slavery
The sacred work of white discomfort
By Robert P. Jones — January 27, 2022
(RNS) — Holding a more truthful understanding of history gives us more agency, not less.
Remnant of one of the oldest Black churches in US is unveiled in Virginia
By Adelle M. Banks — October 7, 2021
(RNS) — ‘We always hoped this is what we’d find,’ an archaeology director said. ‘Now we can move forward to better understand the footprint of the building.’
Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to sing spirituals 150 years later
By Adelle M. Banks — October 6, 2021
(RNS) — ‘Fisk Jubilee Singers are artists and do not limit themselves to just Negro spirituals,’ its director said. ‘There’s versatility in our choice of music when we have celebrations.’
Born into slavery, they rose to be elite New York Jews. A new book tells their story.
By Yonat Shimron — October 5, 2021
(RNS) — In her new book, ‘Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family,’ Laura Arnold Leibman shows that Jews were not only slave owners. They were also slaves.
Descendants of enslaved people join dig on former Jesuit plantation
By Renée Roden — July 9, 2021
(RNS) — Vickie White Nelson, 49, has deep roots in southern Maryland. Her ancestor, Regis Gough, was enslaved there on a plantation owned by Jesuits.
Why reparations are always about more than money
By Kerry Whigham — July 6, 2021
(The Conversation) — From Germany to Georgetown, the Global North has a lot to learn about reckoning successfully with past human rights wrongs.
We need a better strategy to plant Black and brown churches
By Thabiti Anyabwile and John Onwuchekwa — June 19, 2021
(RNS) — Solidarity does not mean assimilation.
James Forbes’ ode to Juneteenth calls on Americans to embrace the promise of freedom
By Yonat Shimron — June 18, 2021
(RNS) — The retired pastor's spoken word is not simply a paean to freedom. It’s a call to all Americans to face the reality of the nation’s history and the unfinished work of Juneteenth.
‘We still have work to do’: How to understand the new Juneteenth holiday
By Paul O'Donnell — June 18, 2021
(RNS) — Theon Hill, an expert on rhetoric, race and social change in American culture, discusses Juneteenth and how holidays in general reflect our realities as well as our aspirations as a nation.
Suit: Workers lured from India paid $1.20 per hour for years
By David Porter and Mallika Sen — May 12, 2021
(AP) — A lawsuit accuses the leaders of the Hindu organization known as Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS, of human trafficking and wage law violations.
Jesuits pledge $100 million for descendants of people their order enslaved
By Jack Jenkins — March 16, 2021
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The initiative also has a longer-term goal of raising $1 billion.
There was a time reparations were actually paid out – just not to formerly enslaved people
By Thomas Craemer — February 26, 2021
(The Conversation) — This time the benefits would go to the Black descendants of the enslaved, not to enslavers and their offspring.
SBC seminary votes to retain slaveholders’ names on buildings
By Adelle M. Banks — October 13, 2020
(RNS) — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said: ‘Our task is to honor the saintly without condoning, hiding, or denying the sinful.’
Southern Baptists warm to alternate moniker ‘Great Commission Baptists’
By Adelle M. Banks — September 16, 2020
(RNS) — ‘The farther we get from 1845, the more clear we need to be with our mission,’ said a South Carolina Baptist official.
The Fourth of July: Time to celebrate or lament?
By Antipas L. Harris — July 2, 2020
(RNS) — How could the white colonists fight for freedom and remain numb to the possibility of liberty for the slaves? The question plagues us to this day.
