‘America’s Black Dreyfus Affair,’ and the Long Battle to Right Teddy Roosevelt’s Wrong

167 Black Soldiers Were Dishonorably Discharged from the Army in 1906. Two Angelenos Corrected the Historical Record in the 1970s

As a youngster, John Downing Weaver paid little attention to his mother when she told him stories of her and his father’s trip to Brownsville, Texas, in 1909. It wasn’t until the journalist was in his 50s that he got around to asking her about it. After all, it didn’t sound like a glamorous trip.

“Some Negro soldiers shot up the town,” she said, “and Teddy Roosevelt kicked them out of the Army.” Weaver figured his father, a stenographer for the House of Representatives, had been tapped to cover a trial …

by Julia Bricklin | July 13, 2020

Why Americans Still Eat Barbecue on July Fourth

More Than Two Centuries Ago, Roasted Meat Met Independence Day and Hasn’t Left the National Consciousness Since

by Adrian Miller | June 29, 2020

Dearly beloved, we are gathered in this moment to celebrate the culinary union of barbecue (a.k.a. barbeque, bar-b-que, bar-b-q, and BBQ) and Independence Day (a.k.a. July 4 or “the Fourth …

A Poem That Would Not Let Me Go

When I Found Multiple Truths in the Work of 18th-Century Poet Phillis Wheatley, She Became Some Kind of Kin

by Drea Brown | May 31, 2020

I do not remember how old I was when my grandmother showed me Phillis Wheatley’s poetry. Ten, maybe 11? Young enough that my hands were open to everything she put …

Hattiesburg Tells Us What America Has Lost, Gained—and Still Needs to Fix

Zócalo Book Prize Winner William Sturkey Describes What a Community Achieved Under Oppression—and How We Can Learn From Its Accomplishments Today

by Sarah Rothbard | May 21, 2020

At a moment when community feels precious and crisis lays bare American inequalities, the title subject of the 10th annual Zócalo Public Square Book Prize Lecture felt vital: “How Do …

Streaming Tonight

Here’s How to Join “How Do Oppressed People Build Community?”

May 20, 2020

Click here to join the conversation, airing tonight at 5 PM PDT.

University of North Carolina historian William Sturkey, winner of the 10th annual Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Hattiesburg: An American City in Black …

Why Was Baseball Legend Oscar Charleston Forgotten?

The Pathbreaking Player, Scout, and Manager Was Part of a Black Baseball Tradition That Is Still Obscured

by Jeremy Beer | March 1, 2020

History, more often than we would like, is an unjust judge. Consider the case of Oscar Charleston, a baseball player who for nearly 40 years was one of the most …

African American history