2016 elections – Patriots Tickets

Philip J. Schuyler – An Election Time Opportunity To Reflect

2016-03-03

With the insanity of the primaries taking over the minds and media of our nation, I wanted to step back and explore a bit of America’s early history. Visiting the Schuyler Mansion was the perfect place to do this. The mansion brought me back to the roots of America: the Revolutionary War general Philip J. …

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Patriots & History

"They called me 'race traitor'": Joan Trumpauer Mulholland's lifetime of resistance 2020-09-11

Last year I began working as a stage manager for Join the Student Sit-Ins, an interactive theater program at the museum set in 1960. The program simulates the training sessions students at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) like North Carolina A&T and Bennett carried out in the weeks following the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins. […]

The echoes of war: Curatorial legacies of World War II 2020-09-01

A mere 75 years ago aboard the battleship Missouri, representatives of the Japanese Emperor, his government, and the Imperial General Headquarters signed the Instrument of Surrender in a ceremonial end to the 20th century’s greatest conflict. That same day, three future curators and the inaugural director of the National Museum of American History were serving […]

Reflecting on Black Life In Two Pandemics 2020-08-27

The writers of the Black Life in Two Pandemics series have examined the deep roots of racial violence in the Midwest and the connections between that history and the COVID-19 pandemic.The series was inspired, in part, by commentators who were shocked and bewildered by the virulence of anti-Black violence in the Midwest. This surprise indicates […]

COVID-19, police violence, and the historical thread that binds them: Structural racism as a public health issue 2020-08-26

IntroductionOur political and legal systems are inextricably intertwined with and fueled by structural racism. This legacy predates the country’s founding, through the genocide of Indigenous populations and the kidnapping and selling of millions of Africans into slavery. Preeminent public health scholar and former president of the American Public Health Association Dr. Camara Jones defines structural […]

Art and Uprising: The George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art Database 2020-08-26

In March 2020, the Urban Art Mapping research team, a small group of faculty and students from the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was busy conducting interviews with community members of Midway, a bustling, diverse neighborhood. Located in the middle of a six-mile stretch between downtown Saint Paul and downtown Minneapolis along […]

"Where Two Waters Come Together": The Confluence of Black and Indigenous History at Bdote 2020-08-25

Minnesota doesn’t typically come to mind when you think about slavery and the Civil War. It’s also not a place that’s figured into the national imagination when it comes to Black activism, either—at least, not until recently. However, as part of the series on “Black Life in Two Pandemics,” this post draws on several events […]

A Watched Pot Never Boils 2020-08-25

With the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing civil unrest, historians, educators, and the general public once again fixated on the “long hot summers” of the 1960s. Where every year, for the latter half of the decade, America was embroiled in widespread violent protest. While this keystone era certainly provides some background for the […]

Black Life in Two Pandemics: Histories of Violence 2020-08-24

George Floyd’s Memorial Day 2020 killing by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin shook the nation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the viral video documenting him being choked for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while in police custody laid bare the reality of Black life amid a global health crisis. In the wake of Floyd’s death, thousands […]

Many Tulsa Massacres: How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence 2020-08-21

"Destruction by fire of Pennsylvania Hall, the new building of the Abolition Society, on the night of the 17th May," courtesy of Library of CongressJohn Langston was running through a neighborhood in ruins. Burned homes and businesses were still smoking, their windows shattered. Langston was only 12 years old, but he was determined to save […]

Racism is a public health crisis 2020-08-21

Racism has been a public health emergency in America for over 400 years. We can call it a crisis or disaster or something else entirely. What we have named it has made little difference in the social forces that sustain hierarchies of advantage, the biases that make people targets, or the rage that propels people […]