Karen Benjamin

Cutbacks at HUD come as Black homeownership falls HUD fires two civil rights lawyers who spoke out about cuts to the office that enforces fair housing laws.

HUD today fired two civil rights lawyers who spoke publicly about their whistleblower complaint over the Trump admin's cuts to the office that enforces fair housing laws.

An Historic Giant Has Left the Building Dr. Quintard Taylor, Jr., who died on September 21 in Houston, Texas, is perhaps best known for creating the website BlackPast 2004, a groundbreaking resource for African American and African history ...

www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

Hegseth says Wounded Knee soldiers will keep their Medals of Honor Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that he has decided that the 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards.

The sentiments could not be clearer by this administration- upholding imperialism even amidst a surrender showing the devaluation of Native lives, women, children, civilians- estimated at 250. Remember Wounded Knee

apnews.com/article/woun...

Increased security at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History #ASALH due to illegal recording aimed at discrediting the org that Carter G Woodson founded 110 years ago. Last week the website was targeted. Donate @asalh-bhm.bsky.social

In This Black Louisiana Town, Forests are Browning and Animals are Dying After the industrial explosion in rural Louisiana town, the EPA still says there is no health threat.

The forests that once sheltered the small town of Roseland are turning brown. Now, many residents are left wondering: Is what was left behind after the Aug. 22 blast safe? If it’s making the trees ill, what about them?

Thank you! If you do get a chance to read the book, would love to hear your thoughts/questions. Feel free to reach out!

A hardcover copy of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America standing upright on a wooden desk, with a stack of additional copies beside it.

I've got some extra copies of There Is No Place for Us, and I'd love to give away 5 signed books.

Just repost, like, or comment to signal your interest. I'll pick names at random on Friday.

Totally optional: feel free to share how the struggle for stable housing shows up in your life or community.

Interested in the story behind redlining? I’m Dr. Karen Benjamin, and my new book Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools: Selling Segregation before the New Deal examines how “redlining” was ju... Along with a better understanding of how government at all levels helped segregate U.S. cities through redlining, zoning, and other strategies, we...

Interested in the story behind redlining? We're hosting an #AMA with @kallienebenjamin.bsky.social , author of "Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools: Selling Segregation before the New Deal". #Skystorians can come ask question & discover the full story!
old.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

From the AskHistorians community on Reddit: Interested in the story behind redlining? I’m Dr. Karen Benjamin, and my new book Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools: Selling Segregation before ... Explore this post and more from the AskHistorians community

Come check out @kallienebenjamin.bsky.social's fantastic AMA today on @askhistorians.bsky.social for Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools: Selling Segregation before the New Deal!

www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

The Author’s Corner with Karen Benjamin Karen Benjamin is Associate Professor of History at Elmhurst University. This interview is based on her new book, Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools: Selling Segregation before the New D…

"During the early twentieth century, developers sold residential segregation to affluent white parents as one piece of a larger, child-centered environment that included new schools, playgrounds, better sanitation, and quieter streets."
thewayofimprovement.blog/2025/09/11/t...

MAPA: Make America Patriotic Again Donald Trump has his interpretation. What's yours?

Read Richard Rothstein's latest blog post on the fallacies of MAGA interpretations of constitutional law:

MAPA: Make America Patriotic Again
open.substack.com/pub/justacti...

Trump’s Housing Chief Wants to Build, But With What? HUD Secretary Scott Turner says it’s time to put millions more Americans in homes. He’s also standing by while his agency’s staff and funding disappear.

great read on HUD and its Trump 2.0 Secretary Scott Turner from @sarahholder.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... (gift link)

Trump, the Smithsonian, and the battle over U.S. history | CBC Radio From the Smithsonian to the classroom, President Trump is targeting cultural and educational institutions to promote a ‘patriotic’ version of history. We speak to a leading civil rights figure and historian about why that matters for the present.

Listen to this podcast with Bryan Stevenson on the moves the U.S. is making to censor the Smithsonian and institutions like it that are trying to tell the truth about the history of America.

YIMBYtown 2025 Keynote Speaker Spotlight: @tamikabutler.bsky.social is an expert on the built environment, equity, and anti-racism and offers an important perspective into the pro-homes movement. See you in New Haven soon! yimby.town

I’m so grateful to @bletiecq.bsky.social,
President of the National Council on Family Relations, for her early review of my book. THANK YOU!

