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Christina Proenza-Coles

@proenzacoles.bsky.social
5.4K followers 1.6K following 615 posts

Author of AMERICAN FOUNDERS: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World. I study, research, teach, & post American history.

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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 14h
The Unsung Women Behind America’s Most Celebrated Civil Rights Protest The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Marcia Chatelain revisits the 1963 March on Washington, placing overlooked Black women at the center of the story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/b...
nytimes.com
Book Review: ‘How Bright the Path Grows,’ by Marcia Chatelain (Gift Article)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Marcia Chatelain revisits the 1963 March on Washington, placing overlooked Black women at the center of the story.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 11h
Elated that my next book, Imagining Whiteness in the Pan-American South, is under contract with the University of Georgia Press. This project began over 25 years ago with an article, “What Color is Cuban?” and still feels just as timely.
Abstract for "What Color is Cuban? Complexities of Ethnic and Racial Identity" by Christina Proenza in Cuban Transitions at the Millennium, Eloise Linger & John Cotman, eds. Global Development Studies, 2000.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 14h
“At Monticello, descendants of enslavers and descendants of the enslaved are attempting to fashion a family from a fractured past.”
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In 1944 Rosa Parks organized against sexual violence and led the NAACP’s investigation of the six men who sexually assaulted a young mother in Alabama. See Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks’ letter to Governor in support of Recy Taylor, c. 1944, Alabama Department of Archives and History, featured by The New York Historical.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"She asks us to examine the cumulative cost of systems that extract more from some people while returning less."
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In 1848 Boston attorney Robert Morris challenged school segregation in court a century before Brown v Board of Ed. In 1787 Black Bostonians had petitioned for equal education as well. Morris fought for the rights of his Black & Irish American clients & was appointed a magistrate by the governor.
Studio portrait of a man in a suit, with watch chain, gazing directly at the viewer.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
David Ruggles, American hero, dedicated his life to making the world safer. He repeatedly risked his life & saved others as the founder of the NYC Vigilance Committee, an Underground Railroad conductor, & the of publisher of The Mirror Liberty. uncpress.org/book/9780807...
uncpress.org
David Ruggles
David Ruggles (1810–1849) was one of the most heroic — and has been one of the most often overlooked — figures of the early abolitionist movement in Am...
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My blurb for Chloe Ireton’s new book, forthcoming from Hurst in November: “Chloe Ireton has brought to vivid life a love story in *Plotting for Freedom* and thereby made a unique, moving, deeply human, and sure to be lasting contribution to Atlantic history.” hurstpublishers.com/book/plottin...
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My blurb: “Graham Hodges has made a lifetime of major contributions to the study of American slavery and abolition. His biography of Henry Highland Garnet is a triumph -- a deeply-researched and altogether brilliant portrait.” yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Silas Lapham @silaslapham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Next week @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social An Inconvenient Woman The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America comes out. @yallaintrightco.bsky.social has partnered with Merritt to promote Smith and the book. yallaintright.co/collections/...
yallaintright.co
An Inconvenient Woman Special Collection
This collection comes out of a partnership with historian Keri Leigh Merritt, whose biography An Inconvenient Woman recovers the story of Lillian Smith, a white Southern writer who spent her life figh...
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In 1862, Susie King Taylor joined the US Army to fight against slavery. Her captain wrote “I regret that you are debarred from having your name on the roll of pensioners as an Army Nurse; for among all the number of heroic women whom the government is now rewarding, I know of no one more deserving.”
Extremely crisp image of a woman in military bodice and full skirt, seated in a garden. From a plate glass negative made by Samuel Willard Bridgham, a photographer who served on the board of the US Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I just came across this review of the audio book of American Founders on Goodreads. Yes, I am incredibly happy to read it and indulgently posting it. But even more to the point, this reviewer articulates the aims of the project more effectively than I could.
This is a screen shot of text from a Goodreads review of the audio book American Founders.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The State Library & Archives of Florida calls this image Seated Girl & Boy Holding Hat. It’s among many beautiful portraits of Black Floridians made by photographer Alvan Harper between 1884 & 1910 whose names were not preserved.
