July 24, 2024

Why History Lessons Are So Threatening to Those with Power

Chana Teeger

Erasure and denial of the past are not the only ways to suppress historical claims and reproduce privilege. Chana Teeger’s research in two racially diverse South African schools shows how the past can be recalled while its legacies are ignored.

March 27, 2024

Laura E. Helton on Scattered and Fugitive Things

In Scattered and Fugitive Things, Laura E. Helton tells the stories of six Black collectors who played a pivotal role in shaping the early twentieth-century Black archive. From the parlors of the urban North to HBCU reading rooms and branch...

February 21, 2024

Q&A: Najha Zigbi-Johnson on Mapping Malcolm

Mapping Malcolm is a collection of essays, conversations, and works of art that reinscribes Malcolm X’s memory and legacy across the built environment, forms of contemporary community building, and Black freedom movements as they continue to manifest across New York...

February 14, 2024

Beyond the Famous Few:

Five Women Who Shaped Black History and Literature

Courtney Thorsson

One Sunday afternoon in February 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan’s Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne, and talk about their work. Calling themselves “The Sisterhood,” the group—which...

February 9, 2024

15 Must-Read Books for Black History Month 2024

This month, we come together to celebrate the achievements of African Americans and to recognize their roles in shaping U.S. history and culture. This year, we invite you on a journey of discovery through these rich narratives and scholarly works....

February 1, 2024

Behind the Lines:

How Plagiarism Popularized the Harlem Renaissance

Adam McKible

The Harlem Renaissance made an early splash with millions of Americans through a blatant act of plagiarism. In March 1925, Alain Locke announced the flourishing of the New Negro in Harlem by guest editing “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro,”...

January 15, 2024

Israel, Palestine, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Civil Rights Legacy

Roger Baumann

In mid-January each year, many Americans turn their attention to questions about the legacy of the historic civil rights era of the 1950s and ’60s in the United States. This annual period of national introspection focuses especially on Martin Luther...

June 13, 2023

How Mapping the Black Experience Will Shape Society for a Better Future

Olive Vassell and Natasha A. Kelly

“If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.” With these words, writer James Baldwin captured the essence of the power of remembrance and commemoration: practices that unite and empower us, providing opportunities...

June 12, 2023

Ten Must-Read Books for Juneteenth 2023

June 19th, or Juneteenth, commemorates the 1865 proclamation for the freedom of enslaved people in Texas, but it also has come to broadly celebrate Black American culture and the continuing fight by Black Americans for liberation and equality. The books...

February 15, 2023

Q&A: Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume and Dr. Frank Guridy on Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past / Present / Future

A Howard-Columbia Intellectual Partnership

In February 2021, Columbia University Press announced a new partnership with Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences and Columbia University’s African American and African Diaspora Studies Department—the Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past / Present / Future series. Building on Columbia University...

February 8, 2023

The Struggle and Resistance of Black Women Beneficiaries of Social Welfare

Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour

On September 27, 2022, Renée Graham, a Boston Globe columnist, published a piece entitled “Brett Favre, Welfare Queen: The Same People Who Denounce Welfare Don’t Seem Outraged Over the Former Quarterback’s Alleged Misappropriation of Antipoverty Funds.” Her bold title was...

February 1, 2023

Why Historically Black Colleges and Universities Are Vital and Valuable to the U.S. Higher Education System

James V. Koch and Omari H. Swinton

Are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) “vital and valuable” to contemporary America? Absolutely. HBCUs capably fill a niche in higher education (and in society) that the typical American college or university either ignores or downplays. Many Americans, especially those...