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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I enjoyed this conversation with Niels Eichorn on the War of the Rebellion podcast. It was wide ranging in the best way and captured some important themes that tie the story of Reconstruction to some bigger questions in US history www.youtube.com/watch?v=heqe...

youtube.com

Podcast Ep65 "Requiem for Reconstruction" with Robert D. Bland

YouTube video by War of the Rebellion

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I had a good time talking about the legacy of Reconstruction on yesterday's The Majority Report with Sam Seder. The link is below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZQ...

youtube.com

Ohio GOP Abuse Scandal; Reconstruction's Black Countermemory w/ Robert Bland | MR Live

YouTube video by The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I am looking forward to this AMA conversation with r/AskHistorians on July 1!

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

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

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

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

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Sonya Bonczek @sonyabonczek.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

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

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

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-...

theconversation.com

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.

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King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

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.

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

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 photo of the vehicle surrounded by crime scene tape

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

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

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UNC Press @uncpress.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

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...

uncpressblog.com

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...

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

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-...

newbooksnetwork.com

Robert D. Bland, "Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory and the Legacy of the Lowcountry's Lost Political Generation" (UNC Press, 2026) - New Books Network

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Christmas came early in East TN. 📚

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

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...

uncpress.org

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...

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KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 04/02/2025

📚🚨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

fordhampress.com

Unforgettable Sacrifice

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

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

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...

open.substack.com

It Is MLK Day. Do Not Despair. This Year Especially, We Have Work To Do.

With delicious anticipation, we imagined it.

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Jacob Stokes @jakestokes.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Best data from the article.

Difference in share of public and private school students who are white
75 pct. pts. whiter in private schools
White private school students within district boundaries
• 1,000
4,000
10,000
75 pct. pts. less white
回
Amite
County
Includes only districts that had within their boundaries at least one private school that reported to the National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Universe Survey at least once since 2015.
Source: Private School Universe Survey. Nat Lash, ProPublica

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The Journal of the Civil War Era @jcwe.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

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/

journalofthecivilwarera.org

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...

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

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...

history.com

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.

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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 03/12/2024

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

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Julia Gaffield, PhD @juliagaffield.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

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/...

macmillan.yale.edu

Yale Announces 2024 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Winners

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Naima Cochrane @stillnaima.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

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...

Collage of images from Black family Thanksgivings

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KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 27/11/2024

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."

odu.edu

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...

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Oxford American @oxfordamerican.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

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

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Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

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...

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Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

'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...

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Jenny Hunter @jennyhunter.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

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...

thenation.com

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.

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

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

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

"Speculative Light" brings together scholars, critics, & artists who analyze James Baldwin’s and Beauford Delaney’s works, showing how their lifelong friendship fundamentally shaped their ideas about art and life. Read the intro for free now: ow.ly/xURO50Ufkim

Cover of Speculative Light: The Arts of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin edited by Amy J. Elias. Cover is bright yellow and features a portrait of James Baldwin by Beuford Delaney. The title is across Baldwin's face in white and the editor name is below in black.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Again sending around this starter pack courtesy of @viewfromargus.bsky.social go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC

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Rachel Shelden @rachelshelden.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

The @richardscenter.bsky.social is excited to host a 2-panel public symposium in honor of Tony Kaye's academic legacy & book w/ Greg Downs: Nat Turner, Black Prophet. Feat. @katemasur.bsky.social @william-sturkey.bsky.social @jimccasey1.bsky.social & others. Register to join us Dec. 6, 10am-3pm. 🗃️

A poster for a Richards Center event at Penn State on Friday December 6, 10am-3pm at the Hintz Family Alumni Center honoring the academic work, life, & legacy of Anthony Kaye. A two-panel symposium on 1) "Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History," By Anthony Kaye with Gregory P. Downs and 2) Anothony Kaye: Academic Life & Legacy. Including Penn State Faculty Jim Casey, Tony Frazier, Amy Greenberg, & Dan Letwin and invited guests Greg Downs, Antwain Hunter, Kate Masur, Adrienne Petty, Ryan Quintana, and William Sturkey. Registration is required by November 29. Lunch will be provided.

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KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 18/11/2024

My girl made it to the Blacksonian, y'all! And she's in great company! ❤️‍🔥

A bookshelf in a store filled with books, centering the paperback edition of I Saw Death Coming by Kidada Williams. Next to her book is Allow Me to Retort by Elie Mystal, Black History AF by Michael Harriot, and Black Power by Kwame Ture.

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Streets of Washington @streetsofdc.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Detail from an 1870s stereoview of the Aqueduct Bridge, connecting Georgetown to Virginia. The bridge carried the C&O Canal over the river to Virginia, where it continued down to Alexandria. It leaked constantly. Today a few piers remain in Georgetown and on the Virginia side of the river.

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Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

An important piece on how Black & radical white Southerners successfully reorganized their politics following the overwhelming white conservative disenfranchisement & violence of 1868. Several major caveats w/this approach, however, most crucially that it ignores the toll of anti-Black violence.

time.com

What Democrats Can Learn from America’s First Black Voters

After the Civil War, Black voters faced danger and violence—and they fought for political power against all odds.

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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

NEW: Private schools across the South that were established for white children during desegregation are now benefiting from tens of millions in taxpayer dollars flowing from rapidly expanding voucher-style programs, a @propublica analysis found. www.propublica.org/article/segr...

propublica.org

Segregation Academies Across the South Are Getting Millions in Taxpayer Dollars

North Carolina offers an especially telling window into what is happening across this once legally segregated region where legislatures are now rapidly expanding and adopting controversial voucher-sty...

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Martha S. Jones @marthasjones.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Woke? Thanks to @delanomassey.bsky.social over at @axios.com for the chance to recall the before times when to be woke was a pride. As a writer, I’m sure words and the meanings they carry still matter, even when twisted into a dog whistle. Stay woke, friends. www.axios.com/2024/11/17/a...

axios.com

Axios Explains: Woke and the backlach

The term became popular to describe cultural awareness, but conservatives have redefined it.

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Obsolete Sony @obsoletesony.com · 17/11/2024

1987 Sony WM-F107 Solar Walkman

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BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL AKA PRESIDENT FOOTBALL @edsbs.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Feels like watching a grocery store parking lot fight

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Robert D. Bland @robertdbland.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Good morning, I'm Rob. Mostly here to talk about Reconstruction-era and build community. I edit the JCWE's blog Muster--feel free to pitch me your ideas! Excited to be joining this community and getting off that other hell site. open.spotify.com/track/0SIzIf...

open.spotify.com

Blue Skies

Ella Fitzgerald · Get Happy! (Expanded Edition) · Song · 1959

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