How State Funds Are Helping Private Schools Expand Vouchers aren’t the only way lawmakers have funneled money to private schools. At least two have received grants for new facilities.

The NC General Assembly has done more to help the growth of private schools than approve "universal school choice"—vouchers without income restrictions. They also appropriated funds for some schools' capital projects. #ncpol www.theassemblync.com/education/k-...

Frances E. W. Harper 200 – Looking Back, Moving Forward - Colored Conventions Project

SAVE THE DATE: We are excited to co-host #Harper200 Sept. 19-21. We invite you to attend in person! The weekend festivities include a dance performance, scholarly panels, poetry readings, receptions, and more. Most events are free. Learn more & register at:
coloredconventions.org/harper-200-s...

The last two recessions have hit low-income families of color hard: Trump’s economic agenda will expose millions to even more pain when the next recession strikes The Great Recession and the pandemic recession hit low-income families of color especially hard—pushing many into unemployment, poverty, and housing insecurity. The swift and bold policy response to t...

The last 2 recessions hit low-income families hard, especially families of color. Trump's economic agenda is making them more vulnerable to the next recession, says EPI's @icidmartinez.bsky.social.

Learn more about the 9.7 million low-income families in our new report: www.epi.org/publication/...

PFH is proud to co-host the next Open Book/Open Mind with Montclair Public Library, Montclair NAACP & @dosocialjustice.bsky.social on Sept 10.

Richard Rothstein, Leah Rothstein & Ryan P. Haygood will discuss Just Action and strategies for equity.

Free registration: bccls.libcal.com/event/14579503

I’m committed to doing everything in my power to build a world where our children don’t have to fear getting shot when they go to school, and I hope you’ll join me.

The surprising findings that led Christina J. Cross, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, to write her critical new book, Inherited Inequality: Why Opportunity Gaps Persist Between ... TikTok video by Harvard University Press

I never planned on writing a book. Few demographers do. But 9yrs ago, I unearthed a puzzling finding that upended everything I thought I knew about race and family structure. And I knew I had to share it with the world.

Check out this video to learn more: www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8BxtCBd/

Today in @aeraedresearch.bsky.social comms, coverage of a new study by an amazing scholar (& good friend) @bbassett2.bsky.social about spatial injustice & universities that support low-income students!

Open access article: www.doi.org/10.1177/2332...

Video summary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftyy...

Yes! Schools were not designed to be equal (and would not have produced such a high level of residential segregation if they had been). Affluent white parents were taught to believe that their children's success depended on opportunities that were denied to other children.

"McGrath and Kuriloff found that upper-middle-class parents actively worked to maintain educational advantages for their children while blocking access for others, revealing how social class perpetuated tracking inequities."

Excited to finally announce the release of my first ever book, and the first ever book from we here press. It is a pocket-size guide to my archival theories and experiences in the form of essays- some you may have heard in part as lectures, some which are unpublished until now.

www.weherepress.org

Thank you! And I loved your comment. One example among many...

Wait. They already have this. It’s called Broadmoor in Seattle.

At Alabama plantation, families of enslavers and enslaved strike a deal The descendants of enslavers and enslaved have come together where their ancestors once lived, working to address the plantation’s legacy and promote healing.

At the site of the Wallace forced labor camp on AL’s Coosa River, which was worked and maintained by 100 enslaved people, a deal granting previously blocked Black access to the Black burial grounds and planning future use of the plantation was struck. wapo.st/41MlFRT

New Music from Anti-Fascist Folk Singer Woody Guthrie Released With this reveal of 22 previously unheard songs, the Guthrie family hopes the radical messages in “Woody At Home” will inspire the next generation of protest songwriters.

The tapes were recorded in the living room of Guthrie’s Brooklyn apartment between 1951 and 1952, on a portable tape recorder...

@caroleine.bsky.social writes that the Guthrie family hopes to inspire the next generation of protest songwriters.

inthesetimes.com/article/new-...

Formal portrait of man in suit coat, waistcoat, and tie with a watch chain. He is gazing directly at the viewer.

In 1848 Boston attorney Robert Morris challenged school segregation in court a century before Brown v Board of Ed. Black Bostonians had petitioned for equal education starting in 1787. Morris fought for the rights of his African & Irish American clients & was appointed magistrate by the governor.