Inevitably, during times of momentous change and upheaval, I try to focus my sights less on speculative predictions of what the future might bring and more on the words and deeds that have shaped the trajectory of our past. With… Read More ›
Abraham Lincoln
A Most Wretched Man: The Vile Legacy of Andrew Johnson
For much of the 19th century, it was fashionable for academics and historians in the West to subscribe to the “Great Man Theory” of history. The Great Man Theory, as it name implies, contends that the course of human events… Read More ›
American History X-ed: How The Confederate Flag Was Divorced From Slavery & Segregation
From a physical standpoint, Alexander Stephens made a rather ironic spokesman for the superiority of the white race. Standing 5 feet 7 inches in height, Stephens wasn’t terribly short or tall by 19th century American standards, but he possessed a… Read More ›
Strictly Business: West Virginian Statehood & The Geography of Poverty
“God has blessed West Virginia with prolific hand; a topography grand to contemplate; a wealth unparalleled in coal, iron and oil—her hills fairly groan with undeveloped resources, and all of these at the very threshold of the great marts of… Read More ›
Mississippi Crumbling: The Inheritance of Inequity in The Magnolia State
“Everybody in the Mississippi Delta was a racist, white or black. Racism was built into our bones. It is a thing we will never recover from having committed, but it also had its side that we always benefitted from…I lived… Read More ›
Obama May Have Aimed For Greatness, But He’s Hitting Average
On the evening of the New Hampshire Primary in 2008, after he had come in a close second to the woman who would eventually become his 1st Secretary of State, then-Senator Barack Obama addressed a crowd of his supporters in… Read More ›
Finding Unity in HIV
If one puts much stock in the old axiom that says “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” it would be safe to conclude that we as a nation have lying on the canvas for the past half century or… Read More ›
You Have The Right To Remain Silent…And That’s About It
During the honeymoon period following President Obama’s 1st successful bid for The White House, there was a great deal of talk about the former Senator from Illinois surrounding himself with a “Team of Rivals” as Abraham Lincoln did when he… Read More ›
Political Unity Through HIV
If one puts much stock in the old axiom that says “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” it would be safe to conclude that we as a nation have lying on the canvas for the past half century or… Read More ›
Virally Suppressed - Muckraking For The Modern World 