Studio portrait of a young girl and boy, both beautifully dressed, gazing at a point beyond the viewer.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Established in 1937, Wake-Robin is the oldest Black women’s golf club in the country. This is a photograph of members from 1938, the same year that Wake-Robin members petitioned the US Secretary of the Interior for the desegregation of golf courses.
Six smartly dressed women holding golf clubs, posing for the camera.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
William Whipper (b. 1804) used his resources to champion abolition, voting rights, & non-violent resistance. HIs lumber & coal ventures provided him means to organize against slavery, assist scores of people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, & meet with President Andrew Johnson.
Oil on canvas portrait of William Whipper c. 1835 attributed to William Matthew Prior. Whipper is elegantly dressed & holds a small book with his initials in gilt letters. Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Ralph Bunche, political scientist & diplomat, won the Nobel in 1950. He & Barack Obama descended from John Punch, an enslaved African man who had a son with an indentured European servant in the 1630s. Their progeny split into the "white" Punches of VA (Obama’s line) & the “colored” Bunches of NC.
Handsome smiling man in coat and tie.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
A portrait of Pauline with her charges from the book “Soublette et Fils: Photography in Curaçao around 1900” featuring photographs from the studio of Robert Soublette.
Formal portrait of a woman holding infant twins & gazing directly at the viewer.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
As a young student, Maritcha Lyons (b. 1848), testified before the Rhode Island State Legislature for her right to attend school - as an adult she fought for racial justice & gender equality as an educator & founder of the Woman’s Loyal Union of New York.
Formal portrait a beautifully dressed young girl.
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Miami Herald @miamiherald.com · 02/08/2026
Human bondage was big business in the antebellum US, and men weren't the only ones cashing in.
bit.ly
American slavery wasn't just a white man's business − white women profited, too
Human bondage was big business in the antebellum US, and men weren't the only ones cashing in.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
As I wrote in American Founders: Americans are the descendants of slaves & slave owners both literally & figuratively. Our families trees are intertwined (see Jeffersons, Washingtons, Madisons.) People of African descent contributed to the development of the US in every possibly way.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This portrait from around 1922 depicts Rosa and Moses Demps with their children in front of their home in St. Augustine. Black families lived in St. Augustine since before the English arrived in Jamestown - parish registers recorded the birth of a Black child in St. Augustine in 1606.
Photographer Richard Twine made this portrait of two parents & their children, all beautifully dressed. The glass plate negative is held by the St. Augustine Historical Society.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida c. 1966. From the archival collection of The Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida.
Four young girls wearing girl scout uniforms and saluting.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
As a fellow native of Miami Dade, I love the work of Melissa Gutierrez. AKA West of Chester, her online shop is open now for 24 hours. I couldn’t resist getting a 2nd print of this because I love the ubiquitous Spanish expression ojalá (derived from Arabic) that means LET'S HOPE! westofchester.com
Brightly colored print of two abuela's sitting at a table chatting, over their heads is printed "Ojala"
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Miami Herald @miamiherald.com · 23/07/2026
As Miami-Dade County government officials, we know how important Haitian TPS-holders are to our economy and community. | opinion
bit.ly
Scott and Moody’s last chance to protect Haiti TPS — and South Florida’s economy | Opinion
As Miami-Dade County government officials, we know how important Haitian TPS-holders are to our economy and community. | opinion
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
When Charlayne Hunter-Gault arrived at University of GA in 1961, some white students responded with violence; she was suspended “for her safety” but returned with a court order & earned a journalism degree. Portrait by Jospeh Schwarz, a professor who organized a faculty resolution to reinstate her.
Oil on canvas portrait of a woman looking to the side, her sweater and the background are similar shades of rusty sepia while her arms and face are luminous. The National Portrait Gallery describes the figure's expression as “cooly determined.”
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Dr. Caroline Still Anderson (born in Philadelphia in 1848) was a physician & educator. Her parents, William & Letitia Still, were leaders in the Underground Railroad who helped scores of Americans to free themselves from slavery. Her grandparents were themselves self-liberated, formerly enslaved.
Studio portrait of an elegantly dressed woman in hat and gloves, gazing past the viewer.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
After buying her freedom, Elizabeth Keckley established a clothing business in Washington DC in 1860 favored by the elite. During the Civil War she established an organization to assist formerly enslaved Americans. After Lincoln’s assassination she published a memoir to raise funds for his widow.
