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Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project Partners with National Center for Civil and Human Rights to Produce Exhibit about the Victims of 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre

Emory’s Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project will partner with the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to produce an exhibit about the more than two dozen Black Atlanta residents murdered in what has become known as the Atlanta Race Massacre of 1906. The exhibit will make up part of a three-story expansion to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights funded by a $17 million grant by the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Hank Klibanoff, James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism and Associated Faculty in the History Department, is the director of the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project. The Blank Family Foundation grant will support the continuation of research by Klibanoff, along with undergraduates in his course the Cold Cases Project, into the Black lives lost to the massacre. Read an excerpt from the Emory News Center feature of the project below along with the full article: “Grant to help Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project uncover Atlanta’s racial history.”

“Who were these people? What did they do, how did they live, how did they die? We know enough from our preliminary research to see the victims were people living on the right side of the law, but they became political pawns, expendable because of their race,” says Klibanoff, a professor of practice in Emory’s Creative Writing program.

“We’ll be seeking to animate their lives to give them the historical justice that was denied them by law enforcement and the judicial system in 1906,” he adds.

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Abigail Meert (PhD, ’19) Publishes Article in the ‘International Journal of African Historical Studies’

Dr. Abilgail Meert (PhD, ’19) recently published an article in the International Journal of African Historical Studies. Titled “Suffering, Consent, and Coercion in Uganda: The Luwero War, 1981-1986,” the piece offers a fresh interpretation of popular support for a much-celebrated guerilla movement led by the The Ugandan National Resistance Army (NRA) and National Resistance Movement (NRM). Meert is Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M International University. She completed her doctoral work under the advisement of Clifton Crais and with a dissertation titled “Suffering, Struggle, and the Politics of Legitimacy in Uganda, 1962-1996.” Read the abstract of Meert’s article below.

The Ugandan National Resistance Army (NRA) and its political wing, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), are lauded in Africanist scholarship for being one the first guerrilla movements to overthrow an independent state in post-colonial African history. Scholars have largely attributed the NRA/M’s unprecedented success to its innovative strategies of governance and political education during the war, crediting these initiatives with legitimizing the NRA/M and encouraging civilians’ voluntary support within the war effort. This article contends that the NRA/M’s wartime reforms had only minimal impact on civilian decisions to participate in the 1981-1986 Luwero War. Instead, it argues that popular fear of the incumbent state motivated civilians to join the rebel movement. In recognizing the constraints within which civilians consented to NRA/M leadership, this article offers insight into broader questions of authority, legitimacy, and mobilization in African politics. Such reflection may also help contextualize the claims that African political leaders make toward power and explain variations in the resonance of those claims for African audiences over time.

by abritt

Anderson Appraises Historical Significance of Second Trump Impeachment Trial for ‘AP News’

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in an AP News article on the second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald J. Trump. The piece assessed the likelihood that Trump would be found guilty or innocent as well as the longer-term consequences of the trial for politicians, historians, and democracy in the U.S. Read an excerpt quoting Dr. Anderson below along with the full piece: “Analysis: Trump’s Senate trial matters regardless of outcome.”

“For historians, what that trial does is to provide additional evidence and documentation under oath,” said Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University. “It also gives us a sense of the strength, or the weakness, in American democracy as the senators are confronted with this evidence.”

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Lisa Greenwald (PhD, ’96) Featured as ‘New Yorker of the Week’

PhD alumna Lisa Greenwald was recently featured as the “New Yorker of the Week” by Spectrum News’ NY1 outlet. The story focuses on how Greenwald has cooked dinner each Wednesday night throughout the pandemic for 30 women and children at a shelter across from her Morningside Heights home. Greenwald, who graduated from the Emory PhD program in 1996 and teaches at Stuyvesant High School, published Daughters of 1968: Redefining French Feminism and the Women’s Liberation Movement with the University of Nebraska Press in 2019. Read the feature about her service to her neighbors here: “New Yorker of the Week: Lisa Greenwald.”

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‘WSJ’ Reviews PhD Alumnus Robert Elder’s ‘Calhoun: American Heretic’ (Basic Books, 2021)

Basic Books will publish the second monograph from Dr. Robert Elder, a 2011 graduate of the Emory History doctoral program, this month. Titled Calhoun: American Heretic, the book is a cultural and intellectual biography of the father of Southern secession. In a recent review The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Horn described the book as a “serious analysis” that “traces how Calhoun’s thinking continues to influence American society today and shows how academic scholarship has moved ever closer to accepting Calhoun’s once shocking ideas about the role of slavery in American history.” Now Assistant Professor at Baylor University, Elder completed his graduate work at Emory under the advisement of S C Dobbs Professor Emeritus Professor James L. Roark. Read more about Calhoun: American Heretic at Basic Books and in the WSJ review: “‘Calhoun’ Review: The Nullifier and His Legacy.”

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Lesser and Anderson Among Faculty Panelists at Upcoming Event, “The Insurrection at the Capitol: Where Do We Go from Here?”

