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Articles by Celeste Henery
Public History, Autoethnography, and Community: An Interview with Jodi Skipper
In today’s post, Celeste Henery, a regular contributor of Black Perspectives, interviews Dr. Jodi Skipper on her new book,Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the U.S. South (University of Iowa Press, 2022). Skipper is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. Behind the Big House gives readers a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to interpret the difficult history of slavery in the U.S. South.
Black Health Care, Black Art: A Texas Perspective
Doctor examining child in the 1970s (Item 175434, City Light Slides, Seattle Municipal Archives, Flickr) Galveston, Texas, may best be remembered as the provenance of Juneteenth. However, in the universe of Black history, the island city also serves as an obscure yet poignant touchstone for an inquiry into Black health care. Galveston won the site of the state’s first medical school — the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)—opened in 1891.
Contemplating Black Ecologies
(Joshua Resnick / Shutterstock) Earlier this year, political scientist and Black feminist Julia Jordan-Zachery asked the question, “What do Black women think about the rain?” She was sharing emergent questions from her research pertaining to Black women, not specifically related to environment studies. Her question echoed some of my own inquiries into the conversation between water, skies, fire, and the currents of Black life.
Excavating the History of Afro-Brazilian Women
Group of women smile as they pose for a photo during a march to mark the International Afro Latin American and Afro Caribbean Women’s Day (Nelson Antoine / Shutterstock.com) Only a few pages remain of what is cited as the first known text written by an Afro-Brazilian woman. Rosa Egipcíaca da Vera Cruz—an enslaved African-born woman—wrote Sacred Theology of the Love of the God of Light Shining in the Pilgrim Souls in the 1700s.
Contemplating the Black Atlantic
A decaying pier in Grand Case, Saint Martin (Photo: george.bremer, Flickr). If transatlantic slavery remains one of the foundational premises of a Black or African Diaspora, then the great ocean—the Atlantic—holds vital pieces of Black social memory. Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic centered this ocean as the terrain of diasporic theory and cultural flow decades ago.
The Racial Geography of Universities
Main Building, University of Texas-Austin, (Wikimedia Commons) What does it mean to learn how to read a place? This question silently guides the Racial Geography Tour of the University of Texas at Austin (UT). The brainchild of Dr. Edmund T. Gordon, an anthropologist and Black studies professor, the tour started as a lecture performed while walking across the UT campus.
Therese Patricia Okoumou: Black Women’s Bodies and Public Protest
Patricia Okoumou, Pride March Parade, New York, June 28, 2018, (Elvert Barnes, Flickr) Tomorrow, March 19, Therese Patricia Okoumou will be sentenced for her protest climb of the Statue of Liberty this past fourth of July.
History, Memory, and Racial Violence in America
In April 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) opened the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. These sites work in tandem to tell the stories of over 4,000 Black men and women who were lynched between 1877 and 1950. The memorial sits upon a hill where one can look towards the Alabama State Capital.
Cuban Revolution in America: A New Book on Cuba and the U.S. Left
Cuban Revolution in America: A New Book on Cuba and the U.S. Left This post is part of our blog series that announces the publication of selected new books in African American History and African Diaspora Studies. Cuban Revolution in America: Havana and the Making of a United States Left, 1968-1992 was recently published by the University of North Carolina Press. The author of Cuban Revolution in America is Teishan A. Latner, an Assistant Professor of History at Thomas Jefferson University.
The 1967 Detroit Uprising and the Failure of the Criminal Justice System
The 1967 Detroit Uprising and the Failure of the Criminal Justice System Standing before judge Robert Columbo, a Detroiter made a standard defendant’s request to be released on his own recognizance. He had been accused of looting, one of hundreds arrested within the first forty-eight hours of what would become known as the Detroit uprising. “You can’t get a personal bond in this court. You’re nothing but lousy, thieving looters,” Columbo responded.
Black Swimmers and Diasporic Understandings of Water
James “Jim” Clarke was a Guyanese-born celebrated swimmer and diasporic pioneer. I first learned of him through a photo at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool where he was presented alongside other honored Black figures from England and the diaspora. Clarke is pictured in black and white, fitted in what appears to be swimwear of his time that is pinned with medals from the height of his swim career (1908–1910).
