Get 'em Wayne!

Professor Wayne Flynt, my old advisor, the dean of Alabama historians, and long a voice of reform in his state and region, is leading an effort to overturn the Alabama Constitution. Ratified by a tainted constitutional convention in 1901, this constitution not only disfranchised African American men, but also placed city and county governments at the mercy of the state legislature. Alabama's is the nation's longest state constitution --longer, Wayne says, than Moby Dick and The Bible -- and has over 800 amendments. This is because any time a county needs to pass a law of local interest -- almost as minor as naming a street -- they often must propose a constitutional amendment which voters across the state must ratify. It also enshrines a tax system that places the public burden on the poor and propertyless.

You can read the lawsuit, Wayne's statement, and hear an NPR interview with him here.

I have known about his efforts for years, but read about these recent developments today on the Cliopatria blog of the History News Network, a great resource.

Get'em Wayne!

Thoughts on Lincoln

OK, a bit of shameless self-promotion: Here is a link to an op-ed I wrote on the legacy of Lincoln which appears in today's Raleigh News & Observer. Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. President, and to Mr. Darwin, too.

Eric Foner's Lincoln Recommendations

Last night, Eric Foner, one of the nation's most important scholars of nineteenth century America, offered his suggestions for book on Lincoln on NPR. Take a listen...

His suggestions:

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Lincoln : A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine
The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes

I would add Foner's own Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World.

Interpreting Slavery at North Carolina Historic Sites

An article in today's Raleigh News & Observer highlights a report produced by scholars at East Carolina which examines how slavery is interpreted at a number of historic sites across the state. I haven't read the report itself, but it's been my experience that state sites like Summerset Place and Historic Stagville do a pretty good job. The report notes that depictions of slavery at private houses is much more mixed. Interpreting our history, especially the more painful episodes, is a difficult thing, but it remains important if we are to understand who we are as a people. I'm going to try to get a copy of this report. I think it will make interesting reading.

A Guide to Writings About Lincoln

I found this essay by Fred Kaplan in the Washington Post a useful layman's guide to the deluge of writings about Abraham Lincoln. If you don't have the five years Kaplan estimates it would take to get through the books about the 16th President, take a look at his recommendations.

Teaching the Wilmington Riots of 1898

Despite the budget crisis, at least one matter of historical note has gained legislative attention. North Carolina state Senator Susan Boseman (D-New Hanover) has submitted a bill to require the state Department of Public Instruction to develop curriculum materials and organize workshops to teach teachers about the events and legacy of the Wilmington riots of 1898.

I won't recount the sad tale of the riots here. The short version: In 1898, Democrats used the violent politics of white supremacy to overthrow an interracial coalition of Populists and Republicans. Many died, and soon thereafter African Americans had the right to vote effectively stripped from them in North Carolina. It is a heinous event that continues to cast political and historical shadows over North Carolina.

Although I question the use of legislative power to determine what faculty members teach, I welcome this attention to this period in the state's experience. If we give teachers better resources, perhaps they can better teach their students about the diverse past of the place where they live. I, for one, would like to see colleges and universities do more of this sort of thing. We shouldn't need a law to develop these types of programs. I do know that some institutions do things like this, but we can do a great deal more. I might even make some suggestions here.

Of course, this is not the first effort by state government to give attention to the awful events of 1898. In 2006, the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission, a group authorized by the legislature whose work was facilitated by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, completed its work. This link to the commission website contains a tremendous amount of information on the riots and their significance to the state and the nation.

You can view Boseman's bill here.

A New Federal Writers Project?

In the last few days, I've noticed a number of people calling on the Obama administration to create a new Federal Writers Project, the old New Deal program that did more than just pay out of work witters to pick up their pens. The New Deal version created state guidebooks, conducted important oral history interviews, and generally did important work in preserving American history and culture, as well as documenting the history of the Great Depression. Larry Cebula posted a blog entry on this topic and and Mark Pinsky wrote something similar in The New Republic. In short, I'm for it. Public funding for humanities and the arts is minute compared to other disciplines, and in bad times private money is quick to dry up. I think a project along these line would go a long way in helping us preserve our diverse national history and culture. And, who knows? It might also lift our national morale. Lord knows, we need that just as much as we need some sort of economic stimulus.

Obama and the Lessons of History

There seems to be something of a movement among professional historians and other scholars to teach President Obama the lessons of history. More specifically, there have been a number of op-eds which have sought to point out historical lessons to apply to governing. One example is this essay by David T. Beito and Jonathan Bean which offers the new president lessons from Booker T. Washington. Others have used FDR, Lincoln, Churchill, the Great Depression, and countless other subjects to offer Obama historical insight into the myriad of tasks before him. If he read all these, he might not have time to do his job. I find this interesting. I agree that it is important to learn the lessons of history, but which lessons? Identifying the right lessons is at least as important as selecting a topic that might have contemporary significance. I'm still thinking about this...

Lincoln and the Survivial of the Union

As this is the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, there has been an outpouring of tributes and memorials of the 16th President. Here's one I found particularly interesting.

Super Bowl Prediction

As I was in Bank of America Stadium when Arizona destroyed the Panthers, I'll say:

Cardinals 20
Steelers 17

We'll see.