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Rhae Lynn Barnes

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Yes, Politicians Wore Blackface. It Used to be All-American ‘Fun.’

Minstrel shows were once so mainstream that even presidents watched them.

by Rhae Lynn Barnes via Washington Post on February 8, 2019
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The Troubling History Behind Ralph Northam’s Blackface Klan Photo

How blackface shaped Virginia politics and culture for more than a century.

by Rhae Lynn Barnes via Made By History on February 2, 2019

After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America

Keri Leigh Merritt, Rhae Lynn Barnes, Yohuru Williams

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Poster for minstrelsy cake walk

The Faces of Racism

A history of blackface and minstrelsy in American culture.

via BackStory on February 8, 2019

Making History Go Viral

Historians used the Twitter thread to add context and accuracy to the news cycle in 2018. Here’s how they did it.

by Rebecca Onion via Slate on December 11, 2018

The Country That Could Not Mourn

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown just how hard it is for Americans to grieve.

by Sarah Jaffe via The New Republic on September 23, 2022

Re-watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests

The landmark Ken Burns documentary hasn’t aged well. But it continues to shape American perceptions about the Confederacy and slavery.

by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on September 26, 2020

Photo of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass: The Most Photographed American of the 19th Century

Be Woke presents Black History in two minutes (or so).

via YouTube on April 3, 2020

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