Race is complicated. And few aspects of race in America have been more conflicted than the relationship between white people and black veterans. At one extreme, black veterans have been lynched simply for daring to wear their uniforms in public. At the other, they've been held up as the finest representatives of their community. In Charlottesville, no African American veterans were lynched. But black men in uniform weren't always honored either. It's a story worth telling. Today, I'm going to tell it about World War I. Read more →
It's an unsettling photograph. It is to me, at least, and I hope to everyone who sees "1908 and 1913 Clan Barbecue" in 2023. But to be troubled by it, a viewer has to remember the historical context. A photographer from Charlottesville's Holsinger Studio made on June 19th, 1913, a time when racial oppression, Jim Crow segregation, and white supremacy were at their worst in Central Virginia. Read more →
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