Thoughts on American History - The Other Madisons

A Forgotten History And A Story Untold

I am pleased to share this fascinating article written by Charles Shaw: Over the years, I have become aware that in the many volumes of history written on the lives of black Americans there tends to be a focus on slavery, the South, the Civil War, Emancipation, and the Great Migration. It is a familiar narrative repeated in literature, cinema, stage and television. However, I feel such narratives fail to fully present the great dimensions of […]

Mammy Warriors | An Homage to Black Maids

Two black women wrapped in threadbare coats stood silently near the intersection. Framed by a wall concealing a private tennis club, they stared into the street, ignoring the chilly morning air and the dry leaves swirling about their ankles. One woman was probably in her 40s, the other, at least a generation older. I had just pulled up to a traffic light near a mass-transit stop in a well-to-do suburban neighborhood where I had […]

With Black Women’s Bodies | The Birth of Modern Gynecology

The “Father of Modern Gynecology” There is a statue in Columbia, South Carolina honoring Dr. James Marion Sims, a 19th century physician venerated as the father of modern gynecology and the first surgeon to treat both an empress (Empress Eugenie of France) and enslaved women. There are similar statues in Montgomery, Alabama and in Central Park, New York City. Medical schools throughout the country adorn their walls with his portrait. None of the inscriptions on […]

The One Drop Rule | Who is Black in the U.S.?

“Remove Your Shirt.” In July 1839, my maternal great-great-grandmother Mahala Murchison became the first Negro in Austin, Texas. She was a ten-year-old mixed-race girl from Tennessee. Her father was Kenneth Murchison, her white owner; her mother was a slave whose name and ancestry are lost to history. In later years, Mahala had six children, three girls and three boys, by white men who lived on neighboring farms. After Emancipation, Mahala’s youngest son, Will, moved away […]

Mulattos And Other Mixed-Race Americans

23andMe In September 2014, a couple of months after participating in a family reunion of the “Other Madisons,” President James Madison’s African-American descendants, I collected a sample of my saliva in a little plastic vial and then sent it to 23andMe for DNA analysis. A few weeks later, I learned that I am 64.7% sub-Saharan African and 33.7% European. The rest of me is a drop or two Asian. None of this was surprising. My […]

One White Woman’s Opinion About American Racism

A few months ago, while my white hairdresser skillfully styled my very African-American hair, we casually chatted about my book and a not-so-casual topic: the history and persistence of American racism. She is one of the most perceptive, well-read, and clear-thinking people I have ever met. As she set my hair in rollers, this is what she said: The United States has yet to come to terms with the reality that our social systems are […]

Griots and Griottes | Keepers of Unwritten History

In West Africa, its history written in its own languages is relatively new. African history was written in European languages during the colonial era, and in Arabic for centuries. But well since before that, in communities in the Sahel and Savanna regions, the griots (men) and griottes (women) have spoken, from memory, epic-long histories and genealogies that often take days to recite. African “Wordsmiths” For hundreds of years, possibly beginning before the birth of Christ, the griots and […]

Forgotten Lynching Victims | Chinese in America

October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California’s Chinatown, a mob of more than 500 white men forced its way into, then ransacked, every building on Calle de los Negros (dubbed “Nigger Alley” after the dark-complexioned Californios—Spanish-speaking, mixed-race Californians—who had originally lived the area). Most in the mob had been recruited off the streets by a high-ranked policeman. Many of the Chinese immigrants living and working in the crime-ridden ghetto were robbed and beaten. Seventeen were tortured, mutilated, and […]

Forgotten Lynching Victims | Mexicans in America

Hushed-up Lynchings During the Jim Crow era, the lynching of African Americans throughout the South was so widespread and so well publicized that it was hard to ignore. Newspaper reporters were among the many spectators, and photographers snapped pictures for the postcards they would sell. Though rare, history teachers, briefly and cautiously, mentioned the lynching of black people. But the second most frequent target of mob violence was avoided by those who report news events, […]

Strange Fruit |Lynchings During Jim Crow And Now

Though not all lynchings are by hanging, imagine trees scattered throughout the South whose branches hang low with the weight of lifeless bodies. Most are men, but among them are women. Most are black, but among them are Mexicans, Native Americans, Chinese, and other minorities. The Tuskegee Institute’s Lynch Report informs us that there were at least 4,733 such murders between 1882 and 1959, a conservative number, counting only known and recorded victims, and those […]