Experts in the News

Topic
The New York Times

Documenting ‘Slavery by Another Name’ in Texas

Those states imposed what the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Douglas Blackmon rightly describes as “Slavery by Another Name” — sweeping Negroes into custody for petty offenses like vagrancy, then turning them over to plantation owners and others who sometimes notified the local sheriff in advance of how much labor they needed. This practice, which persisted in various forms up to World War II, stripped African-Americans of the ability to accumulate wealth while holding them captive in dangerous, disease-ridden environs that killed many of them outright. The Sugar Land site offers present-day Americans a look at this shameful period from an unusual vantage point.

Douglas Blackmon
The Christian Science Monitor

Got a story to tell (or sell)? Better back it up with a tape.

Beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a string of presidents used taping equipment with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Their motives ranged from defending themselves against inaccurate news leaks (F.D.R), to help in preparing memoirs and developing political leverage. Along the way, these tapes become an invaluable historical resource, says Dr. Marc Selverstone, an associate professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and chair of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program. “They’re an incredible and powerful window into the way power works,” says Dr. Selverstone.
Marc Selverstone
The Sydney Morning Herald

The Alex Jones problem

The divisions in social media over what to do with Alex Jones are just a small part of the widening debate over how media organisations deal with growing radicalism, especially white nationalism, in the United States. Does denying hatemongers a platform diminish their power or bolster their persecution complex? Does coverage of white nationalists expose the odiousness of their ideas or give them a platform to propagandise?
Nicole Hemmer