Primary Source Spotlight: Native American History & Heritage

Primary Source Spotlight: Native American History & Heritage

PSN curated source sets Today in History Captivity Narratives Chief John Ross & the Cherokee Nation Chief Joseph Surrenders Custer’s Last Stand Fort Necessity & the French and Indian War Indian Citizenship Act Jamestown Siege of Fort Meigs Jim Thorpe Western Missionaries & Native Americans Sarah Winnemucca Primary Source Spotlight Indian Removal The Iroquois Confederacy…

Timely Connections: Frederick Douglass & the Emancipation Memorial

Timely Connections: Frederick Douglass & the Emancipation Memorial

Amid calls for removal of the Emancipation Memorial, also called the Freedmen’s Monument, in Washington D.C. and a replica of it in Boston, Washington Post reporter DaNeen L. Brown considers the statue and takes a look back at a speech made by Frederick Douglass at the D.C. unveiling ceremony on April 14, 1876. In the speech, Douglass…

Timely Connections: Frederick Douglass & Scientific Racism

Timely Connections: Frederick Douglass & Scientific Racism

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Eric Herschthal, a fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, suggests that we remember Frederick Douglass “as someone whose insights about scientific theories of race are every bit as relevant in our era as they were when he wrote…

Timely Connections: James Madison & Slavery

Timely Connections: James Madison & Slavery

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor and the author of the book The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President, discusses the dichotomies between Madison’s moral views of slavery and his actions. Delving into the past, he contends, can provide us with lessons in racism for…

Today in History: Billie Holiday

Today in History: Billie Holiday

Today in History–April 7–the Library of Congress features jazz singer Billie Holiday, born on this date in 1915 in Baltimore, Maryland. Although she had no formal music training, Holiday arranged and composed music in addition to singing. Her 1939 rendition of Lewis Allan’s “Strange Fruit,” a song about lynching, was described in the liner notes to Immortal Sessions of…