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Slavery

The Oberlin rescuers, with Simeon Bushnell and Charles Langston 9th and 12th from the left. Library of Congress

Anti-slavery heroes Charles Langston and Simeon Bushnell deserve pardons too, President Trump

By Reparations

By Steven Lubet, The Conversation — President Donald Trump has exercised the pardon power more aggressively and creatively than most of his predecessors, granting pardons to political supporters such as Joe Arpaio and Dinesh D’Souza, and a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, who was convicted on a racially fraught charge of violating the Mann Act. Trump has mused about pardoning former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as well as Robert Mueller’s probe…

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Saamakan Maroon community of Suriname today

Suriname slave records go digital as the country celebrates “Keti Koti”

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Ray Chickrie — Today, July 1, Suriname celebrates the 155th anniversary of the end of slavery, emancipation or Keti Kota. It is also known locally as Maspasi. Slavery came to an end in 1863 in Suriname, but prior to that enslaved Africans waged wars of liberation and freed themselves from bondage (Maroons) and signed treaties with the Dutch. The Netherlands signed peace treaties with the Nyduka (Akkan) in 1760,…

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Zora Neale Hurston

Witnesses for the Future

By Commentaries/Opinions

Zora Neale Hurston’s drive to tell the story of the slave trade’s last survivor By Emily Bernard, The New Republic — “You have seen how a man was made a slave,” Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. “You shall see how a slave was made a man.” These words herald the moment when Douglass masters his master, the sadistic overseer and “negro-breaker,”…

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The Second Sight of W.E.B. Du Bois

By Editors' Choice

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com — Chris Hedges gave this talk Friday at the Left Forum in New York City. W.E.B. Du Bois, more than any intellectual this nation produced in the first half of the 20th century, explained America to itself. He did this not only through what he called the “color line” but by exposing the intertwining of empire, capitalism and white supremacy. He deftly fused academic disciplines. He possessed unwavering…

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The Mormon church is still grappling with a racial past.

Mormons confront a history of Church racism

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Matthew Bowman, The Conversation — On June 1 of this year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – or the Mormons – will celebrate the 40th anniversary of what they believe to be a revelation from God. This revelation to the then-President of the Church Spencer W. Kimball – which is known as “Official Declaration 2” – reversed longstanding restrictions placed on people of black African descent in the…

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