Category / Antiracism

by abritt

Reuters Quotes Anderson as Supreme Court Revisits Second Amendment

Reuters recently quoted Dr. Carol Anderson in a piece titled, “NRA lawsuit gives SCOTUS chance to confront 2nd Amendment’s roots in racism.” The article discusses a pending Supreme Court case on the 2nd Amendment and the possible implications if the justices were to consider the central argument from Anderson’s most recent book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021): that anti-Blackness was fundamental to the clause guaranteeing the right to bear arms. Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor, Chair of African-American Studies, and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Read an excerpt from the Reuters piece below along with the full article: “NRA lawsuit gives SCOTUS chance to confront 2nd Amendment’s roots in racism.”

“But there’s another ‘originalist’ narrative evident in the very source materials the justices studied, which seems to have more support than their versions of history. Indeed, the historical record shows that the Second Amendment is rooted in racism and was written to preserve Southern state militias whose job it was to crush slave rebellions and capture runaways.

“The court’s acknowledgement of that narrative would indicate its willingness to confront our history in the forthright manner demanded by originalism — whether or not one agrees that we should adhere to the founders’ ideals.

“The thesis of racism at the root of the Second Amendment has been developed, most notably, by Carol Anderson, a bestselling author and historian at Emory University. Anderson published The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America in June. Anderson’s book also asserts that the right to weapons has been continuously denied to Black people.“

by abritt

Anderson Contributes to 11Alive Program ‘Drawing Conclusions’

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor, recently contributed to the 11Alive news station’s “Drawing Conclusions” series. The series follows two Georgia parents who address their skepticism of Critical Race Theory and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public schools with a range of experts. Anderson, associated faculty in the History Department and, most recently, the author of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021), was the first expert the parents interviewed. Find a video of the segment below and read more about the series here: “These parents questioned critical race theory and DEI programs in public schools. They interviewed experts and here’s what they found.”

by abritt

Anderson to Present at the Decatur Book Festival on October 2

Dr. Carol Anderson will present at the upcoming Decatur Book Festival on October 2, 2021. Anderson will discuss her most recent work, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). The festival this year has been scaled back to a one-day, virtual event. Find out more information about the festival itself here along with more about participating Emory faculty via this Emory News Center piece: “Decatur Book Festival becomes one-day October event, features Emory authors.”

by abritt

‘State of Play’ Features Anderson to Discuss Race and Guns in the U.S.

The Black News Channel program State of Play, hosted by Sharon Pratt, recently featured Dr. Carol Anderson as a guest. The segment focused on the relationship between gun ownership, racial inequality, and white supremacy in the U.S. Anderson’s comments draw on her most recent book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor, Chair of African-American Studies, and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Watch the interview here.

by abritt

CNN Article Quotes Anderson on Race and Gun Control

Charles Howard Candler Professor Carol Anderson was recently quoted in a CNN article written by Brandon Tensley and titled “How race permeates the politics of gun control.” The piece discusses how racial violence, anti-Black prejudice, and Black self-defense movements have shaped gun policy in the U.S. from the 1960s through the present. Anderson is the author, most recently, of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021), which analyzes the Second Amendment in the context of the citizenship and human rights of African Americans. Read the CNN piece here: “How race permeates the politics of gun control.”

by abritt

Anderson Discusses the Voting Rights Act on its 56th Anniversary in ‘The Washington Post’

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor, Chair of African American Studies, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in a story in The Washington Post. The piece examines the state of the Votings Rights Act on its 56th anniversary through interviews with activists, lawmakers, and scholars. Read an excerpt below along with the full article: “Frustration and persistence for activists on the 56th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.”

“Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University and author of ‘One Person, No Vote,’ a history of voter suppression in America, said violent reactions of Southern officials to Black people protesting discriminatory voting laws shook awake a country that had been ‘lulled to sleep or seduced into believing that this was just the way it was because it was legal.’

“Although officials are not using clubs, hoses and dogs, she said Biden has abandoned Black voters to an electoral system that continues to discriminate against them.

