Category / Public Scholarship

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

Lipstadt Publishes Essay in ‘The Jewish Quarterly’

Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and associated faculty in the History Department, recently published an essay in the relaunch issue of The Jewish Quarterly. The piece, “White insurrectionists: Anti-semitism in America,” examines the roots of far-right extremism in the United States. Read a short excerpt from the piece below, a longer excerpt at Jewish News, and the full article (subscription required) at The Jewish Quarterly.

“[The January 6 U.S. Capitol] assault shocked and surprised many people. It was unprecedented. (The Capitol had been attacked previously, but that was in 1812 by the British, not a swarm of American citizens.)

“I was not, however, surprised by either the insurrection or the antisemitism that was part of it. Rather than an ex nihilo event, it constituted a link in the growing chain of far-right extremist violence.

“During recent years, the United States – as well as much of Europe – has witnessed a decided growth in and sophistication of far-right white-power movements.

“Now that they have emerged more fully into the daylight, it is important that we recognise how the racism and antisemitism within them are inextricably linked.”

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.”

by abritt

Evans Grubbs Quoted in ‘Live Science’ Article on Finding at Roman Cemetery in U.K.

Dr. Judith Evans Grubbs, Betty Gage Holland Professor of Roman History, was recently quoted in a Live Science article titled, “17 decapitated skeletons found at ancient Roman cemetery.” The findings occurred in the course of excavations at three ancient Roman cemeteries in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. The piece discusses possible explanations for the decapitations, which some scholars (including Evans Grubbs) think took place in the context of official executions relating to the violation of Roman law. Read an excerpt below along with the full article.

“Still, other scholars thought that these people could have been executed in accordance with Roman law. ‘Official execution seems the best explanation for the Knobb’s Farm cases,’ said Judith Evans Grubbs, a professor of Roman history at Emory University in Atlanta. ‘Official executions would be carried out under the authority of the provincial governor, not local justice, and would reflect imperial ideas of criminality rather than local’ ones, said Grubbs. She noted that women in the Roman Empire were often targets for accusations of sorcery and adultery, both of which could be considered capital crimes by the Romans.”

by abritt

Michael Camp (PhD, ’17) Publishes Piece in ‘Salon’

Dr. Michael Camp, a 2017 graduate of the doctoral program, recently published an article in Salon. The piece, “Sorry, Republicans: Joe Biden isn’t Jimmy Carter — and these aren’t the 1970s,” interrogates the comparisons that political opponents of Joe Biden have made between the current U.S. president and ex-president Jimmy Carter. Camp is the author of Unnatural Resources: Energy and Environmental Politics in Appalachia after the 1973 Oil Embargo (University of Pittsburg Press, 2019). Read an excerpt of the Salon piece below along with the full article.

“Perhaps it’s understandable that the Trumps might want to link Biden to Carter, who left office in 1981 in shame, having been thoroughly defeated in his bid for re-election by Ronald Reagan. But the comparison likely won’t stand for long, because our current situation bears little resemblance to the political morass of the late 1970s that doomed Carter’s quest for a second term in office.”

by abritt

Anderson Publishes ‘The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America’

Dr. Carol Anderson has published a new book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Examining the establishment of the right to bear arms in relationship to the citizenship rights and human rights of African Americans, Anderson’s work argues that the Second Amendment has consistently kept African Americans “powerless and vulnerable.” Dr. Anderson, who is Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Department Chair, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, has spoken about this newest work with multiple media organizations and on a book tour. Find a list of some of the coverage of her newest work below:

by abritt

Suddler Discusses Ronald Greene, Athlete Activism, and Kristen Clarke on ‘Black News Channel’

Dr. Carl Suddler, Assistant Professor of History, was recently a featured guest on the Black News Channel. In the interview Suddler discusses the increase of anti-racist and anti-police brutality activism among professional athletes since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a subject that he recently wrote about in-depth for The Washington Post. Suddler also discusses the police killing of Ronald Greene and the appointment of Kristen Clarke as the first Black woman to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division. Suddler is the author of Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York (New York University Press, 2019). Watch the BNC interview here: “Ronald Greene’s death highlights injustice in criminal justice system.”

by abritt

Crespino Comments on Stone Mountain’s Past and Future in ‘The Washington Post’

Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor and Department Chair, was recently quoted in an article in The Washington Post about the history and fate of Confederate memorialization at the Atlanta-area Stone Mountain Park. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association recently voted to implement some changes at the site, which was conceived of and constructed a half century after the Civil War by those who resisted the expansion of political and civil rights to Black Americans. Crespino, an expert in the history of U.S. South since Reconstruction, offers crucial historical context about the establishment of the park and discusses its future. Read an excerpt below along with the full article: “Georgia park wants to ‘tell the truth’ about world’s largest Confederate monument. Others want it gone.”

“Work on the carvings dragged out. For decades, there was just Lee’s head.

“Then, in the 1950s, a man named Marvin Griffin ran for Georgia governor vowing to fight the federal government’s efforts at desegregation — and also to purchase Stone Mountain and finish the job. He won; the landmark became state property. Work resumed on the carvings, and Georgia also incorporated the Confederate battle emblem into its flag.

“The flag was changed decades later. Now, Crespino says, ‘it’s going to be the flag 2.0 for the state of Georgia as to how to deal with Stone Mountain.’

“’I used to be, as a historian, always leaning toward contextualization,’ he told The Post. ‘But I do think there are some that are so prominent and so central that they do need to be removed.'”

by abritt

Anderson Quoted in ‘AJC’ on “Jim Crow 2.0”

An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently quoted Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Department Chair, and Associated Faculty in the History Department. The piece investigates the term “Jim Crow 2.0,” which has recently gained purchase as a description of disenfranchising election laws passed in states throughout the U.S., including Georgia. Anderson offers historical context about the similarities and differences between official anti-Black policies and practices from the turn of the 20th century and today. Read an excerpt below along with the full article: “What does Jim Crow 2.0 mean? A look at the history of segregation laws.”

“The rationale for poll taxes and other voting restrictions in Mississippi’s 1890 constitution — a model for other Southern states, including Georgia — was to restore election integrity, said Carol Anderson, chair of African American studies at Emory University. But Mississippi’s governor admitted the real reason was to eliminate Black people from politics, she said.”