From the Editor

             The Summer/Fall 2020 issue of 1619: Journal of African American Studies features several powerful articles that range from historical genealogical research to the discussion and analysis of African American Literature and Art.  In addition, it features a paper written by a graduate of Central Connecticut State University written during her senior year before successfully completing her degree.

            Attorney Kara Crutcher’s article shares with readers, a very personal journey in which she used her academic skills and legal expertise to dissect her family history in Milledgeville, Georgia.  She undertakes an investigation which simultaneously documents her family history and systematically demonstrates the manner in which the legal system was used to materially disadvantage African Americans after the civil war through the claims process.   Dr. Julian Madison’s article is an analysis of the fight for school desegregation and begins his analysis by skillfully linking contemporary history to the beginnings of systematic racism in US history.

            Dr. Cora Marshall, an academic and highly acclaimed visual artist, who received national recognition during the Obama administration, presents a thorough and enlightening history of the role of and evolution of the Black/African American Arts movement effectively marshaled "cultural power" to become a tool of political change and social justice.  In a similar vein, Dr. Beverly Johnson’s article places in a global comparative context, the linkage of the works of African American authors, Toni Morrison and Paule Marshall, to the experiences of the broader African diaspora.  Finally, Annette Teasdell, reviews Zora Neale Hurston’s final book, Barracoon, the story of the last African survivor of the Middle Passage.

            The issue is made complete with a paper written by a recent graduate of Central Connecticut State University, Terece Thomas, who endeavors to apply DuBois’ concept of “double consciousness” to an understanding of the intersection of race and gender in the lives of African American women.  She suggests a new paradigm of the “double, double consciousness.”

            This is the final issue for the year 2020.  Next year, we plan a special post-election edition focusing exclusively on the 2020 US Presidential election.

Walton Brown-Foster, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
November 4, 2020