Portrait of a woman, standing, in an elegant full length dress. Elizabeth Keckley, 1861, dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
“Saunders & 180 other known Black or Indigenous soldiers were stationed at the Redding Encampment — sometimes referred to as ‘Connecticut’s Valley Forge.’ From June to September 1778, personnel documents describe Saunders as tending the sick at the actual Valley Forge in Pennsylvania.”
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Dr. Edward Bouchet (born in New Haven, CT in 1852) was among the first Americans in U.S. history to earn a Ph.D. in physics. The son of a formerly enslaved father, Dr. Bouchet earned his doctorate from Yale in 1876.
Portrait of a man in a jacket & tie gazing to the side. The bottom reads "Edward A. Bouchet, New Haven"
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
“This is a modern city that doesn’t understand its origin 5,000 years ago. So many people in Miami are really interested. We should be creating those opportunities to create that sense of place. This all didn’t just spring out of the ground.” Read more at: www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...
miamiherald.com
Miami’s forgotten ancient past is hiding beneath a Joe & the Juice. Yes, really
Under Whole Foods, under a stadium, under Brickell condos — Miami’s Tequesta past keeps surfacing, then gets buried by development.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
James Forten heard the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776; he participated in the American Revolution & fought for its ideals long after the war. A skilled entrepreneur & ardent abolitionist, his wife & daughters founded the 1st interracial antislavery society for women.
Watercolor portrait of James Forten in profile wearing coat & tie painted around 1818. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Gertrude Mossell (here in a portrait with her daughters c. 1890) was a journalist & educator. Her great grandfather, Cyrus Bustill, served with Washington’s troops during the American Revolution & helped found Philadelphia’s Free African Society. Her sister was Paul Robeson’s mother.
Grainy but beautiful photograph of a mother flanked by her young daughters.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
During the American Revolution, Cuffee Saunders (born in Guyana) was an enslaved medical assistant who served with the Patriots. He treated the wounded & purchased his freedom with his enlistment bounty. His son, Prince Saunders (pictured), a Dartmouth grad, was Haiti's attorney general.
Etching of a well dressed man in a relaxed pose gazing at the viewer. The bottom reads "P. Saunders Esq."
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Austin Curtis an enslaved jockey whom E. Hotaling calls the US’s “1st truly great professional athlete” was granted freedom after hiding horses from the British during the American Revolution. NC legislature added his former owner's surname in his emancipation record hence "Austin Jones" in his obit
Newspaper text "On the 10th of July at Halifax NC. Austin Jones, a colored man, aged about 50, well known for many years past as keeper of race horses...in which he particularly excelled...He possessed the esteem of many - the respect & confidence of all who knew him."
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Lemuel Haynes was a Revolutionary War veteran & the 1st Black (mixed-race) man to be ordained as a minister in the US. He argued for universal rights in his 1776 antislavery tract, Liberty Further Extended, challenging the pretense of a nation fighting for its own freedom while denying it to others.
Oil on papier-mâché tray depicting Reverend Lemuel Haynes preaching to a congregation from a pulpit. Made c. 1835 by an unknown artist. Collection of the Rhode Island School of Design.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
In 1770 Crispus Attucks was the 1st martyr of the American Revolution. Son of an African father & Native American mother, he'd liberated himself from slavery & joined the multiracial ranks of northeastern mariners b4 sacrificing his life, as G.W. Williams put it, “on the altar of a people’s rights.”
Etching depicting an artist's rendering of Crispus Attucks in jacket & tie, with the inscription "The just man shall be in eternal remembrance" & "The brave soldier of the Revolutionary War, 1770." Made in 1897, housed in the Library of Congress.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
John Trumbull painted this portrait of George Washington & William Lee from memory around 1780, roughly 5 years after Trumbull had served as an aide-de-camp. William Lee was a mixed-race equestrian & valet who accompanied & assisted Washington throughout the American Revolutionary War.
Portrait centering George Washington illuminated in the middle of the canvas with William Lee on a horse on the side deeply in shadow. Made by John Trumbull in 1780. In the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Black soldiers sought freedom through various means during the American Revolution. Hundreds, many of whom were self-liberated, joined the Hessian armies. About 70 of these Black American soldiers settled in Germany after the war, transforming themselves “from slaves to subjects.”
