During a 2014 symposium marking the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision, a statement from one of the plaintiffs offered what today feels like prescient insight. Many of the Virginia plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, feared integration and would have preferred separate and actually equal.
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white supremacy
white supremacy
PW exclusive: Journalism historian discusses role of American newspapers in abetting white supremacy
Prof. Kathy Roberts Forde previews upcoming talk at UNC-Chapel Hill and reflects on recent controversies that have roiled her alma mater Journalists like to think of themselves as part of a long lineage of truth seekers, a “fourth estate” in American life keeping government honest and shining light in dark places since the founding of the republic.
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It’s a common phenomenon for well-known politicians to become associated with, or remembered for, an inspiring or infamous utterance. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “Ask not what your country can do for yourself. Ask what you can do for your country.” “Mr. Gorbachev: tear down this wall.” “I am not a crook.” And this doesn't apply just to presidents.
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When Europeans first came to the Americas in the middle of the last millennium, scholars estimate that there were roughly 60 million indigenous people here. And while the actions and motivations of those who immigrated to this hemisphere obviously ran the gamut, there is simply no denying that the impact on the native population was catastrophic.
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There are a lot of reasons to be outraged by the recent preposterous decision of UNC-Chapel Hill leaders to deny academic tenure to acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and instead hire her as a contact employee. First, of course, is the fact that Hannah-Jones, who was recently appointed to fill the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, is uniquely and supremely qualified for the job.
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To those who ever harbored any doubts about how truly blatant and virulent the racism and white supremacy were that dominated North Carolina’s culture, law and politics well into the 20th Century, Pulitzer Prize winning author David Zucchino’s most recent book, Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy is a “must read.” Here’s a way to get an inkling of just how grim the reality was that Zucchino describes in his painstaking account of the brutal insurrection that was perpetrated against the multi-racial government of what was, at the time, North Carolina’s largest city:
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Part one: A troubled history of racism, violence and repression On a cold and drizzly February night in 1870 a mob of Klansmen came for Wyatt Outlaw, the first Black town commissioner of Graham. Wearing robes and hoods, and armed with torches, swords and pistols, some 20 men broke down the door of his home on Main Street.
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