Category / Public Scholarship

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.”

by abritt

Anderson Analyzes Voter Suppression, Past and Present, in the ‘AJC’

Dr. Carol Anderson was quoted in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about the parallels between GA’s recently-passed election law and statutes that prevented Black voters from casting ballots in the Jim Crow era. Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Department Chair, and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Her most recent book is One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018). Read an excerpt from the AJC piece below along with the full article, “Calls of ‘Jim Crow’ spark debate about Georgia election law.”

“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.”

by abritt

‘Buried Truths’ Wins the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award

The latest season of the Emory course-related podcast “Buried Truths” has won the distinguished Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts from the American Bar Association. The podcast draws from an undergraduate course on Civil Rights Era Cold Cases taught by Hank Klibanoff, James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism and Associated Faculty in the History Department. The most recent season of “Buried Truths” centers on the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man killed near Brunswick, Georgia, in February of 2020. The Emory News Center recently published a feature story on the podcast and the prize. Read an excerpt below along with the full article.

“What matters most to me is that we got it right and were able to say it clearly,” Klibanoff says. “It’s thrilling to be honored for having accomplished that in telling a story that is surrounded by complicated legal matters.”

Working with five Emory undergraduates, writer Richard Halicks and the production team at public radio station WABE, Klibanoff unearthed the centuries-long roots of Arbery’s killing in a story told across seven episodes.

by abritt

Anderson Discusses Historical Implications of Not Forming Jan. 6 Commission in ‘AP News’

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Department Chair, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in the AP News article “Shock of Jan. 6 insurrection devolves into political fight.” The piece discusses Republican resistance in the U.S. Senate to forming an independent commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection. Read the full piece here, along with an excerpt quoting Anderson on the historical and archival implications of not establishing such a commission below.

“The partisan fight over the new panel is alarming to historians who say an independent record of that dark day is needed to understand what happened and hold those involved accountable.

“‘If you don’t have follow-up, it reaffirms that folks are right in their wrongness,’ said Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University.”

by abritt

Suddler Pens Piece in WaPo: “George Floyd changed the world of athlete activism”

Dr. Carl Suddler, Assistant Professor of History, recently published an article in The Washington Post’s “Made by History” series. The piece examines how athletes have become more outspoken in their criticism of police brutality and, at the same time, more directly involved in supporting social justice and anti-racism. Suddler locates this trend to the previous decade, beginning with the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2012 and reaching a new peak in the last year in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Suddler also discusses how Black athletes – including Floyd, himself a former college basketball player – navigate the threat and reality of police violence and brutality. Read an excerpt below, along with the full piece: “George Floyd changed the world of athlete activism.”

However, one of Floyd’s most lasting legacies may well be his impact on the sports world. As a former athlete, his life story, which had a special meaning for a generation of athletes, underscored the fine line separating athletic heroes and victims of police violence. His death cemented a new generation of athletes as activists against police violence and professional sports leagues, at minimum, as performative allies. The history of athlete activism reminds us that this movement is one of radical possibility.

by abritt

Anderson Draws Parallels to Jim Crow Era in CNN Articles on Voter Suppression

Dr. Carol Anderson was quoted in two recent CNN articles produced as part of a series on voter suppression. The articles examine legislation in multiple states, including Georgia, that observers see as meaningfully restricting voting access and curbing voters’ rights. Anderson explains how this legislation echoes voter suppression tactics from the Jim Crow era.

Dr. Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Department Chair, and Associated Faculty in the History Department. She is the author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018). Read an excerpt from Anderson’s contribution to the first CNN article below, along with the full versions of each: “Republican state lawmakers look to empower partisan poll watchers, setting off alarms about potential voter intimidation” and “A short history of the long conservative assault on Black voting power.”

“Carol Anderson, an historian and professor of African American Studies at Emory University, said the new proposals build on a history of voter intimidation that long has targeted people of color. ‘What’s built into this is the inequality of the system itself,’ she said. ‘You know that somebody who is Black or Hispanic will not be able to go up into an all-White precinct and start challenging those voters without having a massive law-enforcement response.’ She called the wave of new laws ‘infuriating.’ ‘It’s infuriating because we’ve done this dance before,’ Anderson said. ‘We know what a Jim Crow democracy looks like and the damage it does to the United States of America and to its people.'”

by abritt

Crespino Discusses the Future of the Filibuster on “Political Rewind”

Dr. Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor and Department Chair, was recently a guest on the Georgia Public Broadcasting show “Political Rewind.” The episode focused on the role of the filibuster in creating deadlock in the U.S. Senate. Crespino was a panelist alongside former U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, Steven Dennis (Congressional Reporter, Bloomberg News), and Tamar Hallerman (Senior Reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Listen to the show at the following link: “Political Rewind: In Deadlocked Senate, Some Question If It Is Time To End The Filibuster.”

by abritt

Suh Moderates Panel “Asian American Studies Then and Now”

Assistant Professor Chris Suh recently moderated a conversation entitled “Changing with the Times: Asian American Studies Then and Now.” Sponsored by Emory’s Office for Racial and Cultural Engagement, the conversation brought together panelists Ellen Wu (Associate Professor of History, Indiana University Bloomington), Quan Tran (Lecturer in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University), and Calvin Cheung-Miaw (PhD candidate in Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford University). The panelists discussed Asian American Studies both as a social movement and an academic field. Find more information below.

by abritt

Anderson Quoted in WABE Story on New Georgia Voting Law

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in a story produced by Atlanta’s WABE. The story, “The Good, The Bad And The ‘Petty’ In Georgia’s New Voting Law,” discusses the effects of and debates about the state’s new voting legislation. Read an excerpt quoting Anderson below along with the full piece.

“It also bans counties from accepting private grant money used to open more polling sites and hire more workers to process absentee ballots. ‘When you’re counting 2,000 votes, that’s one thing, when you’re counting hundreds of thousands of votes, that’s another,’ said Emory University professor Carol Anderson.

“Anderson, who studies the history of voting rights, says a one-sized fits all approach to running elections is impractical and disproportionately affects voters in larger cities — often minority voters. Anderson says Georgia lawmakers from both parties should embrace the record voter turnout seen in the 2020 election cycle. ‘But instead of that, we get this cauldron of gloom and doom, and we get this horrible bill that becomes a law that is designed to basically take the power away from voters,’ she said.“

by abritt

Suddler to Moderate “State of the Playing Field” in Final Event of Sports History Lecture Series

Dr. Carl Suddler, Assistant Professor of History, will moderate the final event in the Sports History Lecture Series, titled “State of the Playing Field: Sports Historians Wrap Up,” along with History honors student Hannah Charak (21C) and Mathematics major Matthew Ross (21C). The panel will include: Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and African American Studies at Penn State University; Louis Moore, associate professor of history at Grand Valley State University; Theresa Runstedtler, associate professor of history at American University; and Derrick White, professor of history and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. Following the panel, the speakers will answer questions from the audience. Registration is required, and registrants will be entered into a prize raffle.