Thank you everyone who pulled up to the first Office Hours live of 2026! I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to say—but we even went long and the conversation ranged from why it is hard to teach histories of slavery in the university to a history of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, with lots of abolish ICE, abolish police, abolish prisons in between. As one does. This year started and it is already a wild ride, but being with y’all felt like a chance to slow the pace and remember what has been written into the record by enslaved men, women and children who knew how to fight for freedom, fight for their lives. I am grateful!
As promised, now in 2026, everyone has access to the lives and an after work drink of an audio clip (posted above and available via podcast rss feed). Paid subscribers (thank you!), please enjoy the video bonus below!
This week’s reading is a letter from Jackson Whitney to his former owner, back in Kentucky, letting him know he is safe in Canada and also letting him know about himself. At one point he writes:
“Although I was a slave, I pretended all the time that I thought you were someone else. Had a better right to me than I had to myself. Which, you know, is rather hard thinking. You know, too, that you proved a traitor to me in a time of need. And when, in the most bitter distress that the human soul is capable of experiencing. And could you have carried out your purposes, there would have been no relief. But I rejoice to say that an unseen, kind spirit appeared for the oppressed, and bade me take up my bed and walk. The result of which is that I am victorious and you are defeated.”
I am keeping his defiance close this week. In the end, I do believe we will be victorious and fascism will be defeated.
Things mentioned:
Blood Orange with Georgia Anne Muldrow - Runnin’
Operation Swamp Sweep Resources - Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, December 5, 2025, https://powercoalition.org/information/.
“Zone of Peace Campaign,” The Black Alliance for Peace, January 3, 2026, https://blackallianceforpeace.com/zoneofpeace.
Brittney Packnett Cunningham as a resource for news and updates. A recent video of hers with Brittney Cooper is here: Evangelicalism, Justice Work, And Red Letter Christianity with Brittany Packnett Cunningham, directed by Beyond Sunday Worship, David Santistevan, 2026,
Sherrilyn Ifill’s newsletter
Gabe Castro-Root and Claire Fahy, “What Travelers Need to Know About Canceled Flights in the Caribbean,” Travel, The New York Times, January 3, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/travel/caribbean-flight-cancellations-trump-venezuela.html.
The Wolfpack, i.e. The Working Families Party https://workingfamilies.org/
How to Survive the End of the World https://www.patreon.com/Endoftheworldshow
Autumn Brown in Minnesota (read the caption)
“This Day” podcast with Kellie Carter Jackson, Jody Avirgan and Nicole Hemmer, Radiotopia, March 24, 2020, https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/thisday.
Michelle Alexander and Cornel West, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, 2012).
Deborah McNally, “Anthony Johnson (?-1670),” BlackPast.Org, December 14, 2010, https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/johnson-anthony-1670/.
John K. Thornton, “Legitimacy and Political Power: Queen Njinga, 1624–1663,” The Journal of African History 32, no. 1 (1991): 25–40, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700025329;
Linda M. Heywood, Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen (Harvard University Press, 2017).
Brenda Marie Osbey, “Writing the Words,” Callaloo, no. 11/13 (1981): 48–50, https://doi.org/10.2307/3043816.
June Jordan. “Black Studies: Bringing Back the Person,” in New perspectives on Black studies, edited by John W. Blassingame, 243. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971).
Vincent Harding, “The Responsibilities of the Black Scholar to the Community,” in The State of Afro-American History : Past, Present, and Future, ed. Darlene Clark Hine (Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1986), http://archive.org/details/stateofafroameri0000unse_p1j1.
Vincent Harding, There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (Mariner Books, 1992).
Deborah Gray White et al., Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021).
John W. Blassingame, Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies Louisiana State University Press, 1977).
Spring 2026 Office Hours are on Tuesdays, 2pm EST!!! Join us!!!
Other updates:
I’ll be joining the good folks at Kinfolk Tech for a teach-in on the legacy of the Haitian Revolution:
“As promised, registration for Haiti Freed Us All, our first virtual teach-in of the year has officially opened (🔗in bio)! You’re invited to Join us on Tuesday, February 17 at 6:30PM ET on Zoom for what’s sure to be an enlightening and inspiring discussion with an extraordinary panel. Through conversations with historians, artists, and archivists—Tasha Dougé (@convhersations_), Dr. Jessica Marie Johnson (@jessicamariejohnson_ ), Alain Martin (@alain.e.martin), and Dread Scott (@DreadScottArt)—we trace how Haiti’s example has fueled resistance from the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary struggles for reparations and decolonization across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas.”
”We’re excited to be offering this first teach-in in partnership with @haiticulturalx”
”Registration is FREE and you can find the 🔗 in the Kinfolk Tech bio.”
