In August 2021, St. Paul hosted a study on the Historical Roots of Racism, led by retired US history teacher David Green. Recordings of those classes, as well as other resources, can be found below.
Schedule
Aug. 5 : The birth of Slavery and Racism in Colonial America –
– August 5 class recording can be viewed here.
Aug. 19: The Unfinished Revolution: 1776 to 1848
– August 19 class recording can be viewed here.
Sept. 2: Abolition: 1848 to 1865
– September 2 class recording can be viewed here.
Sept. 16: Reconstruction: The Second American Revolution
– September 16 class recording can be viewed here.
Sept. 30: How the South lost the War and won the Peace
– No recording for this session.
Oct. 14: America Embraces Jim Crow
– October 14 class recording can be viewed here.
Oct. 28: The Civil Rights Revolution and Race and Society over the Last 50 Years
– October 28 class recording can be viewed here.
Books
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
“Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination by Annette Gordon Reed
Reconstruction Updated Edition: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) and other titles by Eric Foner
Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and the American Revolution, by Simon Schama
Someone Knows My Name: A Novel by Lawrence Hill
Island Beneath the Sea: A Novel by Isabel Allende
Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward Baptist
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, autobiography
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
Twelve Years a Slave (AmazonClassics Edition) – This is a memoir by a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. His memoir was the best-selling abolitionist book until Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Illustrated Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Emancipation Proclamation: With 120 Illustrations by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, a novel based on the history of the Grimke sisters.
Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States,
1861-1865, by James Oakes
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Souls of Black Folk by WEB DuBois
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson
Movies and TV shows
“Reconstruction: America After the Civil War” – KET is offering this series, with airings at various times beginning October 7.
Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the true story of the events in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors’ ship off the coast of Cuba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5025KqQaUk – from Amistad Middle Passage scene, graphic
Watch Amazing Grace | Prime Video Story of the 18th century English reformer William Wilberforce
Ken Burns Jazz mini series Episode One
Lincoln – Amazon Prime
Glory – 1989 movie with Denzel Washington, on Netflix
13th – Documentary showing how the 13th amendment was used to criminalize freed slaves, on Netflix
Harriet–story of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad available at Redbox and streaming on HBO and Hulu.
O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? 2001 award winner with references to convict leasing, KKK, and some historical figures in deep south politics of Mississippi in the 1930s. Available on Amazon Prime.
Additional resources
St. Paul’s Racial Justice Resource List can be found here.
1619 Project 1619 (New York Times) – Podcast about the role of Africans on American music, including and especially the minstrel shows, and how it appears in the music we listen to today
End of Slave Trade Meant New Normal for America : NPR
Frederick Douglass Prophet Of Freedom – Filson Club event with David Blight, author of a new biography of Frederick Douglass. Thursday, Sept 10 at 6pm. Registration is required but is free.
Alexander Hamilton Stephens’ “Cornerstone Speech,” which can be heard in a segment of the Backstory podcast’s “Civil War 150th” episode.
Free Yale courses online. David Blight series on the Civil War, for
example.
Zoom Meeting Information:
Topic: Historical Roots of Racism Class
Every other Wednesday at 7pm beginning Aug. 5
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86549610099
Meeting ID: 865 4961 0099
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