he rented or owned: David Robertson, Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America’s Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), 42.
over 77 percent: Ibid., 34.
It seems that: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. William Harwood Peden (1955; Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996).
The Haitian Revolution: Robert Jones, Jr., “The Wretched Refuse of Your Teeming Shore,” Medium, theprophets.medium.com/the-wretched-refuse-of-your-teeming-shore-9a3396556be6.
Smartly, he had faked: Douglas R. Egerton, “Before Charleston’s Church Shooting, a Long History of Church Attacks,” in Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence, eds. Chad Louis Williams, Kidada E. Williams, and Keisha N. Blain (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016), 26.
he joined the new: Robertson, Denmark Vesey, 42.
the Work House: Ibid., 35.
Dylann Storm Roof: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, “A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof,” GQ, August 21, 2017, www.gq.com/story/dylann-roof-making-of-an-american-terrorist.
recruited as many: Robertson, Denmark Vesey, 4, 42.
What motivated: Ibid., 70–71, 80–81.
All transcripts: Ibid., 17.
threatened with arrest: Ibid., 10.
1824–1829: Freedom’s Journal
“We wish to plead our”: “John Brown Russwurm (Bowdoin Class of 1826),” Africana Studies Resources, library.bowdoin.edu/arch/subject-guides/africana-resources/john-brown-russwurm/index.shtml.
number of Black journalists: Table O, “Employees by Minority Group,” News Leaders Association, www.asne.org/content.asp?contentid=147.
2019 annual survey: “People of Color in TV News,” RTDNA/Hofstra University Newsroom Survey 2019, www.rtdna.org/uploads/images/RTDNA-Hofstra%202019%20TV%20news%20diversity%20among%20non%20Spanish%20language%20stations.png and “2019 Research: Local Newsroom Diversity,” RTDNA, June 13, 2019, www.rtdna.org/article/2019_research_local_newsroom_diversity#TVPOC.
circulation of leading newspapers: Pamela Newkirk, Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 65.
Essence: It’s worth noting that Richelieu Dennis, the owner of Essence, was born in Liberia, where Russwurm relocated as a leader of the colonization movement. There he established the Liberia Herald.
Hollywood Diversity Report: Darnell Hunt and Ana-Christina Ramon, Hollywood Diversity Report: A Tale of Two Hollywoods (UCLA College of Social Sciences, 2019), 3, socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2020-Film-2-6-2020.pdf.
1829–1834: Maria Stewart
prominent speaker and writer: Valerie Cooper, Word, Like Fire: Maria Stewart, the Bible, and the Rights of African Americans (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011), 120. See also James Oliver Horton, Free People of Color: Inside the African American Community (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993).
first woman in the United States: Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: HarperCollins, 1984); Marilyn Richardson, ed., Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Political Writer: Essays and Speeches (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987); and Carole B. Conaway and Kristin Waters, Black Women’s Intellectual Traditions: Speaking Their Minds (Burlington: University of Vermont Press, 2007).
“women did not speak”: Giddings, When and Where, 49.
“promiscuous” audience: Richardson, Maria Stewart, xiii.
“Her original synthesis”: Ibid.
several of Stewart’s writings: In addition to these essays, Richardson’s edited collection of Stewart’s political essays and speeches includes Stewart’s later writings, letters, and biographical sketches.
gain economic independence: Stewart asked, “How long shall a set of men flatter us with their smiles, and enrich themselves with our hard earnings, their wives’ fingers sparkling with rings, and they themselves laughing at our folly?” She replied, “Until we begin to promote and patronize each other.” Richardson, Maria Stewart, 38.
“possess the spirit”: Ibid.
called out racial prejudice: Ibid., 48.
“Farewell Address to”: Ibid., 68–69. Richardson has identified the full source of Stewart’s citations as John Adams, Woman: Sketches of the History, Genius, Disposition, Accomplishments, Employments, Customs and Importance of the Fair Sex in All Parts of the World Interspersed with Many Singular and Entertaining Anecdotes by a Friend of the Sex (London, 1790).
“talk, without effort”: Richardson, Maria Stewart, 58.
1839–1844: Racial Passing
George Latimer and his pregnant wife: Asa J. Davis, “The George Latimer Case: A Benchmark in the Struggle for Freedom,” Rutgers, edison.rutgers.edu/latimer/glatcase.htm.
“travelled as a gentleman”: Ibid.
“beaten and whipped”: Ibid.
“We all know”: Nell Irvin Painter, Southern History Across the Color Line (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 15, 18.
federal legislation: Maeve Glass, “Citizens of the State,” University of Chicago Law Review (June 2018): 870.
“No, never”: Davis, “Latimer Case.”
“RANAWAY from the subscriber”: Ibid.
“women—whether slave”: Painter, Southern History, 91.
“Can this flesh”: Davis, “Latimer Case.”
1844–1849: James McCune Smith, m.d.
valedictorian of the medical school: Simon Newman, “180th Anniversary for Former Slave James McCune Smith,” University of Glasgow, April 27, 2017, www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2017/may/headline_523751_en.html.
university scholarships: “Description: James McCune Smith Scholarship,” University of Glasgow Scholarships and Funding, www.gla.ac.uk/scholarships/jamesmccunesmithscholarship/.