We the (Black) People

I promised you a part 2 and here it is! This episode continues the discussion of Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora with Professor Shana Redmond. The anthems this time around are: 01:25 - “We Shall Overcome” Before it was an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, Black women used the song to fuel the Charleston tobacco strike. Their efforts brought the song...

This episode, we're talking about my hometown, Detroit. It's a gentrifying majority-Black city. Professor Kyle Mays - author of City of Dispossessions - sees this current stage of Black Detroiters being dispossessed as part of Detroit's long history of dispossessing both Indigenous and Black people. Most Native Americans live in cities. Many moved to Detroit around Word War II, and still have rele...

Solidarity isn't naturally occurring, but it can be amazing. Like that time Coretta Scott King visited Cesar Chavez in prison. Or when The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee taught nonviolent resistance to Chicano farmworkers in California. Or even when Cesar Chavez went door to door to support Black Panther Party leader Bobby Seale's mayoral campaign in Oakland. This episode is all about c...

This episode we take a deep dive into 3 Black Anthems of the 20th century with Professor Shana Redmond, author of Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora . 04:32 - The Universal Negro Improvement Association and "Ethiopia (Thou Land of Our Fathers)." How Marcus Garvey and the UNIA instilled Black nationalism. 15:56 - The NAACP and "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." U...

You didn't think the story of Black feminism ended at the Voting Rights Act, did you? Turns out there were several influential Black feminist organizations in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. No one ever told me about the Third World Women's Alliance, the National Black Feminist Organization, the National Alliance of Black Feminists, The Combahee River Collective, or Black Women Organized for Action. So, th...

Looking at Catholic history and Black history becomes wildly different when you consider and acknowledge Black nuns. Not only have there been Black nuns since the early days of slavery, these women have been agitating and advocating all the while. It is a history that hasn't gotten the benefit of a full survey until now, with the book Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African Amer...

When slavery ended, it was a massive deal for Black people. It was a fulfillment of decades of hopes, prayers, and prophecies and (to many) a clear sign of God intervening in human history for Black people. Following something as amazing as emancipation, Black people constantly wondered about the next step in God's plan for them. Professor Matthew Harper (author of The End of Days: African America...

The Underground Railroad has been shrouded in mystery and myth since the days it was active. In this episode, Professor Richard Blackett (author of Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery ) and I talk about some of the realities of the Underground Railroad. Along the way are fascinating escape stories and Underground Railroad helpers from unlikely places. Music Credit...

When a slave revolt in Haitian became a revolution that abolished slavery and created the first sovereign Black nation in the Americas, it was kind of a big deal. And, being a Black American history podcast, this episode is about how Haitian independence influenced and affected America, particularly Black people. Since the Haitian Revolution does not get enough attention my guest, Dr. Leslie Alexa...

Consistently on We the (Black) People , I ask my guests to bring at least one individual's story to the conversation as these stories about people really bring history to life for me. It has resulted in really excellent stories about people I never knew about. Here are the top six I brought together in this episode. 00:35 - Harry Green from Black Fathers vs. Slavery with Professor Libra Hilde 02:0...

It was a year ago when, on this show, I discussed defending history education against the many attacks leveled in 2020 with my high school history teacher. Yet now, in 2021, Black history education seems to be in even more danger. So, back to the classroom to talk with Professor LaGarrett King, a professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Missouri. In this episode, we discuss the h...

We have to go back to the Civil War! Last time, nearly a year ago for Ep 1, we looked at how slaves freed themselves by refusing to serve the Confederacy and running to Union lines. When hundreds of thousands did this, the federal government had no choice but to emancipate. What we didn't talk about is what happened to fleeing slaves within Union army camps across the South during the war. The str...

Before the 14th amendment, there was no official definition of citizenship in America. We've really been making that up along the way, state by state. And from the beginning, Black people have enacted and put into print their vision of citizenship. In this episode, Professor Derrick Spires and I discuss his book The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United Stat...

From 1928-1937, the Soviet Union allied with Black America in an antiracist campaign against America. To tell the story of the Soviet Union and Black America teaming up against racism, I talked with Professor Meredith Roman, author of Opposing Jim Crow: African Americans and the Soviet Indictment of U.S. Racism, 1928-1937 . While some Soviets sought a world without racism, it benefitted the emergi...

Back in the Before Times, I saw footage of Black vaudeville star Bert Williams performing in blackface at The Museum of Modern Art (more info on that here ). Seeing a Black Man in blackface, I had a lot of questions. I found answers and context in Staging Race: Black Performers in Turn of the Century America by Professor Karen Sotiropoulos. In this episode, we discuss why, at the turn of the centu...

No new content right now as I properly enjoy road trip season. Send me ideas for show topics to do when I get back! wetheblackpeoplepod@gmail.com

Though Black Americans have considered leaving America for a chance at full citizenship somewhere else since America's beginning, many fiercely opposed the American Colonization Society. To them, the ACS (organized in 1817 to send free Black people to Liberia) was White Americans solidifying their belief that Black freedom and citizenship had no place in America. Yet, at the same time, Black peopl...

It is well known that cars changed America. But what about Black America? With America's long history of controlling Black mobility, cars meant many new freedoms for Black people. Yet, as they hit the roads through new places, new dangers lurked in the unknown. Both the dangers and the opportunities are the topic of this episode. My guest is Dr. Gretchen Sorin, author of Driving While Black: Afric...

This episode stems from my love of the movie The Wiz. Watching it over and over as a kid I did not realize that Miss One, the Good Witch of the North, is a numbers runner. And, I definitely did not know that numbers running is a real part of gambling and Black history. As a Black woman running numbers in a fictionalized version of Harlem, Miss One unlocks a lot about the real characters behind Har...

Happy Father's Day! For the dads out there, this episode we're looking at the often-ignored legacy of Black fathers who fought oppressive systems during and after slavery to be dutifully honorable parents in the eyes of their families. My guest is Professor Libra Hilde, author of Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities Over the Long Nineteenth Century . We discuss th...

It turns out that the history of slavery and Reconstruction played out differently in Oklahoma because Oklahoma was not American, but Indian Territory. One of the biggest differences was that former Black slaves (Indian Freedpeople) received land reparations. Yet, that land redistribution was part of a larger American project to take over Indian Territory. Professor Alaina Roberts , author of I've...

This episode centers around two wild facts I just learned. First, between 1888 and 1930 Black Americans opened and operated over 100 banks. Second, one of those (St. Luke Bank) was headed and run by Black women. Luckily, Professor Shennette Garrett-Scott's book Banking on Freedom is all about St. Luke's bank and the 50 year legacy of Black-owned banks. Black people started their own banks followin...

Though largely unacknowledged in America in favor of Labor Day in September, May 1st is internationally recognized as International Worker's Day, the anniversary of the struggle for an 8-hour workday in Chicago in 1886. Looking back on that brings up a lot of interesting issues such as labor's historically tense relationship with police and the Black unions that arose because of mainstream labor's...

On March 22nd, Evanston, Illinois passed the Restorative Housing Program as reparations for its discriminatory housing policies. This bill is both a hit and a miss in restoratively addressing the history of housing discrimination. This episode, I turn to that history with Professor Paige Glotzer , author of How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing, 1890–...

Not only were Black domestic workers organized laborers, but their fight for better working conditions reveals lessons about the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement, and organizing in today's gig economy. To tell this history and teach these lessons, I talk to Professor Premilla Nadasen, author of Household Workers Unite! This isn't The Help 's story of Black women as loyal victims. From...