Black Americans in the Civil War: Crash Course Black American History #18

The American Civil War is one of the deadliest in US History, and let’s just get this out of the way: it was about slavery. In the more than 150 years since the end of the Civil War, there have been many attempts to litigate the reasons for the war, but the reality is that

“What to the Slave is 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech

In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” He was addressing

Let’s talk about the reaction to Juneteenth – Beau of the Fifth Column

Why all Americans should honor Juneteenth – Black History Month

When American schoolchildren learn about chattel slavery in the US, we’re often told it ended with Abraham Lincoln’s signature on the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. But, as late as June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Texas were still held in bondage. On that date, the Federal troops entered the state and began to punish slave