Nhc Podcasts

In the decades following the American Civil War, African American intellectuals focused much of their attention beyond the borders of the United States and, in doing so, engaged global histories of colonization, slavery, immigration, and imperialism. They also found occasion to celebrate the traditions, achievements, and contributions made by Africans around the world. While a significant body of scholarship attends to the work of politicians, clergy, actors, and artists, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of black historians. National Humanities Center Fellow Stephen G. Hall might be called a “historian of historians.” His current research, spanning the era between 1885 and 1960, focuses on the global engagement of African American historians, many of whom were trained and taught in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In this podcast, Hall introduces and expands on important issues at play in his study: the sources black historians enlisted to frame critical events, the