Tag: Black History
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Was the ‘Great Dissenter’ actually great? Segregation and Justice in Harlan’s Dissent.

Written by Amy Hendrie. Who was the supposed ‘Great Dissenter’? Amy Hendrie challenges the traditional accounts of the the United States Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan as the colour-blind stalwart against legalised segregation, revealing that it is far from simple.
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Review: Green Book (2018)

Written by Sophia Aiello. Directed by Peter Farrelly, ‘Green Book’ (2018) was both a success at the box office and the Academy Awards. However, it received a great deal of backlash for its whitewashed portrayal of racism in 1960s America.
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Dido Elizabeth Belle, and the mysteries behind the painting at Scone Palace

Written by Sophie Whitehead. The portrait of Lady Elizabeth and Dido Belle has fascinated historians and allowed us a glimpse into Black History in the eighteenth century. But who was she? And how has she been understood by historians and art critics since the painting’s production?
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Cinema in the Age of Obama

Written by Jess Womack. Trends within film largely mirror trends within society, mirroring political and social feeling. This can especially be seen within the ‘Obama-era’ and beyond, where historical fiction exploring the racial past of the US became popular.
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Redefining Humanity: Political Philosophy in African British Anti-Slavery Literature

Written by Charlie Horlick. Ottobah Cugoano’s writing has been typically framed as a slave narrative, yet it is perhaps more than that. Part political economy, part meditation on morality, it should be integrated into the canon of eighteenth-century philosophy.
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Review: Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World, Jessica Marie Johnson (2020)

Written by Jamie Gemmell. Dr. Jessica Marie Johnson’s 2020 book explores the lives of black women in colonial Louisiana. Beginning in West Africa and moving through colonial rule to the formation of the USA to produce a history of the Atlantic world.
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The Combahee River Collective and Intersectionality in the Age of Identity

Written by Jess Womack. The Combahee River Collective grew out of disillusionments with “mainstream” feminism. Founded in the early 1980s by Black queer women, the Collective developed an “intersectional” approach to political activism.
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The Road to Brown and Little Rock: Beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States

Written by Jack Bennett. We often pinpoint moments in the Civil Rights Movement which led to massive change, but what came before? A look at events in the 1930s and 40s upon which the Civil Rights Movement was built.
