By Maria Moss

Tom Rice is Senior Lec­tur­er in Film Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of St Andrews and the author of White Robes, Sil­ver Screens: Movies and the Mak­ing of the Ku Klux Klan (2015). In this book, he exam­ines the inte­gral role of cin­e­ma in the for­ma­tion, devel­op­ment, and demise of the Ku Klux Klan between 1915 and 1944. Through a range of sources – includ­ing Klan news­pa­pers, cen­sor­ship files, and per­son­al papers – the book explores the ways in which the Klan used, pro­duced, and protest­ed against the film indus­try in order to recruit mem­bers, gen­er­ate pub­lic­i­ty, and define itself as a tra­di­tion­al Protes­tant Amer­i­can organization.

The fol­low­ing inter­view took place in Decem­ber 2016 (note the Advent wreath).

Tune in next week for part 2!

By Sophie Schleimer

Brown:        Broth­er, who’s backin’ you                       on this?

Cor­nelius:   James, it’s just me.

Brown:        Broth­er, who’re you with on this?

Cor­nelius:   James, it’s just me.

Brown:        Broth­er, who’s real­ly behind                     this?

Cor­nelius:   James, it’s just me.

August 1970, late after­noon: Some­thing leg­endary is unfold­ing right before the eyes of just about every black house­hold in Chica­go: “This is Soul Train, the hippest trip in Amer­i­ca, 60 non-stop min­utes over the tracks of your mind into the excit­ing world of Soul!” is heard for the very first time on local tele­vi­sion. The show’s own­er, pro­duc­er, and hippest host in his­to­ry, Mr. Don Cor­nelius, steps on stage and starts a new era in African Amer­i­can his­to­ry. He has no idea his train is head­ing for tele­vi­sion heaven.

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By Sabrina Völz

After yet anoth­er elec­tion sea­son with a num­ber of glitch­es, the prob­lems with America’s vot­ing sys­tem have been all over the news once again. Will the fuss die down after a few months like it has in past elec­tions? Some­how I don’t think it will. In recent months, it has become increas­ing­ly evi­dent that some of the same rights that were fought for and won dur­ing the Civ­il Rights Move­ment of the 1950s and ‘60s have come under fire. The move­ment, once con­sid­ered a done deal, has recent­ly gained new urgency.

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By Jan Gudlowski

“Make Amer­i­ca Great Again.” Again. Despite what the media cov­er­age lead us to fear, the world did not end with the elec­tion of Don­ald Trump as the 45^th Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. No can­di­date in the 2016 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign was as omnipresent in the pub­lic per­cep­tion as Trump. It has been said that the speech Trump gave on Jan­u­ary 20 did not fore­shad­ow a good pres­i­den­cy; it was aggres­sive, sim­ple, and pop­ulist. But is that real­ly some­thing new?

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By Michael Lederer

His­to­ry nev­er crawls or walks. It runs. Some­times silent­ly as if on the soft­er sands of time. Some­times we can hear its foot­steps loud­er as they hit the hot pavement.

As I write this on Jan­u­ary 19, 2017, Barack Oba­ma is still the Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. But only just. Great Britain is still a mem­ber of the Euro­pean Union. But only just. And after the painful lessons of the 20^th cen­tu­ry, nation­al­ism is still a sleep­ing giant. But only just. The giant is waking.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the vote for Brex­it in 2016, Europe and the Unit­ed States have known over a quar­ter cen­tu­ry of rel­a­tive peace. No wars, hot or cold. Some excep­tions: Sara­je­vo, Sre­breni­ca, 9/11. But for the most part, some 10,000 morn­ings, after­noons, and evenings have unfold­ed in secure calm. But as in the eye of a storm, calm can be decep­tive. And tem­po­rary. Read more »

By Roger Nichols

Every­one read­ing this blog has seen mon­u­ments to his­tor­i­cal events or nation­al heroes. But how many of you have seen a memo­r­i­al to a mass hang­ing? Out­side the movies or TV, few peo­ple today have ever seen a pub­lic hang­ing. That was not true a hun­dred years ago when crim­i­nals’ lives often end­ed at the end of a noose. The largest pub­lic hang­ing in Amer­i­can his­to­ry took place on Decem­ber 26, 1862, in Manka­to, Min­neso­ta. That day, fed­er­al troops exe­cut­ed 38 Dako­ta Sioux Indi­ans for their part in the Min­neso­ta Sioux War that had just end­ed. By some accounts, up to 4,000 whites jammed the town square or sat atop near­by build­ings to watch the mass exe­cu­tion. The crowd cheered loud­ly when the trap­doors opened and all 38 men hung at the end of the ropes. Why not take a few min­utes to find out why this grue­some spec­ta­cle hap­pened 134 years ago and how the city of Manka­to – often asso­ci­at­ed with the Lit­tle House on the Prairie TV series – has dealt with this lega­cy? Read more »