But [Newton] Knight was an actual historical figure who aided African-Americans, and the film is based on a well-researched book by historian Victoria Bynum.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2016-07-03 22:17Z by Steven

Some critics complain that the film suffers from a white savior narrative because [Matthew] McConaughey plays a white protagonist who aids former slaves. But [Newton] Knight was an actual historical figure who aided African-Americans, and the film is based on a well-researched book by historian Victoria Bynum.

Adam Domby, “‘Free State of Jones’ depicts realities of Reconstruction,” The Post and Courier, July 3, 2016. http://www.postandcourier.com/20160703/160709926/free-state-of-jones-depicts-realities-of-reconstruction.

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‘Free State of Jones’ depicts realities of Reconstruction

Posted in Articles, Book/Video Reviews, History, Media Archive, Mississippi, Slavery, United States on 2016-07-03 20:54Z by Steven

‘Free State of Jones’ depicts realities of Reconstruction

The Post and Courier
Charleston, South Carolina
2016-07-03

Adam Domby, Assistant Professor of History
College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina

Free State of Jones” is the film Reconstruction historians have been waiting for. Reconstruction, which encompassed the decade following the Civil War, is perhaps the most overlooked era in American history. It is the only period that doesn’t have a National Park Service site commemorating it.

Reconstruction, which witnessed the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and the first widespread political enfranchisement of African-Americans, is ripe with stories for filmmakers.

Yet, since the racist celebration of the Ku Klux Klan in “Birth of a Nation” (1915) and “Gone With the Wind” (1939), no major Hollywood film has addressed the violence and drama of the era.

Director Gary Ross has begun to fix this oversight by making a Reconstruction film disguised as a Civil War action flick…

Read the entire article here.

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Book explores racial identification

Posted in Articles, Book/Video Reviews, History, Law, Media Archive, Passing on 2011-04-27 03:04Z by Steven

Book explores racial identification

The Post and Courier
Charleston, South Carolina
2011-04-24

Karen Spain, legal writer based in Nashville

The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey From Black to White. By Daniel J. Sharfstein. Penguin. 416 pages.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, “The Invisible Line” is a fascinating history of how three mixed-race families migrated across the color line and changed their racial identification from black to white.

The Gibsons, wealthy mulatto landowners in Colonial South Carolina, were white Southern aristocrats by the time of the Civil War.

The Walls, slave children freed by their white father, became respected members of the black middle class before giving up their prominence to “become” white.

The Spencers, hardworking Appalachian farmers in eastern Kentucky, spent almost a century straddling the color line.

The three intricately woven genealogies reveal an America where race has never been as simple as black or white. In rugged environments where survival meant relying on neighbors for security, commerce and marriage, it was easier to assume everyone was the same than to draw impenetrable distinctions between the races…

Read the entire review here.

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