Dr. Jeffrey Lesser (Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Director of the Halle Institute),  Dr. Carol Anderson (Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, AAS Chair, and Associated Faculty), and Dr. Jeffrey Staton (Professor and Chair, Political Science) will speak on a panel at an upcoming Zoom event titled “The Insurrection at the Capitol: Where Do We Go from Here?” Sponsored by Emory College and Bridge Emory, the event aims to create dialogue among students and faculty relating to the events at the U.S. Capitol in January. Following presentations by the panelists, students will be invited to join a dozen additional Emory faculty members in conversation in breakout rooms. Dr. Gyan Pandey (Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor) and Dr. Carl Suddler (Assistant Professor) are among the faculty who will facilitate breakout conversations. The event will take place on Thursday, February 4, from 7:30-9pm. You may register here: http://bit.ly/postinsurrection-event.

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Anderson, Goldmon, and Pugh Among Recipients of Mellon Foundation Grant on Reparations Solutions

Emory University is one of the recipients of a $5 million grant awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Solutions and other institutions as part of the Foundation’s Just Futures initiative. The project creates and leverages a national network of scholars working in partnership with community-based organizations to develop racial reparation solutions. Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, AAS department chair, and associated faculty in the history department, will lead a team of scholars that also includes Vanessa Siddle Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Studies, and AAS assistant professors Dr. Janeria Easley and Dr. Jessica Lynn Stewart.

History doctoral students Camille Goldmon and Aleo Pugh will support the team’s work. Goldmon’s dissertation, advised by Dr. Allen E. Tullos and Anderson, is titled “Land Retention Amongst African-American Farmers in the U.S. South.” Pugh’s dissertation, advised by Dr. Walter Rucker, Dr. Jason Ward, and Anderson, is titled “‘Leery of Being Consumed’: Working-Class Black Dissent and the Legacy of Brown.” Read more about the grant below.

The grant’s project, “Crafting Democratic Futures: Situating Colleges and Universities in Community-based Reparations Solutions” will involve community fellows as well as local organizations in a collaborative public history reckoning designed to offer tangible suggestions for community-based racial reparations solutions. The project emerges from the Center for Social Solutions’ focus on slavery and its aftermath, and is informed by three generations of humanistic scholarship and what that scholarship suggests for all seeking just futures. The Center is led by former Emory Provost Earl Lewis.

-“Recent Mellon Foundation Grants Awarded to AAS Faculty,” AAS Newsletter.
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Lipstadt Dissects Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories, Past and Present, for ‘Vox’

Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt recently analyzed the links between anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories in an article for Vox. Titled “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s space laser and the age-old problem of blaming the Jews,” the piece dissects support from U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and other GOP officials for conspiracy theories animated by anti-Semitism. Lipstadt, an expert on the Holocaust, Holocaust denialism, and anti-Semitism, is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and associated faculty in the history department. Read an excerpt from the Vox article below along with the full piece.

“To understand why anti-Semitic rhetoric is so common among modern conspiracy theorists, we need to go back over 2,000 years. Deborah Lipstadt, an Emory University historian and leading expert on anti-Semitism, traces the structure of anti-Semitic ideas back to the very origins of Christianity — specifically, the New Testament description of Jesus’s death.

“The early Church taught that ‘the Jews’ conspired to kill Jesus — even though Jesus and his apostles were all Jewish and the Romans who actually executed him in the story were not. This, according to Lipstadt, was in part a strategic choice: Christianity had become a competing religion to Judaism, and its leadership wanted to marginalize the older, more deeply rooted tradition. What better way to do that than to blame Jews for killing the literal savior, casting remaining Jews as Christ-denying heirs to a dark conspiracy?

“‘Jews, [early Christians] argued, repudiated this new faith because of their inherent maliciousness,’ Lipstadt writes. ‘This formulation rendered Judaism more than just a competing religion. It became a source of evil.‘”

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Price Evaluates Biden Administration’s COVID Plan for ‘Octavian Report’

Dr. Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Professor of Global Health, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently a featured guest on Rostrum, the podcast of Octavian Report. Price evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the Biden administration’s ambitious plan to address the pandemic and discusses whether she thinks the approach will prove successful. Price’s book Plagues in the Nation (forthcoming from Beacon Press), a narrative history of the United States through major outbreaks. Listen to the full conversation on Rostrum: “Will the Biden COVID Plan Work?”

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Anderson Eyes Past and Future in Analysis of Warnock’s Senate Win

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in a TIME article about the historical significance of Ralph Warnock’s election to the U.S. Senate in January of this year. Anderson places Warnock’s election in the context of previous advances toward racial equity and democracy in the U.S. during the Reconstruction and Civil Rights eras, in particular. She also warns of increased efforts at voter suppression following a historic turnout in the January special election.

Anderson is the author, most recently, of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018) and White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury, 2016). Read an excerpt from the TIME piece below along with the full article: “‘Another Milestone in the Long, Long Road.’ Rev. Raphael Warnock’s Georgia Senate Victory Made History in Multiple Ways.”

“Prior to the mid-1960s, ‘In states like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, you would have single digit percentages of African Americans registered to vote and counties that were overwhelmingly Black with zero number of African Americans registered to vote because of the terror and the disenfranchising policies put in place, like poll taxes and literacy tests,’ says Anderson. ‘When you really think about American democracy, we didn’t really get close to it until after the Voting Rights Act of 1965.‘”