calling myself “the steve kornacki of public history” at #aam2024 for @historycoffee.bsky.social
📍baltimore convention center

Hey #baltimore + #history sky, I'm working on an exhibit & want to ask if this image brings up narratives for anyone. I'm thinking Mfume & Schaefer standing beside each other (+ rivalry) is the main interpretive opportunity but wondering if you see other strands to expand for an interactive exhibit:

Messages like this inspire my public history work and keep the @historycoffee.bsky.social project going! Learn more on our site: www.historyandcoffee.com

General Manager Tiheera Blount & I are thrilled to share that it is digital launch day for our new alternative history space: @historycoffee.bsky.social. Opening July 2024 in #Baltimore, it combines a history bookstore, coffee shop & interactive exhibits w/ online community: www.historyandcoffee.com

Happy Birthday to W. E. B. Du Bois (b. Feb. 23, 1868), who wrote: “Birthday dinners which have been given me . . . have become I assure you, as embarrassing to me as to you.” What he really wanted was understanding of his centering of Black Americans in histories of democracy, capitalism & the U.S.

I made some Valentine’s Day cards featuring Baltimore Histories project themes and this one is my favorite:

January 2, 1827 (OTD): Benjamin Lundy condemned Baltimore slave trader Austin Woolfolk as “that monster in human shape,” adding “let no man speak of the humanity of Woolfolk.” Woolfolk responded w/ a near-fatal physical assault. Learn more in my article 🗃️: www.baltimorehistories.com/post/baltimo...

December 19, 1910 (113 years ago today): The first housing segregation law in the history of the United States was signed into law by Baltimore Mayor J. Barry Mahool, inaugurating what legal scholar Garrett Power calls "apartheid, Baltimore style." Many other cities followed this Baltimore example.

Publication of these ads together in an 1824 Baltimore newspaper exemplifies complexities of slavery, freedom & capitalism in the city between abolition of transatlantic slave trade (1808) & emancipation. End of transatlantic trade commemorated as trader Woolfolk seized domestic market this created:

Activist, feminist, lawyer, and priest Pauli Murray was born in Baltimore on Nov. 20, 1910 (113 years ago today). In 1943, she wrote this poem about the bitter irony of POTUS, the most powerful person in the world, expressing regret while refusing to take action to address injustice. Still relevant:

Amazed that the federal government used this funky font for official documents in the 1970s:

November 1823 (200 years ago this month) — This free Black family compelled a customs officer in Baltimore to cross out portions of their ship manifest pertaining to slavery & replace them with acknowledgements of Black freedom, reversing power dynamics in the archive of American racial capitalism:

Hi Skystorians, has anyone encountered work on the role of state agents in facilitating the U.S. domestic slave trade? I’m working with 1820s newspapers & finding fascinating examples of enslaved people being sold by sheriffs or police marshals after human property is seized by court order.
Example:

October 18, 1933 (90 years ago today): African American George Armwood was lynched by a white mob on MD's Eastern Shore. Tragedy sparked youth-led uprising in Baltimore. Leaders testified to U.S. Senate but anti-lynching bill failed since FDR argued it would lose him key South voters. Never forget.