charged in 1917 Houston Riots - The Washington Post.pdf
Contemporaneous Reporting - 1917
Detailed content not available without subscription to Houston paper archives.
W.E.B. DuBois in the October 1917 edition of The Crisis.
To read the editorial, click on the graphic above. Scroll down a bit below the black box containing the issue cover. There will be a choice of view. Make sure that "Book" is highlighted. This will allow you to turn the pages. The Editorial is a few pages in and "Houston" is the section to read.
Updated Factual Reporting 1991, 2021
Below is a lengthy essay, very deeply researched and comprehensive. The author, C. Calvin Smith (1943-2009) was a Professor of History at Arkansas State University.
houstonriot1917_houstonreview.pdfC. Calvin Smith, The Houston Riot of 1917, Revisited, The Houston Review: History and Culture of the Gulf Coast, Spring 1991, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 85-102
The article below tells the story of Henry Chenault (1895-1969), one of the Black soldiers sentenced to hang, but whose sentence was commuted at the last minute by Woodrow Wilson. He served 13 years, then went on to spend the rest of his life as a well-known and respected community member in Petaluma, California.
Click on his picture to read the story.
South Texas College of Law in Houston has digitized the official trial records . To see Chenault's records, click HERE.
NOTE: Of the 110 men of the 24th who were convicted, 63 received life sentences. Some soldiers served as many as 20 years before their release.
Watch the Film (2020) The 24TH Streaming on Amazon Prime
An historical drama based on the Houston events was released in 2020. It was scheduled to premiere at the South by Southwest festival, but the festival, unfortunately, was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Watch the trailer below. The film is available streaming on Amazon Prime.
A brief review of The 24th by Richard Brody of The New Yorker:
"Kevin Willmott’s passionate and fine-grained new drama, based on a true story, is set mainly in 1917, in Houston, Texas, where the 24th Infantry, an all-Black outfit, guards white laborers constructing an Army base yet nonetheless endures the cruelties and horrors of Jim Crow. One soldier stands out: Private William Boston (Trai Byers, who co-wrote the script with Willmott), whose skin color is light and who has recently returned from France with a degree from the Sorbonne. What’s more, he has the particular confidence of the base’s white commander (Thomas Haden Church). Yet Boston, whose parents were born enslaved, takes his privilege as a responsibility to fight for the rights of Black people; when he arrests a white man for killing a Black one, he arouses the vengeful hatred of Houston’s white population, which spurs members of the 24th into armed self-defense. Willmott offers a fervent vision of history as personal experience in scenes of the soldiers’ anguished recollections; he dramatizes the moral risks incurred—and the terrible sacrifices endured—in the name of progress."
October
This month has been a difficult one. We thought it would be a good idea to share with you something positive, something that made us smile - a new movie so uplifting that it's hard to believe it is based in reality. Definitely worth the two hours! You may want to watch the film first and then take a look at some of the contemporaneous reporting as well as information about the actual people and events.
The Burial
"After seeing hundreds of films a year, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the surest and sometimes best pleasure comes from simple comfort food."
Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com , October 5, 2023
Daniels goes on to say, "Most mixed-race We Must Overcome films like “Green Book,” “The Help,” and “The Blind Side” falter by trying to fix the long span of racial inequities within the space of a trite feel-good story, in which only the white character truly feels redeemed and recompensed by credits end. But “The Burial” doesn’t believe it can solve microaggressions, inequality, and racism in its 126-minute runtime...."Rather, Foxx [Jamie] as Willie is the actual lead in one of his best, most vibrant, and funny performances in recent memory." ..."Thrumming through this prototypical David vs. Goliath film is Foxx's heart and soul....adding "tension, frivolity, and a sense of rigor, elevating “The Burial” from its common bones to a stirring, distinctive comedy."
