Robert D. Bland

I really enjoyed this conversation! Grateful to be in community with such a rich tradition of scholars and scholarship.

I really enjoyed this thoughtful interview with Jim Townshend and the Levin Center. Reconstruction-era stories are more important now as we continue to confront the ongoing struggle to make American democracy meaningful

Important piece from @uncpress.bsky.social author Robert Bland on how today’s voting-rights battles echo the unresolved conflicts of Reconstruction

The Supreme Court may soon diminish Black political power, undoing generations of gains The Supreme Court appears poised to abolish a key part of the Voting Rights Act. It may draw on a constitutional amendment that empowered African Americans.

I wrote a piece for @theconversation.com on the Reconstruction-era roots of racial gerrymandering. As we continue our slide into a post-Voting Rights Act world, it is more important than ever to understand the nineteenth-century precedents for our current moment. theconversation.com/the-supreme-...

After federal troops forced a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns back into slavery in the 1850s, one Bostonian wrote, “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.” The abuse of power radicalizes people. We are seeing that now.

A photo of the vehicle surrounded by crime scene tape

Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot & killed by an ICE agent, had a young son whose father died in 2023, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune

“There’s nobody else in his life,” the boy’s grandfather told the paper. “I’ll drive. I’ll fly. To come get my grandchild.” www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...

A preview of the larger story that you will find in my book, Requiem for Reconstruction. Now available through @uncpress.bsky.social

New This Week: January 6th 2026 - UNC Press Blog Today calls for celebration—it’s our first publication day of 2026! We’re thrilled to kick off the new year with three incredible titles that span a wide range of topics: from the fascinating world of...

It's our first pub day of 2026 🎉 From the fascinating world of crayfish to uncovering the untold complexities of Reconstruction, to clothing, culture, and violence in the Civil War Era these new releases make for a powerful start the year 📚

Check them out 👇
uncpressblog.com/2026/01/06/n...

I had a great conversation with @thesullivansummer.bsky.social and @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about my book, Requiem for Reconstruction, which will be officially released tomorrow (1/6) through @uncpress.bsky.social. You can listen to that interview here newbooksnetwork.com/requiem-for-...

Death by Lightning - An Ode to Service - The Journal of the Civil War Era In his inaugural speech on March 4, 1881, newly elected President James Garfield emphasized the importance of ongoing Reconstruction, asserting that the “elevation of the negro race from slavery to th...

In today's Muster, @richcondon.bsky.social explores the recent Netflix series Death by Lightning and its portrait of James Garfield as the last "Lincoln Republican" www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/12/deat...

Christmas came early in East TN. 📚

Thank you Mary-Elizabeth. The Whipper family is so fascinating and definitely under examined

Requiem for Reconstruction | Robert D. Bland | University of North Carolina Press The promise of Reconstruction sparked a transformative era in American history as free and newly emancipated Black Americans sought to redefine their place i...

Requiem for Reconstruction is now available for presale. It is still a bit surreal to know that it is actually going to be out in the world. If you buy the book through UNC press, you can get 30% off with the promo code 01UNCP30. uncpress.org/book/9781469...

Unforgettable Sacrifice Rediscover the Civil War through the voices that refused to be silencedUnforgettable Sacrifice offers a groundbreaking exploration into the heart of African ...

📚🚨It’s Book Pub Day for @hngreen.bsky.social's Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War 📚🚨 www.fordhampress.com/978153150852...
Get your copy and request it from your library.
#booksky #blackskybookclub

I Needed To Read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Today. You Should Too. On this inauguration day I find myself, once again, reading Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, which was delivered 160 years ago this coming March.

At some point today, perhaps around noon, take some time to read Lincoln’s words for yourself. It will do you good. 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/i-needed-t...

It Is MLK Day. Do Not Despair. This Year Especially, We Have Work To Do. With delicious anticipation, we imagined it.

I pray this helps some of you today. We have a duty to Dr. King whose life was taken because he dared demand that this country face itself, to demonstrate that his work & sacrifice was not in vain. Let’s do it together. Please share. And subscribe.
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Best data from the article.

Current Issue - The Journal of the Civil War Era Volume 14, No. 3 December 2024 This is a special issue on Black Internationalism organized and edited by Brandon Byrd. Introduction – Brandon Byrd This introductory essay offers a historical and histo...

The December issue of the JCWE is now available. This special issue on Black Internationalism is edited by Brandon Byrd, associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University and author of The Black Republic: African Americans and the Fate of Haiti www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/june2024142/

The Rise and Rapid Fall of the First US Department of Education | HISTORY The department, established in 1867, faced opposition from Southern congressmen, who associated it with education for the formerly enslaved.

The Rise and Rapid Fall of the First US Department of Education

The department, established in 1867, faced opposition from Southern congressmen, who associated it with education for the formerly enslaved. 🗃️

www.history.com/news/departm...

Hypothermia alert for DC tonight. It's been a dangerously cold day & will be a dangerously cold night. Precautions are needed by all & compassion towards the unhoused. @remorahousedc.bsky.social @knilirabaj.bsky.social @jl3001.bsky.social @ginatb2.bsky.social

Yale Announces 2024 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Winners

The co-winners of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize are Marlene Daut for “Awakening the Ashes” (@uncpress.bsky.social) & Sara Johnson for “Encyclopédie Noire:” (OIEAHC and UNC)!!!!!!!!
macmillan.yale.edu/glc/stories/...

Collage of images from Black family Thanksgivings

This thanksgiving, I'm thinking about how we've been complaining about losing recipes for years, and need to get intentional about preserving them.

open.substack.com/pub/naimacoc...

History Interns Work to Reconnect Families Separated by Enslavement By Sam McDonald Two Old Dominion University student interns are growing their knowledge of American history as they seek to reunite Virginia families pulled apart long ago by the institution of slaver...

History Interns at Old Dominion Work to Reconnect Virginia Families Separated by Enslavement www.odu.edu/article/hist... "Focusing on people enslaved by the Custis-Washington-Lee clan, they are combing through tax lists, wills and inventories to reveal broken family links."

W. Ralph Eubanks explores his family's connection to Mileston, MS: “Black farmers owning their own land and profiting from it was what my father thought would lift the Delta out of poverty.”

Read: ow.ly/XnnE50Ugf3Y

📷 Marcella Plantation, 1939, FSA/LOC

Calling all history teachers. This is a great opportunity to work with some excellent Civil War scholars @naucivilwar.bsky.social at the University of Virginia next summer. 🗃️ docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

'Erik S. McDuffie...shows how cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, as well as rural areas in the heartland, became central and enduring incubators of Marcus Garvey’s Black nationalist Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and its offshoots'
www.dukeupress.edu/the-second-b...

Teaching the Civil War: Disrupting the Conventional Antislavery Narrative and Engaging Students in Visual Analysis - The Journal of the Civil War Era This post is the first in a new Muster series that will highlight innovative ways that classroom instructors have approached teaching the Civil War era. Today’s post is written by Professor Bonnie Lau...

In today's Muster, Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz discusses using nineteenth-century art to teach the antislavery movement www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2024/11/teac...

America Has Done Mass Deportation Before From the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to the deportation of Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression, Trump can easily find precedents for his policy. None of them ended well.

Sobering article by historian Eric Foner about the many terrible historical precedents for Trump's mass deportation plan, esp. the popular 1800s idea of "colonization"--sending formerly enslaved people to Africa so America would be a white country www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Teedra Moses’ NPR Tiny Desk performance is out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQTE...