Author Hiller Zobel explores the death of Christopher Seider, an 11-year-old shot and killed during a riot on Feb. 22, 1770, and the trial of Boston loyalist Ebenezer Richardson for his murder. Zobel casts this as an event leading up to the Boston Massacre.
Writer Carol Bundy talks about the life of her great-great-great uncle, Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., a Boston abolitionist and industrialist eventually killed in the Civil War. The presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
Stephen Kendrick, author of Sarah's Long Walk, traces the history of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education landmark decision in favor of school desegregation back through American history to a court case in 1848. In 1848, African-American attorney Robert Morris supported a Boston African-American man in suing for his daughter's right to go to a desegregated school close to her home.
A panel of scholars responds to the second part of the PBS miniseries Slavery and the Making of America, which focuses on the Northeast, and includes the story of Mum Bett, who sued for her freedom in Massachusetts and whose victory led to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783.
Director of the National Center for History in the Schools Gary Nash examines the stories of African Americans during the Revolutionary War and the early years of the United States. Nash focuses on the search to define identity by these African Americans, whether slave or free.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Fuller discusses his life and motivations as an African-American author. The presentation also includes discussions and performances which bring the testimonies of slaves, soldiers, reporters, and activists from the Civil War to life, focusing on African-American history during the Civil War and African-American memory of the war.
Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable looks at the necessity for "revolution" in the field of Black studies. He looks at the history of education, scholarship, and the loss and construction of collective memory by and for African Americans.
Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable looks at the significance of Malcolm X's work and life to contemporary scholarship and African American identity. Marable focuses on the importance of accurately preserving information and materials on important public figures like Malcolm X and on the dangers of losing and misinterpreting such information.
Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable explores African American perceptions of history and major historical figures, particularly those of the Civil Rights Movement. Marable focuses on how and why African Americans have chosen some figures as representative of Black history and culture—that is, as heroes.
Authors Philip McFarland and Debby Applegate trace the lives of the Beechers, a family which included the siblings Henry Ward Beecher, a famous preacher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Audio and video options are available.