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.
Writer Charles C. Calhoun, author of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life, shows how the American poet Longfellow Henry Wadsworth blended the Federalist politics and Unitarianism of his parents' generation with the German romanticism he discovered on his own travels. Calhoun discusses Longfellow's life and his influences.
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.
Director of the National Center for History in the Schools Gary Nash considers whether or not the Founding Fathers, in forming the United States of America, could have successfully abolished slavery.
A panel of scholars reviews the landmark school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education and debates whether the case led to true improvement in the life conditions of African Americans.
A panel discusses and debates the troubled desegregation of schools in Little Rock, AR, and the move towards desegregation in general. Ernest Green, one of the nine African American students who attended Little Rock's desegregated school, speaks as one of the panelists.
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.