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This chapter is all about ‘Theresa; a Haytien Tale’ (1828), a short story that was serialized and published anonymously in the first African American newspaper Freedom’s Journal, and is now considered to be the first African American short story. The author argues that this brief text provides an even more redemptive role for women of color. ‘Theresa’ imagines women as central to the liberation of the colony through their unfailing and unquestioning allegiance to the revolutionary cause. ‘Theresa’ is therefore not buttressed by pseudoscientific claims of the innate savagery or hyper-sexuality of “black” women, but instead unequivocally celebrates their ability to contribute to slave rebellions, imagining a hitherto denied active role for women of color in the events of the Haitian Revolution.

Evidence of Carter G. Woodson’s influence is abundant. At the opening ceremony for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., on September 24, 2016, Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights icon, recalled his study of Woodson’s work for inspiration as a young man. A New York Times article published in concert with the museum’s opening linked struggles for respect in black history to Woodson’s cause, as well as the contributions of George Washington Williams and John Hope Franklin. However, what little attention Woodson occasionally receives from the media today comes largely from black-oriented media. For instance, The Afro-American has been among the sponsors of the annual observance of Woodson’s birthday at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, and other black newspapers for a number of years following his death ran articles reciting Woodson’s work.

The German Schuetzenfest was an important festival that combined German cultural traditions of sport-shooting, gymnastics, ballroom dancing, beer gardens, and various amusements. The festival was essential to the maintenance of German identity in the postwar period and especially following German unification in 1871. The chapter demonstrates that German business leaders organized the event not only as a cultural activity based upon their ethnic heritage, but also as an opportunity to showcase their business success. In 1868, Germans organized the first Schuetzenfest since the Civil War and mainly Germans attended the event. By 1871, Charlestonians of all races and ethnicities, including southern white elites, flocked to the Schuetzenfest and made it the largest recreational and social event of the year. African Americans, Germans, and white southern children competed with each other in the various amusements located on the Schuetzenplatz grounds. Germans invited rifle clubs from throughout the South and United States to participate though African American rifle clubs were excluded. Increasingly, native-born white rifle clubs formed or reformed, and they participated in the annual military parade that took place on the first day of the Schuetzenfest. In parading alongside white rifle clubs, the Germans revealed their support for white supremacy.

Jouet begins his book by describing his work as a human rights lawyer representing poor prisoners in New York at the time of mass incarceration on a scale unprecedented in global history. He goes on to describe how the degeneration of American justice embodies troubling dimensions of American exceptionalism, including acute wealth inequality, systemic racism, anti-intellectualism, Christian fundamentalism, and chronic human rights abuses. While the word “exceptional” can imply greatness or superiority, American exceptionalism historically referred to how America is “exceptional” in the sense of “unique,” “different,” “unusual,” “extraordinary” or “peculiar.” Ironically, scores of Americans equate “exceptionalism” with their nation’s superiority when it might be its Achilles Heel—a self-destructive vicious circle threatening admirable dimensions of American society.

The third chapter of this book shifts to address the question of nationalism and its historically contingent forms in urban America. This chapter specifically looks at how black nationalism in Chicago became a complex phenomenon that drew on older traditions and modalities of black politics through the local organizations and activists that challenged simple dichotomies of integration and separatism, militancy and accommodation. A primary focus in the chapter examines the establishment of the Afro-American Heritage Foundation (AAHA) in 1958 and its subsequent public-history efforts—notably the promotion of Negro History Week in the city through the early 1960s and into the Black Power 1960s.

This chapter discusses the grassroots Black Arts movement of Chicago and specifically looks at the Organization for Black American Culture (OBAC). It explains that OBAC was considered as a branch of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). However, OBAC’s aesthetic was inspired by its own unique, culturally specific objectives through the artistic and entrepreneurial collaborations among important figures and institutions that aimed to support the artistic and progressive culture in Chicago. OBAC’s agenda was influenced by the broader national movement, and its participants collaborated with BAM artists in other cities such as New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

While nothing can equal the experience of doing fieldwork in an unfamiliar culture, it is possible for students to approximate it close to home. Two fieldwork assignments the authors use in anthropology classes give students hands-on experience. One involves conducting participant observation in local bingo halls. In the other, students interview international students on campus. Both teach important research and life skills (e.g., observation, communication, analysis), but the latter, in particular, gives students insight into their own culture and awareness of ethnocentrism.