This site grows out of my work on antilynching and what black newspapers published about the violence imposed on African Americans in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Beginning with a focus on political cartoons and poetry, the research expanded to cover the widest range of topics and angles, from fashion and hair styles to politics and the economy.

My dissertation title–Nightmare and Dream: Anti-Lynching in Congress, 1917-1922–has been adapted to represent not only the threat and horror of lynching but the accomplishments, interests, and hopes of millions of Americans caught in the racism of the “nadir.”