“‘Biden is asking us to continue to be beaten for democracy. He’s continuing to ask us to be willing to stand in the 11-hour lines to vote. He’s continuing to ask us to be running around, trying to get the documents we need in order to be able to get the ID,’ Anderson said. ‘And he’s continuing to ask us to deal with the fact that 1,600 polling places have been closed since Shelby County v. Holder, the vast majority of those in minority areas.'”

by abritt

Rucker, Anderson, and Goldmon Help to Organize ‘In the Wake of Slavery and Dispossession’ Symposium

This fall Emory University will host a symposium titled, “In the Wake of Slavery and Dispossession: Emory, Racism and the Journey Toward Restorative Justice.” Dr. Walter C. Rucker, Professor of African American Studies and History, Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor and Associated Faculty in History, and History doctoral student Camille Goldmon have served on the symposium’s steering committee. The Emory News Center recently published a feature story on the Sept. 21-Oct. 1 event, which will be free to the public. Read an excerpt from their story quoting Dr. Rucker below along with the full article: “Fall symposium connects activism to Emory’s history of slavery and land dispossession.”

“‘The past is a part of our living present,’ says Walter Rucker, an African American studies and history professor and steering committee member. ‘Slavery, dispossession and Jim Crow created a continuum for the racial logics we live with today. To talk about slavery and how it devalued Black lives helps us address why a police officer could kneel on a man’s neck for nine minutes. The same, or similar, logics that spawned racism energize patriarchy, homophobia and transphobia as well. Every person has a role in chipping away at these constructs in order to create a more just future.'”

by abritt

Anderson Interviewed on Supreme Court Challenge to NY Gun Restrictions in ‘Slate’

Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies Dr. Carol Anderson was recently interviewed by Slate journalist Mark Joseph Stern. Their conversation centers on an upcoming Supreme Court case challenging the state of New York’s restrictive concealed carry laws, which have drawn criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Drawing on her most recent book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021), Anderson discusses the intersection of racism and gun control, past and present. Read an excerpt below along with the full piece: “Does the Progressive Case Against New York’s Concealed Carry Ban Hold Water?”

The amicus brief really speaks to the conundrum of anti-Blackness in American society. When Black people are defined as the default threat in American society—when you have this architecture of laws and of policing that comes into being to control that Black population—it means that Black people are vulnerable when they are armed, and vulnerable when they’re unarmed.

by abritt

Biden Nominates Klibanoff and Dudley to Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board

President Joe Biden has nominated two Emory experts, Hank Klibanoff and Gabrielle Dudley, to serve on the federal Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board. Klibanoff directs the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project and is the creator and host of Buried Truths, an award-winning podcast that recently finished its third season. Klibanoff is also Associated Faculty in the History Department. Dudley is an instruction archivist with Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, where she works with faculty on course design and integrating resources from the Rose library into their classes. Dudley and Klibanoff have taught together twice. The five-person federal review board will, as the Emory News Center explains, “examine government records of unpunished, racially motivated murders of Black Americans during the modern civil rights era.” The Atlanta-Journal Constitution also covered the nomination in a piece titled, “Civil rights cold case board to have unique Atlanta flavor.” Read more about the nomination of Dudley and Klibanoff at the AJC and via the Emory News Center’s articles, “Two Emory experts nominated to serve on Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board” and “Acclaim: Recent honors for Emory faculty and staff.”

by abritt

Anderson Pens Op-Ed in ‘The Guardian’: “America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery”

Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies Dr. Carol Anderson recently wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian. Titled “America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery,” the article discusses how revolts led by the enslaved, including in the mid-eighteenth century, influenced the framers to cement the right to bear arms and maintain militias in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Anderson connects this history to contemporary discourses around guns, violence, and race. The piece stems from Anderson’s newest book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Read an excerpt below, along with the full article.

“This function of the militias was so important during the war of independence that governments such as that in South Carolina devoted the lion’s share of their white manpower to the containment of the enslaved. As a result, the colony did not have enough white men to join the Continental Army and repel the British. The calculus was simple: it was more important to the plantation owners in the colonial government to maintain slavery and control Black people than to fight for American independence.

“In other words, concerns about keeping enslaved Black people in check are the context and background to the second amendment. The same holds true for today.”