))
02 A New Kind of History
Manage episode 427019923 series 3584284
Content provided by Spark Media, Inc. and Spark Media. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Spark Media, Inc. and Spark Media or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Episode Summary:
The Federal Writers’ Project set out to create a series of books that held up a mirror to America, and chronicled communities that had long been ignored. Howard University professor Sterling Brown led the agency’s effort to document African American history in a series of books. In Virginia, chemistry professor Roscoe Lewis led a small team to produce the first book in that national series, titled The Negro in Virginia. Lewis recruited a dozen Black writers and researchers across the state for a pioneering effort that recorded interviews with nearly 300 formerly enslaved people. They navigated a backlash from state editors and local officials. Against all odds, their book on Black life became a national Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and a milestone on the path to the Civil Rights movement.
Speakers:
Audrey Davis, historian
Julian Hayter, historian
Gregg Kimball, historian
Kiki Petrosino, poet
Links and Resources:
Photo essay about East End Cemetery by Kiki Petrosino and Brian Palmer in VQR
“Unmarked” documentary
Virginia Humanities Q&A with David A. Taylor
Washington Post article on Roscoe Lewis and The Negro in Virginia
Alexandria Black History Museum
Reading List:
The Negro in Virginia (Library of Virginia)
White Blood by Kiki Petrosino
Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project by Catherine A. Stewart
To Walk About in Freedom by Carole Emberton
The Dream is Lost by Julian Hayter
Credits:
Host: Chris Haley
Director: Andrea Kalin
Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello
Writer: David A. Taylor
Editors: Ethan Oser and Julie Chalhoub
Story Editor: Michael May
Additional Voices: Skip Coblyn, Sherry Carter-Brownell, Robert Mirabello, James Mirabello and Danielle Nance
Featuring music and archival material from:
Pond5
Library of Congress
National Archives
For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder
Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Virginia Humanities.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
13 episodes
Share
