Excited to share that you can preorder Black Freedom at @barnesandnoble for 25% off when you sign up for their free rewards program and use code PREORDER25 at checkout! The offer ends on 3/26. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-free... #BNPreorder

#tdih 1970: 1st mass work stoppage in 195-year history of U.S. Postal Service began with letter carriers’ walkout in Brooklyn & Manhattan for better wages. Spread nationally. Read @profblmkelley.bsky.social’s ”Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class” ⬇️ www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/po...

Not ready to emerge into the “daylight” yet? Check out my super-sized 266th #ScholarSunday thread, chock-full o’ public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

This past fall, @kathleenduval.bsky.social (NHC Fellow, 2008–09; 2025–26) sat down with NHC President and Director @profblmkelley.bsky.social to discuss DuVal’s 2024 book, "Native Nations: A Millennium in North America." Listen to their conversation now:

Thrilled to have an advance copy of Black Freedom in my hands! It was a pleasure to tell the stories of emancipation. It will be out June 2nd but available for preorder now!Preorders remind publishers that our history matters, even in this age of repression! www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/blair...

This Black History Month preorder Black books, a concrete way to resist erasure and tell publishing&booksellers we still value this work. #BHM My book Black Freedom is available for pre-order: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/blair-lm-kelley-2/black-freedom/9780762486939/?lens=black-dog-leventhal

Just in case you missed this amazing conversation I had with Kellie Carter Jackson about the intersection of family history and our historical work! reunion-a-podcast-about-family-histories.ghost.io/episode-003-...

Finding my 3-times great grandfather, Henry Rucker, registering to vote in 1867 was life changing. He did so at great risk to life and livelihood, but he did it anyway. Honored to commemorate the day that those rights were Constitutionally enshrined, still sacred & paid for at great sacrifice.

Feb. 1, 1960, 4 NC A&T students sat-in at the “whites only” counter at Woolworths in Greensboro. Their defiance ignited a movement led to the birth of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Young people fuel movements. It is inspiring to see that today they still do. #BlackHistoryMonth

Thrilled to be your speaker for this year!

Just in case you missed this article about the erosion of the 14th and 15th Amendments during the holiday. Important reporting by @adamserwer.bsky.social

I'm so sorry, keep speaking, keep fighting. I'm deeply convinced that most people who aren't directly affected are deeply unaware. We spent decades talking about the environment only to turn around and wreck unprecedented havoc.

We are fighting data centers in our little town and the big wigs just keep going around us. They tried to pass it under the table but people found out and turned out. We got it voted down. Then they took it to court saying we weren't allowed to speak. Now republican courts are undermining us. *sob*

The question people ask me most in my current position is about AI. People passionately opposed to AI, people who believe it is the answer to all our problems, people who wonder what it will mean for the humanities. However most people change the subject when I mention the people bearing AI's costs.

Ajamu A. Dillahunt-Holloway’s review of Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class ( @wwnorton.com ) by Blair LM Kelley ( @profblmkelley.bsky.social )

AI is just scraping what already exists while historians are putting the materials of the past together in new and unexpected ways. Drawing on the insights, teaching, and ways of knowing that are intangible. No comparison.

Breaking: The University of Virginia's Board of Visitors named a new president Friday: Scott Beardsley, dean of UVA's Darden School of Business since 2015. Beardsley called the selection "the honor of my life."

Join our team! We’re hiring a Vice President of Development to advance our organization’s philanthropic mission. Visit our website for more information about the position, including how to apply.

Thankful to have the strength to make this wonderful meal this year. #Blairiscooking

This one is for my son, his fave triple chocolate, chocolate cake, extra chocolate icing. Candied yams up next... #Blairiscooking

First cake is for a family friend. Yellow cake/chocolate icing. Getting dropped off soon! #blairiscooking

It's happening... #Blairiscooking

Dr. @profblmkelley.bsky.social speaks to this in her book: uncpress.org/978080787101...

We are honored and thrilled to welcome Dr. Vinson to the Center this year.

What an amazing and powerful conversation we had @natlhumanities Monday! Building the groundwork!

Congratulations to Signe Cohen (NHC Fellow, 2025–26) for receiving this honor!

Always a pleasure to speak to Leoneda Inge and the Due South team about Black history!

Headed to Atlanta for ASALH. Hoping to see you there!

Congratulations to Tressie McMillan Cottom (NHC Fellow, 2025–26), recipient of the 2025 Thomas Wolfe Prize. As this year’s recipient, Cottom will deliver the annual Thomas Wolfe Lecture on September 30 at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Did you know 1,783 books have resulted from NHC fellowships? Over the past five decades, the Center has been privileged to support the work of some of the world’s leading humanists, and to enlist their expertise on behalf of its programs for educators and public #humanities work.

We stand with the Smithsonian.

When folks at CBS clap back at each other about the role of slavery in history... youtu.be/xkPYmz3dMBA?... got to love it...

An interesting take on AI and the value of interdisciplinary collaborative thinking that also mightily fails to consider where the information inside the bot is coming from/what prompting the bot is doing to our environment. What It’s Like to Brainstorm with a Bot www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

The National Humanities Center welcomes fellowship applications from faculty engaged in advanced #humanities research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Help us spread the word about this exciting opportunity.

The National Humanities Center welcomes fellowship applications from scholars engaged in the study of China in the Ming dynasty or of regions and periods connected to the Ming dynasty. Applications are due October 2, 2025. #AsianStudies cc: @asianstudies.org

ChatGPT psychosis is real. Philosopher Krista Thomason (NHC Fellow, 2021–22) explores how our emotional needs can lead to psychological distress when interacting with AI.

Black women face a particularly daunting reality. They are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive forms of breast cancer at younger ages compared to their white counterparts

Wow. More than a century after the fight I chronicled in Right to Ride, when Black passengers challenged segregation on trains and boycotted segregated streetcars, Black passengers are now being told to move to the back of the bus? And threatened with arrest if they don't? #StudyingSegregation

Thank you so much sis!

Big news! I'm heading to the National Humanities Center as the next president. I'm proud to be the first woman, the first Black person, and the first person of color to lead it. Honored to start this new chapter. #Humanities #BlackWomenLead #BlackSky

An awesome story about how solar microgrids kept the power on during Puerto Rico's latest blackouts. This is bottom-up, power-to-the-people shit. Get excited!

A few months ago, Nature published how-to guide for using ChatGPT to write your peer reviews in 30 minutes. This is, of course, a horrible idea. Here’s my response with @jbakcoleman.bsky.social .

Add this to your must reads... For Black Women, Life in America Has Always Been a Crossroads www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/b...

Oh.

Good morning to those commemorating the struggle for freedom, fervently defending freedom's possibilities for our descendants, and having a good time doing it. #HappyJuneteenth

Mansplaining encapsulated in one clip.

What happened to Adriana Smith is such a profoundly violent intrusion. Where was any semblance of bodily autonomy and a family's wishes? Why didn't that matter at all? Once again, policies get played out to awful ends on the terrain of Black women's bodies. I am praying for her family.

Here it is, my 229th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Please add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Picking radishes is no easy task. Efrén spends 8-10 hrs/day on his knees, picking and sorting the radishes into small bunches to fill dozens of crates a day in CA's Ventura County. He's proud to have worked in America's fields for 49 years. #WeFeedYou

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