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Juneteenth: A Time to Read and Reflect
Juneteenth – June 19th — became a federal holiday in 2021. It marks the date in 1865 when the enslaved people in Texas were officially informed of their freedom 2…
Read MoreD-Day+80. Lest we forget.
For the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I am reposting what I wrote five years ago on the 75th, which itself reprised my coverage of the 50th anniversary for The Washington…
Read MoreWhat about Columbia?
It’s been a rough spring on the Morningside Heights campus, where I spent four years nearly a lifetime ago. Sixty years ago I was fortunate and grateful to graduate from…
Read MoreA Bridge in Time
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River — a crucial link on the east side of the Baltimore Beltway and the way in and out…
Read MoreKeeping the Faith
Easter Sunday 1968. It was April 14. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated in Memphis on April 4. In those intervening ten days, rioting, looting and…
Read MoreThe Goldene Medina, Anti-Semitism, and Me
Regular readers of this blog may know that I am the editor of B’nai B’rith Magazine, an eclectic Jewish publication I’ve helmed since December 2009. Our cover stories have ranged…
Read MoreBreaking News! University Founders Owned Slaves!
I’m Shocked! Shocked! The University of Maryland’s founders owned slaves. “A report by the state’s flagship university explores the institution’s connections to slavery,” reads the key on the Feb. 26…
Read MoreIn February 1859, A Fateful Meeting on the Road to Harpers Ferry
February looms large in the story of Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army, my contribution to the canon of the famous abolitionist who led 18…
Read More“Bigger than Watergate”
“Bigger than Watergate!” The Watergate scandal and the Washington Post reporting (thanks. Bob and Carl) that brought down a president seemed like the apex of journalistic enterprise and achievement in…
Read MoreThe Eugene L. Meyer Papers
At the risk of sounding grandiose, I’m pleased to announce that The Eugene L. Meyer Papers are now available for public inspection at the Hornbake Library of the University of…
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