David Waldstreicher: Historians and the 1619 Debate

Professor Waldstreicher discusses his book "Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification." Specifically focusing in on the slavery compromises written into the US Constitution - we go into some depth about 3/5th Compromise which enshrined slavery as a means of governing. Next Prof. Waldstreicher explains his position on the New York Times' 1619 Project, specifically focused on his Boston Review article "The Hidden Stakes of the 1619 Controversy."

Rana Hogarth: Slavery and Medicine

Professor Hogarth discusses her research into how the professionalization of medicine and the production of scientific knowledge in the Americas was bound up with the making of race. We talk about her first book, "Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840" and how white physicians defined blackness as a medically significant marker of difference in slave societies of the American Atlantic. And the legacy slave bodies had on the foundations of…

Sherri Burr: Free Blacks of Virginia

In 2015, she was awarded a Monticello Fellowship to conduct research on the Free Blacks of Virginia, the hundreds of thousands of African-Americans who were free before the Civil War. Burr’s ancestors were among this group. Professor Burr discusses her research which became her 27th book, "Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865."

Kelsey Klotz: Dave Brubeck's Civil Rights Advocacy

Kelsey Klotz discusses her research on the intersection of race and sound in 1950s and 1960s American music, with a focus on jazz. She published her first book "Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness," which uses Brubeck’s mid-century performance of whiteness across his professional, private, and political lives as a starting point to understand mid-century whiteness, privilege, and white supremacy, more fully.

Caitlin Rosenthal: Capitalist Management of Slavery

Caitlin Rosenthal discusses her book, "Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management," won the Simpkins Award of the Southern Historical Association as well as the first book prize of the Economic History Society. It was also featured as a "Five Books" best book in economics for 2018. The book explores the development of business practices on slave plantations and uses this history to understand the relationship between slave plantation management, violence, and innovation

Alexis Hoag: Race and the Death Penalty

Alexis Hoag, Practitioner in Residence at Columbia Law School’s Holder Initiative, discusses the systemic racial issues at the heart of our Judicial system. Professor Hoag is an anti-death penalty advocate who recently published, "Valuing Black Lives: A Case for Ending the Death Penalty" and argued before the Ohio Supreme Court advocating for Glen Bates.

Todd Michney: Redlining and Home Owners Loan Company

In this inaugural session of the Heights Library Unpacking Our History interviews, we talk to Todd M. Michney, who shares insights from his book "Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900–1980," about redlining and the HOLC's role in housing discrimination.