Colored print of men serving in a German regiment from the American Revolution.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
In the wake of the American Revolution, Virginia passed manumission acts which acknowledged that enslaved veterans of the Patriot army “contributed toward the establishment of American liberty and independence.” AMERICAN FOUNDERS: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World
A screen from American Founders that reads, The American Revolution was part of a centuries long process of emancipation in the US where Black Americans sought freedom on both sides of the conflict. Thousands joined the Patriot army, including James Armistead, whose services as a double agent helped to foster the Yorktown victory. Many more recognized the promise of freedom offered to those who served in Loyalist companies. The vast ranks of men & women who left plantations to aid the British in exchange for their freedom made the American Revolution among the largest slave revolts in US history.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
"Enslaved women’s desire for freedom did not originate with the American Revolution. However, the Revolution amplified their quest for freedom" www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...
Book Cover: text reads, Karen Cook Bell, Running from Bondage
Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. There is an image of a woman in the center.
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KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 28/06/2026
"The labor of enslaved women helped sustain the households, farms, and local economies that made the American Revolution possible, even as those women were denied the liberty the revolution promised," the lecture 'Bearing the Nation' explains riverheadlocal.com/2026/06/24/e... #americaat250
riverheadlocal.com
Enslaved women, labor and the creation of the United States: an America 250 lecture
An America 250 lecture about the enslaved women whose labor helped sustain the Long Island economy in the years before the revolution will be presented Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Suffolk County…
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
"When we think of the man who drafted the Declaration, we need also to picture Robert Hemmings, Jefferson’s literate, teenage, enslaved valet who fetched the paper & mixed the ink... he too was a founder who worked to make the Declaration’s promises tangible & true." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/m...
nytimes.com
The Many Founders of the United States
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Isaac 65, son Charles 40, daughter Nelly 38. Henny 13, Cecilia 8, Ruth 6. Patrick 35, his wife Letty 30, Cornelius 13, Francis 12, Susan 10, Gabriel 8, Peter 5, Jackson 3, Elizabeth 1, James 28, Delia 22, Susan 3, George 1, Isaac 26, his wife Kitty 28, Austin 6, Isaac 4, Elias 1. & 248 more people.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
José Andrade, born in Uruguay in 1901 (his father had freed himself from enslavement in Brazil) brought Uruguay’s national soccer team to prominence in the 1920s & "put football on the map of international sports" according to one historian. He won 2 Olympic gold medals & the 1st FIFA World Cup.
Black and white image of a man gazing intently.
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Reposted by Christina Proenza-Coles
King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Good #America250 story. You can read James Lafayette's petition for freedom here. www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/...
lva.virginia.gov
James Lafayette Petition for Freedom, 1786 · Document Bank of Virginia
Document Bank of Virginia (DBVa) is the Library of Virginia’s initiative to get documents into classrooms. Using primary sources, teachers can make history relevant to students while helping them lear...
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
During the American Revolution, James Armistead La Fayette gathered intelligence from British troops that enabled the Patriot victory at Yorktown. Having risked his life - among thousands of Black Patriots - for the establishment of the United States, he petitioned for his freedom which was granted.
Portrait of a man with a high collar & double breasted coat gazing directly at the views made c. 1824. In the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Matilda Sissieretta Jones (b. 1868 in Virginia) was a renowned opera singer who performed at the White House (multiple times), at Madison Square Garden (with Antonin Dvorak), headlined at Carnegie Hall in 1893, & toured the Caribbean, South America, & England.
Studio portrait of a woman with her arms crossed, wearing a dress with multiple medals, gazing at the viewer. The sitter is Matilda Sissieretta Jones, c. 1895. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Christina Proenza-Coles @proenzacoles.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Mary Silvinia Burghardt Du Bois, with her sister and infant son William - aka W. E. B. Du Bois. The Burghardts descended from a formerly enslaved ancestor who fought in the American Revolution.
Professional studio portrait of two well dressed women, one is standing & resting a hand on the woman next to her who is seated with a child in her lap. The image is in the New York Public Library Digital Collection. It is badly damaged with horizontal tears however you can plainly see the women's solemn faces gazing directly at the viewer.
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