Amazon Studios - Released October 6, 2023
Director: Maggie Betts
Starring: Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones
Available streaming on Amazon Prime
A nuanced and intelligent drama that neatly combines big characters and big ideas. By focusing on broader issues of race and injustice, Maggie Betts finds continuing resonance in a case almost thirty years old. Helen O'Hara, Empire, October 18, 2023
Thoughts about Willie Gary
Willie Gary is not Atticus Finch. He is not the impeccable, unemotional, white Southern “liberal” who appeals to the jury’s logic in his defense of his falsely accused client, Tom. Nor is he Johnny Cochran, who assumed the persona of his ‘white’ profession, to grab the spotlight with details of the sloppy police department to defend a privileged Black man.
Willie Gary is a Black lawyer who reaches into his culture to use the skills and language (frequently slipping into the cadence of the pulpit) he learned from his simple origins and the Black church to connect with the jury – appealing to the consciousness of his ‘congregation-jury’ with themes of injustice and morality rather than basing his case primarily on legal constructs. He shuns the persona of the ‘white’ legal profession, instead using what he knows as an African American, relying on and displaying with confidence the moral foundation of the African American community – what he has had in his blood from birth.
R.F.
Contemporaneous Trial Reporting Below
Nina Bernstein, The New York Times (January 5, 1996)
Much of the film is based on this 1999 New Yorker article by Jonathan Harr.
NOTE: When you click on the image, select "Download" and "Download anyway" to access the article.
Click HERE to view a website created by the O'Keefe Family in response to requests for additional information about the lawsuit and trial. (2023)
Of particular interest is the "Key Figures" page.
And finally...
We are sharing a recent clip of someone who reminds us very much of Willie Gary.
Jasmine Crockett is a Democrat, representing the 30th District of Texas in the US House of Representatives. An attorney for 15 years, she served as a public defender before opening her own Civil Rights, Criminal Defense, and Personal Injury law firm. She previously represented the 100th District in the Texas State House of Representatives.
Click the graphic above to view Ms. Crockett doing her job. (2:11)
You might want to watch more than once!
September
The 60th anniversary of the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church this month was a time for reflection and stirring words about the importance of Black history.
(Note that the bombing took place only two weeks after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Its anniversary was marked last month with another march HERE)
The final share for this month introduces a new book of art and history whose author you may know!
Introduction by Doug Jones and Keynote Speech by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
44:09 ( KBJ begins at 16:20)
Making Black history is what Ruth J. Simmons has been doing throughout her life.
This month, her memoir, Up Home: One Girl's Journey, was published by Random House. From the New York Times Book Review comes this description: "Simmons's evocative account of her remarkable trajectory from Jim Crow Texas, where she was the youngest of twelve children in a sharecropping family, to the presidencies of Smith College and Brown University shines with tenderness and dignity." Eddie Glaude calls the book "a love letter to family, to the Black teachers and institutions that loved and inspired Ruth Simmons - people and places that urged her to dream beyond her circumstance and to imagine herself in the most expansive of terms."
In just a few weeks, she will appear in conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at the Brattle Theatre. (See banner above for ticket information). She appeared in 2012 on his PBS program, "Finding your Roots". You can watch a brief portion of that episode below:
Some of you may have taken, in the Spring or Fall BOLLI terms, a class led by Dr. Rachel Stephens - "Race and Reunion: The American Civil War and the Mythology of the 'Lost Cause'." Rachel, an Assistant Professor in Art and Art History at the University of Alabama, had taken time off to complete a book about slavery and antebellum art. Her book, Hidden in Plain Sight: Concealing Enslavement in American Visual Culture, has just been published (and it is amazing)!
See the publisher's description HERE. There is also a brief bio of the author.
In the Spring of 2019, while Rachel was a fellow at Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and working on the book, she was interviewed about her project. Click HERE to listen.
Above is an image of the book. To the right, The New York Times presents a short video and accompanying article telling the fascinating story of the painting depicted on the book's cover.
August
The ongoing misrepresentation and erasure of history, with specifics on one of the culprits
The August 5th "Montgomery Brawl"
The 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop, celebrated this month!
Click the illustration above to get a taste of the content being added to public school curricula--
One minute and 17 seconds of misrepresentation and outright lies intended to mislead young people about American history.