Re-Writing Black Gendered Stories
For some years, I’ve written social histories of Black men on death row. The objective is to provide a social context for these men as raced, gendered, and classed subjects, and to describe the worlds in which they circulate and how they are perceived. Black feminism has provided me with the intersectional and patriarchal analytic framework necessary to unpack the gendered experience of Black men, including the complicated co-existence of purchase and affliction.
The Politics of Poor Whiteness
*This post is part of our roundtable on Keri Leigh Merritt’s Masterless Men. Occasionally a book comes along at a timely historical moment. Keri Leigh Merritt’s Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (2017) is one such volume. Its appearance roughly coincided with the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the presidency.
Finalists for the Pauli Murray Book Prize in Black Intellectual History
Finalists for the Pauli Murray Book Prize in Black Intellectual History The African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) is pleased to announce the finalists for the first annual Pauli Murray Book Prize for the best book in black intellectual history.
Why White Southern Conservatives Need to Defend Confederate Monuments
Why White Southern Conservatives Need to Defend Confederate Monuments Modern debates over Confederate monuments are not merely concerned with culture, historical memory, or racism. For many monument defenders, there is also a pragmatic political motivation deeply rooted in the defense of race-based inequality and privilege in contemporary America. Many American students never learn about Jim Crow; just segregation. This distinction matters.
The Pursuit of Happiness: A New Book on Black Women’s Travels Abroad
The Pursuit of Happiness: A New Book on Black Women’s Travels Abroad This post is part of our blog series that announces the publication of selected new books in African American History and African Diaspora Studies. The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism was recently published by Duke University Press. The author of The Pursuit of Happiness is Bianca C. Williams.
Black Women’s Suicide and a Call for Radical Friendship
I am still sitting with the loss of Ashawnty Davis, the 10-year-old Black girl from Aurora, Colorado who ended her short life this past November. After a video of Ashawnty fighting with another girl, whom Ashawnty’s parents identified as her bully, was posted online, Ashawnty hanged herself–unable to handle the exposure. She died in a hospital after two weeks on life support.
Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A New Book on the Idea of Reparations
Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade are among the most heinous crimes against humanity committed in the modern era. Yet, to this day no former slave society in the Americas has paid reparations to former slaves or their descendants. European countries have never compensated their former colonies in the Americas, whose wealth relied on slave labor, to a greater or lesser extent. Likewise, no African nation ever obtained any form of reparations for the Atlantic slave trade.
Online Roundtable: Devyn Spence Benson’s Antiracism in Cuba
Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), is hosting an online roundtable on Devyn Spence Benson’s Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution (University of North Carolina Press, 2016). The roundtable begins on Monday, November 6, 2017, and concludes on Saturday, November 11, 2017. The roundtable will feature responses from Yesenia Barragan (Dartmouth College); Aisha K.
From ADEFRA to Black Lives Matter: Black Women’s Activism in Germany
From ADEFRA to Black Lives Matter: Black Women’s Activism in Germany On Saturday, June 24, 2017 at 4:30pm, a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest took place in Berlin, Germany with thousands of people expressing solidarity and promoting awareness of racial injustice. The event built from the momentum of two BLM marches that occurred last summer.
Black Women, Police Violence, and Mental Illness
When I heard about Charleena Lyles—I remembered Eleanor Bumpurs, Deborah Danner, and Sophia King. All four were black women with mental health problems who were killed by police. Charleena was a 30-year-old pregnant mother of four shot in Seattle on June 18th. Charleena’s family members who questioned the police’s use of deadly force described her as “tiny.” Deborah was 66 years old, living in the Bronx with schizophrenia when fatally confronted by police this past October.
Contested Bodies: A New Book on Black Motherhood and Slavery in Jamaica
Contested Bodies: A New Book on Black Motherhood and Slavery in Jamaica This post is part of my blog series that announces the publication of selected new books in African American History and African Diaspora Studies. Contested Bodies: Pregnancy, Childrearing, and Slavery in Jamaica was recently published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The author of Contested Bodies is Sasha Turner, who is Associate Professor of History at Quinnipiac University.
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