On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before an abolitionist audience in Rochester, New York, and delivered one of the most searing speeches in American history. Invited to give a Fourth of July oration, Douglass instead used the occasion to confront his audience with an uncomfortable truth: the freedom being…
Tag: Black History
Podcast
What Reparations Actually Means, According to Nikole Hannah-Jones
What does reparations actually mean? And why is it so important to talk about right now? In a live episode of Undistracted recorded at Vital Voices Global Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Brittany Packnett Cunningham sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones to make the case that reparations is not…
Books
David McNally Says Atlantic Slavery Was Not Pre-Capitalist. It Was Capitalism.
Was Atlantic slavery a capitalist system or a pre-capitalist one? In a recent conversation, historian David McNally argues that Atlantic slavery was not outside capitalism at all. It was a distinct capitalist system built on enslaved labor, commodity production, and surplus value. McNally’s new book, Slavery and Capitalism: A New…
Educational Resources
Haiti Paid France for Its Own Freedom. That’s Why Haiti Is Poor.
Michael Imhotep is a historian, researcher, and founder of the African History Network. He teaches a 10-week course connecting the Haitian Revolution to the U.S. Civil War, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Black Power Movement. His breakdown of the New York Times 2022 investigative series cuts straight to why Haiti…
Freedmen
Michigan Lawmakers Introduce Reparative Justice Package on Eve of Juneteenth 2026
On the eve of Juneteenth 2026, members of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, community advocates, and descendants of the enslaved gathered in Lansing to announce something that rarely happens in statehouses anymore: a serious, specific, legislative response to the unfinished business of American freedom. The package does not promise reparations…
Juneteenth
Marc Lamont Hill Office Hours: Dr. Roger Davidson on Juneteenth, the Civil War, and What Freedom Actually Means
Marc Lamont Hill hosted historian and Bowie State University Associate Professor Dr. Roger A. Davidson Jr. for an Office Hours deep dive into the history America oversimplifies every time it goes on sale at Target. The conversation ranged from the military mechanics of how emancipation actually happened, to Lincoln’s real…
Juneteenth
Juneteenth Spurs New Jersey Reparations Push as Advocates Press for Repair
As Juneteenth celebrations unfold, New Jersey advocates including Jean-Pierre Brutus are pushing reparations back into the spotlight. NJ Spotlight News reports on the statewide and national fight for repair. Five years after Juneteenth became a federal holiday, New Jersey advocates are using the anniversary to press for reparations at the…
Charleston Reparations Task Force
40 Days. 7,000 Acres. The Charleston Reparations Task Force Is Done Waiting on Words.
Reported by Maya Brown, Live 5 News, Charleston, SC. The Charleston Reparations Task Force, in coalition with Gullah Geechee community members and descendants of enslaved Africans, confronted representatives of three major Lowcountry plantations and issued a formal demand for land transfer and reparative justice. 1. This is reparations as…