Calvin Schermerhorn

The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom - JSTOR Daily Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.

The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom

Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.

daily.jstor.org/the-first-bl...

The Murder of The Washington Post Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special.

Thanks @ashleyrparker.bsky.social for the requiem of The Washington Post. I too grew up reading it-and delivering it-in MD as a kid. My Dad would read aloud the Style invitational, book reviews & animal stories. I'll miss what Bezos wasted but treasure what it was
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Shows the cover of a book titled "The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap was Made" by Calvin Schermerhorn

adding to my book wishlist

When Canada was the Promised Land: What Canada Taught America about Freedom and Inclusive Democracy - Yale University Press Calvin Schermerhorn— “I felt no real safety South of Canada,” Henry Goings recalled as he gazed at Canada across the Detroit River, “for there is none to the colored man... READ MORE

Check out this blog post from Plunder of Black America author, Calvin Schermerhorn. Read this and more on our website! 

What We Miss When We Talk About the Racial Wealth Gap Six decades of civil-rights efforts haven’t budged it, and the usual prescriptions—including reparations—offer no lasting solutions. Have we been focussing on the wrong things?

Idrees Kahloon, @wsj.com reviews the Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn

Historian Calvin Schermerhorn traces four hundred years of Black dispossession and decapitalization, telling of the quiet heroism of those who worked to overcome obstacles and defy the plunder. Learn more at yalebooks.com.

The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made [Schermerhorn, Calvin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made

The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made Hardcover by Calvin Schermerhorn
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...

The Plunder of Black America The long history of the racial wealth gap in America told through the stories of seven Black families who struggled to build wealth over multiple generations...

Last was “The Plunder of Black America” by @calscherm.bsky.social, who uses individual cases across US history as a lens into the economic repression of Black people - with every gain by being quickly met with systemic subversion. Highly recommend

Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (5/5)

Racialized Economic Piracy | Los Angeles Review of Books Joel Edward Goza dives into Calvin Schermerhorn’s new study of American history, tracing a financial pattern of racial exploitation that’s woven into the nation’s fabric.

Thank you @joelegoza.bsky.social for a brilliant review in the L.A. Review of Books: lareviewofbooks.org/article/raci...

Racialized Economic Piracy | Los Angeles Review of Books Joel Edward Goza dives into Calvin Schermerhorn’s new study of American history, tracing a financial pattern of racial exploitation that’s woven into the nation’s fabric.

Thank you @joelegoza.bsky.social for a brilliant review in the L.A. Review of Books: lareviewofbooks.org/article/raci...

"The stories hit on almost all of the factors that contribute to our nation’s imbalance in racial wealth....this list takes on the flesh and blood of family life—stats become stories, & we must reckon not simply with what happened but also with the real people it happened to"-@joelegoza.bsky.social

Out now, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by @rickbell.bsky.social A wide angle view of a global event that never loses focus on the Revolution itself. Check it out!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...

Performing Blackness in the Medieval Muslim Metropolis: Arabic Literature and Tropicalization This essay aims to chart a path between premodern blackface performance and postcolonial theory that escapes colonial teleologies. It analyzes moments from the Abbasid through Mamluk era (ca. 750–1517...

My article shows how we can use postcolonial lenses to navigate something we as yet don't know how to acknowledge or talk about well: premodern, non-European people doing things that look a lot like what we now call blackface.
read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/articl...

Out now, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by @rickbell.bsky.social A wide angle view of a global event that never loses focus on the Revolution itself. Check it out!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...

Without Fear &#8220;<em>Without Fear</em> tells the stories of Black women who, like Deborah in the Bible, have engaged in social justice agitation, refusing to simply suffer by engaging in the redemptive work of ...

Now out! Without Fear: Black Women & the Making of Human Rights — Keisha Blain’s brilliant new book tells a 200-year history of Black women who fought for human rights from enslavement through the activists against police violence in our time. Check it out: wwnorton.com/books/978039...

Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...

Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...

The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made [Schermerhorn, Calvin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made

The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made by Calvin Schermerhorn
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...

Racism Isn’t the Only Cause of the Racial Wealth Gap Widening the lens to capitalism itself could yield insights on how to close the gap.

"Both books excel at showing how disproportionately Black wealth has suffered from both racist policy and financial shocks." @newrepublic.com reviews The Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn

Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.

"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth....that chattel slavery,which lasted in the British American colonies & then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad" @clintsmithiii.bsky.social‬
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.

"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth about it. . . . chattel slavery, which lasted in the British American colonies and then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad." -Clint Smith www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

What We Miss When We Talk About the Racial Wealth Gap Six decades of civil-rights efforts haven’t budged it, and the usual prescriptions—including reparations—offer no lasting solutions. Have we been focussing on the wrong things?

“every apparent step forward is matched by a quiet reversion—each gain followed by a new, more elusive form of loss. Redlining gives way to ‘predatory inclusion’….School desegregation in the cities sparks white flight“ -Idrees Kahloon on The Plunder of Black America
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The landlord gutting America’s hospitals Medical Properties Trust buys up hospitals and then leases them back to health care systems. Dozens of its hospitals have gone belly up.

One reason so many American hospitals are struggling? Investors buy them up, then suck them dry, charging such high rents that services are gutted.
Reveal explores what happened to one Louisiana hospital when Medical Properties Trust came to town. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Inside Alabama’s threats to prosecute abortion helpers When Roe v. Wade was overturned and abortion became illegal in Alabama, helping people get out of state came with the threat of jail time.

Looking for heroes, you say?
Let us introduce you to the abortion rights activists who took on Alabama's attorney general—and won. So many lessons here for the post-Roe era. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

YouTube video by Black Liberation Media Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money

Broke-ish® with Erika( @brownerika.bsky.social )Brown & Amber Sims "Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money" Dr. Calvin( @calscherm.bsky.social )Schermerhorn #BlackLiberationMedia www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDMR...

Devil's Bargain: How the slave trade built New Orleans A new project from Verite News examines the role of the slave trade in building and sustaining New Orleans.

Now more than ever, knowing our history - the good and the terrible - is vital for American democracy. I hope you will read and share my intro story in Verite News' new project about the slave trade in New Orleans. #NOLAsky #NOLA
veritenews.org/2025/05/29/d...

There are books. Somehow despite so many years of work I wasn’t quite prepared for actual books?!

Official pub next week. More coherence inc thanks for v lovely advance praise soon.

How Toni Morrison Changed Publishing At night, she worked on her novels. By day, as an editor at Random House, she championed a new generation of writers.

“Morrison came to appreciate the power of directly exploring the inner and outer dimensions of Black life….Morrison’s mode was to be relentlessly demanding—of herself, her authors, and her Random House colleagues.” —@clintsmithiii.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

America, America | Steven Beschloss | Substack Essays of alarm and hope, on politics and society, democracy and justice. With passion and urgency. Click to read America, America, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

I will be talking to the Rev. William Barber--one of our nation's leading moral voices and an important part of "No Kings"--on Substack Live at 12:30 ET today. I hope you'll join us. (If you're not a subscriber, free or paid, you can sign up here: america.substack.com)

When Canada was the Promised Land: What Canada Taught America about Freedom and Inclusive Democracy - Yale University Press Calvin Schermerhorn— “I felt no real safety South of Canada,” Henry Goings recalled as he gazed at Canada across the Detroit River, “for there is none to the colored man... READ MORE

When Canada was the Promised Land: What Canada Taught America about Freedom and Inclusive Democracy "From Canada, black authors were able to read, write, & proclaim injustices free from persecution in America" #BlackPast #Canada #BlackHistory @yalepress.bsky.social
yalebooks.yale.edu/2025/06/04/w...