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.
Historian Kate Clifford Larson reviews the life of Harriet Tubman and Tubman's work in freeing other slaves along the Underground Railroad. Larson focuses on unsimplifying Tubman's life story and presenting it in its complexity and full breadth.
Professor Gerald L. Early discusses cultural observations on Curt Flood, the first player in Major League Baseball to challenge the infamous "reserve clause" which opened the doors to free agency. Early focuses on the significance of sports as a public arena.
Professor Raymond Arsenault discusses the Freedom Rides of 1961, in which participants rode public buses into the South to protest transportation segregation. He focuses on the personal stories of the Freedom Riders.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch discusses the final years of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, focusing on King's attempts to move the Civil Rights Movement into protest of the Vietnam War and King's calls for broader social and economic justice.
Video and audio options are available.
Congressman John Lewis, who at 23 spoke at the 1963 March on Washington as chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, leads a discussion on the planning, implementation, and effect the first March on Washington had on the country. The presentation includes footage of Lewis's 1963 speech at the March.
Hubie Jones, assistant to the Urban Affairs chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, provides an overview of the issue of race, and, in particular, the status of African Americans in Boston over the past 50 years.
Julie Winch discusses the highly successful African-American Remond family and their business of catering lavish parties in Boston and Newport in the 1800s. Winch focuses on the Remonds as free African Americans and supporters of abolitionism during the era of slavery.