Tag: history

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The Black Horror on the Rhine, Jim Crow, and the Holocaust

“Dedicated to those without memorial or monument.” That is the epigraph to John A. Williams’ Clifford’s Blues (1999), a novel that illuminates the the connections between Jim Crow and the Holocaust and illuminates the Nazis treatment of Blacks during their reign of terror. Clifford Pepperidge, a Black, gay musician from New Orleans who traveled to Europe to escape Jim Crow and play music narrates … Read More The Black Horror on the Rhine, Jim Crow, and the Holocaust

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Jim Crow, the Holocaust, and Today

Why? Last summer, I led a directed study, with one student, on Jim Crow and the Holocaust. When the student mentioned to other people the topic of the class, they would stare and respond with one word, “Why?” A lot rests within that one-word question. Why study Jim Crow? Why study the Holocaust? Why think about the links between Jim Crow and the Holocaust? Why … Read More Jim Crow, the Holocaust, and Today

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Lillian E. Smith and Christian Nationalism Syllabus

Each year I teach a Lillian E. Smith Studies Course, and each course, while using Smith as the center or the class, is extremely different. Since the course has a small enrollment, I let the students dictate what we will focus on in the course. One semester, the students wanted to look at mass incarceration and the legal system, so we read Michelle Alexander, … Read More Lillian E. Smith and Christian Nationalism Syllabus

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The Politics of Fear

During my Fulbright a few years ago, I went to Paris to give a talk. While there, I took a ride on the metro, and a few seats over from me I saw a woman dressed in a niqab. Fear consumed me upon seeing her, sitting in her seat as the train sped along the tracks. When the fear hit me, I immediately knew … Read More The Politics of Fear

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“Civil Rights Memoir” Syllabus

Recently, I’ve been thinking about different courses that I would want to teach in the future. In the last post, I discussed a course entitled “Literature of White Estrangement.” Today, I want to think about a course entitled “Civil Rights Memoirs.” I’ve been thinking about this course for a few weeks, and I started thinking about it because, after teaching John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate … Read More “Civil Rights Memoir” Syllabus