This is an example of the material being promoted by the state of Florida and others, produced by Prager U, an organization that describes itself as the world's leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media....
If you want to know more about this right wing propaganda machine and see more of their offerings, take a look at their website HERE.
Most people won't notice the necessary disclaimer... in very tiny print at the bottom of their homepage:
Prager U is not an accredited university, nor do we claim to be. We don’t offer degrees, but we do provide educational, entertaining, pro-American videos for every age. .
August 5, 2023
The Montgomery Riverfront brawl was a large-scale altercation that took place on at the riverfront dock in Montgomery, Alabama. The incident gained significant media attention due to its violent nature, the underlying racial undertones, and Montgomery's racially charged history.
Click "Watch on You Tube" to hear and see the song lyrics.
July
A good month to reflect on the enduring patriotism of African Americans
Some thoughts on Black patriotism in general, along with highlights of the Black experience while loyally serving in the US military
Start by clicking on Keb'Mo' to view his Facebook post for July the 4th.
This is the verse he is singing:
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
Observations on the 4th of July
Conversations Introduction Updated.docx
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail. We’ve been in jail for four hundred years.” Mohammed Ali
"I love America more than any other country in the world,” James Baldwin wrote in “Notes of a Native Son,” “and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
“I think about what it takes for a Black person to love America. That is a deep love for this country.”
Joe Biden
Clip from 2020 speech HERE
“I think the kinds of patriotism that Black Americans have historically elevated is a love of country when that country did not love them,” Tillery said. “And that is the highest level of patriotism that I think has ever been reflected in our nation.”
Alvin TIllery
Director of the Center for Diversity and Democracy, Northwestern University
excerpt_from_the_idea_of_america_by_nikole_hannah-jones.pdfCivil War - WWI
Click above to read Captain Young's brief but powerful speech at Stanford.
A brief documentary, less than an hour, is well worth watching!
Released in 2022 and premiered on PBS and on World channel, Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Fronts is a documentary feature that explores the often contradictory role played by Black soldiers throughout American history, with particular emphasis on the settling of the American West and colonialism abroad. The film, by Dru Holley, may be seen on YouTube HERE. You can watch the trailer below:
World War I
An amazing new book, extremely well reviewed and highly recommended. Note the Guardian review on the right. Other reviews HERE and HERE.
"...Williams offers a captivating reminder of the importance of World War I, why it mattered to Du Bois, and why it continues to matter today."
The author, Chad Williams. is a Professor of History and African & African American Studies at Brandeis.
A reminder of what faced Black soldiers on their return from WWI
World War II
Orson Welles and others remind us of what awaited Black soldiers on their return home. PBS Chapter 1 (10:31)
... it continues
The Korean War (1950 to 1953) was a watershed moment in US military history because it was the first overseas conflict that put President Harry Truman's Executive Order 9981 (1948), which desegregated the US military, into action. The Twenty-fourth Infantry was the last Buffalo Soldier regiment to be desegregated. They fought in the Korean War until the fall of 1951 when they were transferred away from the front and desegregated. An estimated 600,000 African Americans served in the armed forces during the Korean War; roughly 9.3% of Americans killed in Korea were African American.
Across the U.S. military today, African Americans are overrepresented in proportion to their representation in society. However, when the numbers are broken down by rank, African Americans’ representation drops off markedly at the senior level. Black officers don’t become generals as often as their White counterparts. African Americans make up 9 percent of active-duty officers but only 6.5 percent of generals. They are especially underrepresented at the three- and four-star general level, where the most important decisions about the U.S. military are made.
Approximately 300,000 African Americans served in the Vietnam War. In 1965, African Americans filled 31% of the ground combat battalions in Vietnam, while the percentage of African Americans as a minority in the general population was 12%. In 1965, African Americans suffered 24% of the U.S. Army's fatal casualties. African Americans saw combat at a higher percentage and suffered casualties at a higher rate. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to the Vietnam War as a white man’s war, a black man’s fight.
... and, finally, an Independence Day episode from TIME magazine.
For more about Wes Moore, Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) reviews Governor Moore's best-selling book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (2010) HERE