slavery Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Measure 112 passes, removing slavery language from Oregon Constitution

By Northwest News Network November 9, 2022

Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Ore., May 19, 2021. Measure 112's intent to eliminate “involuntary servitude” as punishment for a crime has concerned some, particularly those running the state’s prison system and local jails

Oregon voters passed a measure that strips language from the state’s constitution allowing for slavery and involuntary servitude when used as a punishment for a crime. Notwithstanding more than 500,000 people voting to keep the language, unofficial returns Tuesday night indicated that the measure was passing by a clear margin.Read More

To Celebrate Juneteenth, Listen To A Reading Of The Emancipation Proclamation

By NPR News June 18, 2021

The United States has a new national holiday to celebrate: Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 — in the aftermath of the Civil War — when U.S. Army troops landed in Galveston, Texas, and informed some of the last enslaved Americans that they were free.Read More

President Biden Signs Bill Into Law Making Juneteenth A Federal Holiday

By NPR News June 17, 2021

President Joe Biden signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in the East Room of the White House on Thursday. CREDIT: Evan Vucci/AP

President Biden on Thursday signed a bill to recognize Juneteenth — the celebration to commemorate the end of chattel slavery in the United States — as a federal holiday.Read More

U.S. Senate Unanimously Approves A Bill To Make Juneteenth A Public Holiday

By NPR News June 15, 2021

The Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would make Juneteenth, the date commemorating the end of chattel slavery in the United States, a legal public holiday.Read More

TV REVIEW: ‘Underground Railroad’ Is A Hard But Beautiful Reflection On Black Pain

By NPR News May 15, 2021

Barry Jenkins served as showrunner, executive producer, writer and director to the 10-part Amazon series, The Underground Railroad. CREDIT: Atsushi Nishijima/Amazon Studios

For this Black TV critic, completing Barry Jenkins' ambitious, beautifully brutal, 10-episode adaptation of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad was an emotional journey that touched every nerve of what it feels like to be a person of color striving to matter in America.Read More

Cherokee Nation Strikes Down Language That Limits Citizenship Rights ‘By Blood’

By NPR News February 25, 2021

Rena Logan, a member of a Cherokee Freedmen family, shows her identification card as a member of the Cherokee tribe at her home in Muskogee, Okla., in this photo from October 2011. She is among the some 8,500 people whose ancestors were enslaved by the Cherokee Nation in the 1800s. CREDIT: David Crenshaw/AP

The Cherokee Nation's Supreme Court ruled this week to remove the words "by blood" from its constitution and other legal doctrines. The words, added to the constitution in 2007, have been used to exclude Black people whose ancestors were enslaved by the tribe from obtaining full Cherokee Nation citizenship rights.Read More

Statue Of Black Abolitionist Frederick Douglass Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech

By NPR News July 6, 2020

A statue of the abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass, pictured here, was torn from its base in Rochester, N.Y., on the anniversary of his famous speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" CREDIT: AP

The statue in Rochester, N.Y., where Douglass lived for decades, was installed two years ago as part of a commemoration of the abolitionist's 200th birthday.Read More

WATCH: Frederick Douglass’ Descendants Deliver His ‘Fourth Of July’ Speech

By NPR News July 4, 2020

Descendants of Frederick Douglass give his July 4 speech

In this short film, five young descendants of Frederick Douglass read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" which asks all of us to consider America's long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans.Read More

‘Gone With The Wind’ Returns To HBO Max With New Introduction

By NPR News June 28, 2020

American actor Clark Gable in his role as Rhett Butler kissing the hand of a tearful Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivien Leigh in 'Gone With The Wind'.

HBO Max temporarily removed the 1939 film from its streaming service in early June for its depiction of 'racial prejudices.' The film now includes an introduction addressing its controversial legacy.Read More

Calls To Make Juneteenth A Federal Holiday Gain Momentum

By NPR News June 19, 2020

Members of a parade perform during the Juneteenth Day Festival on June 19, 2019, in Milwaukee. In the wake of protests following the killing of George Floyd, there has been a push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. CREDIT: Dylan Buell/Getty Images for VIBE

In the wake of protests calling for racial equality and other reforms after the killing of George Floyd, there's a growing movement to make June 19 a federal holiday.Read More

Underground Railroad: Conductor And Passengers Documented In Oratorio With New York Orchestra

By NPR News January 21, 2020

When it comes to the Underground Railroad, everyone knows Harriet Tubman. But a new oratorio sheds light on a different, key figure named William Still. Read More

In New Book, Reflecting On A Political Power Couple Who Promoted Westward Expansion

By NPR News January 17, 2020

Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War, by Steve Inskeep

NPR's Steve Inskeep, discussing his book Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity and Helped Cause the Civil War, touches on parallels to U.S. politics in 2020.Read More

Hundreds March In Reenactment Of A Historic, But Long Forgotten Slave Rebellion

By NPR News November 10, 2019

People march along the Mississippi River levee in Louisiana on Friday as they perform in a reenactment of the 1811 German Coast Uprising. Gerald Herbert/AP

Artist Dread Scott organized the 26-mile trek to New Orleans as a tribute to the men and women who protested their enslavement in the German Coast Uprising of 1811 by re-imagining a different outcome.Read More

Director Kasi Lemmons Reflects On The ‘Superhero Journey’ Of Harriet Tubman, Now On Film

By NPR News November 2, 2019

Cynthia Erivo stars as Harriet Tubman in the biopic Harriet. Glen Wilson/Focus Features

Harriet, a biographical film directed and co-written by Kasi Lemmons, is out in theaters. "I don't want to rob her of either her womanhood or her superheroism," Lemmons says.Read More

In ‘Stolen,’ Five Boys Are Caught In A Reverse Underground Railroad Toward Slavery

By NPR News October 18, 2019

Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home, by Richard Bell

Richard Bell's true tale details how even as the Underground Railroad ferried enslaved people north towards freedom, free black people vanished from northern cities to be sold into plantation slavery.Read More

‘The Accident Of Color’ Looks At The Failure Of Reconstruction

By NPR News June 20, 2019

Daniel Brook has written a book that goes a long way toward injecting thoughtfulness into popular notions of the history of race and racism in America but doesn't delve far enough into class conflict.Read More

Alabama Historians Say The Last Known Slave Ship To U.S. Has Been Found

By NPR News May 23, 2019

Many of the survivors of the Clotilda voyage are buried in Old Plateau Cemetery near Mobile, Ala. The Alabama Historical Commission announced Wednesday that researchers have identified the vessel after months of work. Julie Bennett/AP

The Clotilda carried 110 people from present-day Benin to the shores of Mobile in 1860, despite the import of slaves being illegal. Researchers told descendants about the discovery first.Read More

Southern Baptist Seminary Confronts History Of Slaveholding And ‘Deep Racism’

By NPR News December 13, 2018

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. speaks at the school's convocation ceremony in 2013. Mohler, who has led the seminary for 25 years, commissioned a report on the role racism and support for slavery played in its origin and growth. CREDIT: BRUCE SCHREINER/AP

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, came into being in 1845 as the church of Southern slaveholders. Now, 173 years later, Southern Baptist leaders are not just acknowledging their dark history; they are documenting it, as if by telling the story in wrenching detail, they may finally be freed of its taint.Read More

1 In 10 Public School Students Are In Texas. They’ll Now Learn Slavery Played Central Role In Civil War

By NPR News November 17, 2018

Abraham Lincoln is shown in Richmond, Va., being cheered by former slaves in 1865.

The state's previous social studies standards listed three causes for the Civil War: sectionalism, states' rights and slavery, in that order.Read More