Remembering Rosewood - Where Do We Go From Here?

300 Southwest 13th Street,Gainesville FL 32611

13 January, 2023

Description

Honest dialogue between distinguished historians about Rosewood’s prominent place in the American story of racial disposition and violence Our SpeakersWalter JohnsonHarvard University Winthrop Professor of History and Professor of African and African American StudiesWalter Johnson grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and is a member of the Rock Bridge High School Hall of Fame (2006). His prize-winning books, Soul by Soul: Life Inside in the Antebellum Slave Market (1999) and River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Mississippi Valley's Cotton Kingdom (2013), were published by Harvard University Press. His autobiographical essay, “Guns in the Family,” was included the 2019 edition of Best American Essays; it was originally published in the Boston Review, of which Johnson is a contributing editor. The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States will be published in the spring of 2020. Johnson is a founding member of the Commonwealth Project, which brings together academics, artists, and activists in an effort to imagine, foster, and support revolutionary social change, beginning in St. Louis. To learn more about Walter Johnson Photograph by Jim HarrisonKidada WilliamsWayne State University I am a writer and historian who studies what happened to African American survivors of racist violence. I’m from West Michigan, by way of Illinois, Arkansas, Mississippi, and South Carolina. I live and work in Detroit. My new book, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction (Jan 2023 and available for pre-order Bookshop; Barnes and Noble; Indiebound; Books A Million!; Source Booksellers; Detroit Book City; Pages Book Shop; and Amazon), tells the story of what African American families gained at emancipation and then lost to white terror after the Civil War. My first book, They Left Great Marks on Me, explored Black people’s personal testimonies of violence and their role in mobilizing civil rights advocates to fight lynching and other forms of white supremacist oppression. I am one of the co-editors of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence, a collection of readings that provided historical context for understanding the 2015 massacre of nine African Americans at Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church. My writings have appeared in DAME magazine, Slate, The American Historian, and the New York Times. I have appeared on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “On Point,” “BackStory with the American History Guys,” and on WDET’s “Detroit Today.” My interest in producing stories of African American history that reach academic and lay audiences has grown in recent years and been rewarded. I was one of the co-developers of #CharlestonSyllabus. I’ve had the great fortune of contributing to podcasts and to documentaries, both behind the scenes like on TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”: Regina King and up front with PBS’s Reconstruction: America after the Civil War. I’m the host and producer of ‘Seizing Freedom’ a podcast docudrama about African Americans’ fight for liberty and equality during and after the Civil War. When I am not working, I’m minding my business and indulging my love of fiction, photography, podcasts, and streaming international TV shows while also taking advantage of the many perks of living and playing in Detroit. To learn more about Kidada Williams Photo Credit: Navy B. Rae PhotographyDr. Maxine D. JonesFlorida State University Maxine D. Jones is Professor of History at The Florida State University. She is the coauthor of two books with Joe M. Richardson, Talladega College: The First Century and Education for Liberation: The American Missionary Association and African Americans, 1890 to the Civil Rights Movement (2009). Jones co-authored African Americans in Florida with Kevin McCarthy and has published several articles and books chapters. Professor Jones served as principal Investigator for the Rosewood Academic Study commissioned by the Florida Legislature and is currently researching blacks in twentieth century Florida, and the History of Florida State University. Professor Jones has won several teaching awards and currently serves as Director of the Women’s Studies Program at FSU. To learn more about Dr. Maxine D. Jones