Artist Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier routinely “mines” the visual history of race in America, combing through iconography found in old stereoscopic images, postcards, photographic albums. She repositions figures from the era of enslavement and Jim Crow, who were initially framed in keeping with prevailing white nationalist racial conceptions. Her multimedia composites give in effect, new life toContinue reading “Ancestral Imagery in Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier’s “Sweeps””
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In Search of Moses Boone’s Ancestors and Collateral Descendants
My Mount Holyoke College students and I have been fascinated, moved, and deeply distressed by the story of the African American child Moses Boone, 1902-1904. After his death at the age of 21 months, at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, his brain was extracted by physical anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička to be included in theContinue reading “In Search of Moses Boone’s Ancestors and Collateral Descendants”
In Search of Stephen and James Bennett, manumitted from Belle Vue, Georgetown
I have been puzzling over two enslaved brothers, Stephen Bennett, born around 1849 and James Bennett, born about 1852, both enslaved at Belle Vue or Bellevue House, later known as Rittenhouse Place, and now (after relocation) know as the modern Dumbarton House in Upper Georgetown, located at 27th and Q streets, Both boys were owned byContinue reading “In Search of Stephen and James Bennett, manumitted from Belle Vue, Georgetown”
Mourning Across Borders: Honoring the Voices of the Lost
This is the Martin Luther King Jr Day address I delivered at Congregation B’nai Israel in Nothampton, MA on Sunday, January 14, 2024 Delivered at the Congregation B’nai Israel (Northampton,MA)Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observances Good morning. I am grateful to join with all of you, and would like to thank my colleague at MountContinue reading “Mourning Across Borders: Honoring the Voices of the Lost”
Manyolo Betty Estelle’s “Cattle People” (1961): Cattle, Gender, Landscape
The current traveling exhibition, African Modernism in America, 1947-67, now at the Philips Collection, Washington DC, features a first rate painting by the Ugandan artist Manyolo Betty Estelle (1938-1999) titled “Cattle People” (1961) on loan from the Fisk University Galleries. The scene is of a young couple, either courting or newly married, of the Bahima,Continue reading “Manyolo Betty Estelle’s “Cattle People” (1961): Cattle, Gender, Landscape”
In Search of the Belt Plantation Slave Burial Ground, Chevy Chase DC
Recently, Cate Atkinson, community historian with Historic Chevy Chase DC, explained that the house in which I grew up between the years 1965-1979, at 5807 Chevy Chase Parkway, NW, Washington DC, may well have been located on the site of an old burial ground, in which the remains of enslaved peop8le associated with the BeltContinue reading “In Search of the Belt Plantation Slave Burial Ground, Chevy Chase DC”
In Search of Enslaved Persons from Chevy Chase DC
I have recently been deeply moved, and rather startled, to realize that the street on which I grew up, Chevy Chase Parkway in Northwest Washington DC, was located on the grounds of a former a slavery-based plantation, evidently in operation from the 1720s, until perhaps as late as April 1862. I have been eager toContinue reading “In Search of Enslaved Persons from Chevy Chase DC”
The Brooks Family and the 1928 Land Dispossession in Chevy Chase, Northwest Washington DC
This past Saturday, March 25, 2023, following the DC History Conference, I was given a fascinating tour of the neighborhood in which I grew up by Carl Lankowski, President of the community organization Historic Chevy Chase DC. We concentrated on three remarkable signs unveiled in June 2021 by the organization, on the grounds of whatContinue reading “The Brooks Family and the 1928 Land Dispossession in Chevy Chase, Northwest Washington DC”
In Search of Moloto Oshodi, from Mount Holyoke to Yorubaland
As my students and I have been studying early African American and African figures in the history of South Hadley and Mount Holyoke, we were fascinated to learn from Ms. Deborah Richards (Head of Archives and Special Collections) that a historical researcher ( Adenike Ogunkoya ) had brought to the attention of the Archives herContinue reading “In Search of Moloto Oshodi, from Mount Holyoke to Yorubaland”
In Search of Caesar Cambridge, a former enslaved man in South Hadley, Massachusetts
In his 1905 book, History of Hadley, Sylvester Judd writes, “On March 6, 1778, David Mitchell of [South Hadley] gave to his negro man, Caesar Cambridge, his freedom, in consideration of 85 pounds paid in cash, and of an order for his wages in a cruise to the brig Defence, supposed to be 40 pounds.Continue reading “In Search of Caesar Cambridge, a former enslaved man in South Hadley, Massachusetts”
Mark Auslander 