Today I’m at the annual conference of the Alliance for Texas History, which is off to a great start!

The AI-generated, fake book club solicitation emails are getting pretty weird …

✅ Enter Spring 2026 grades.

It’s commencement season! That’s me in the bumblebee suit on Saturday night, seated next to my dear colleague José Aranda. (Credit: Rosie Nguyen)

I never know how to respond when the robot coffee machine in the business school asks me how my day is going.

A student in my Civil War history course brought by an interesting artifact she once found in a Baltimore used book store. It appears to be a scrapbook kept by a journalist during the 1860s, with an index of topics in the front. Very cool!

Maybe it’s the historian in me, but one of the things I like about Record Store Day is the occasional opportunity to relive the experience of hearing music for the first time on a physical medium, never before available or stre... https://updates.wcaleb.org/2026/04/18/maybe-its-the-historian-in.html

I spoke about Henrietta Wood in an interview with the editors of a special America250 issue of the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Arlington House.

The bridge.

Tonight I will be at the NewSouth Bookstore in Montgomery, Alabama, to talk about Sweet Taste of Liberty.

A Bus Ride in Montgomery: https://updates.wcaleb.org/2026/03/30/a-bus-ride-in-montgomery.html

I’m in Montgomery today visiting the EJI Legacy Museum and seeing historic sites. I don’t think I had previously appreciated just how close Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is to the state capitol.

Full day of discussions in Alabama with USS colleagues, looking back on 20 years since the Brown report and envisioning paths forward. It’s always energizing to be together with this group.

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Juneteenth.

I updated my post on The First Juneteenth in Houston to reflect that the Houston Daily Evening Star, which contains a rare report on the event, is now digitized at the Portal to Texas History. My article on this is forthcoming soon in the Journal of Texas History.

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Hawkins Wilson.

Grateful for a generous review of Slavery, Segregation, and the Second Founding of Rice University in the History of Education Quarterly.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of taking some Rice students to the law offices of Baker Botts LLP, where we were given a tour of the firm’s historic records by senior partner Bill Kroger. One of the fascinating things we sa... https://updates.wcaleb.org/2026/03/13/yesterday-i-had-the-privilege.html

It was an honor to speak with KHOU for a brief local news story about Olivewood Cemetery, Houston’s historic African American burial ground established in 1875. Watch on Youtube …

Today in HIST 246 I shared with students one of my favorite Civil War monuments, memorializing William McKinley and the Battle of Coffee Run. Read more ….

My essay “Slouching Towards Arlington House” is out now in a special issue of the Journal of the Civil War Era, featuring “Historians of Crisis in a Moment of Crisis.” The whole issue is open access this month, thanks to the good folks at @uncpress.bsky.social.

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: J. H. Townsend.

Delighted to learn this morning that a journal article I wrote on the first Juneteenth, expanding on research that I first shared here, will likely be published in time for this year’s holiday.

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: J. H. Townsend.

Taking a coffee break to look in on Douglass Day events with @douglassday.bsky.social. I’m watching the livestream while transcribing some names in the Texas records of the Colored Conventions Project.

In down time, I’ve been aiming to make one Wikipedia edit per day for Black History Month. I’m keeping track of the entries I edit on my Wikipedia user page, which is also now linked with a “button” on my homepage.

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Elias Dibble, W. R. Fayle.

I’ll be at Kindred Stories tonight with Alex Byrd and April Frazier to talk about Slavery, Segregation, and the Second Founding of Rice University.

I’m currently at a School of Humanities and Arts event offering critical perspectives on AI, and it’s truly refreshing to hear smart colleagues sharing their wisdom—wisdom—about the moment.

My university-approved Slides account now welcomes me with a banner reading “Generate a presentation in seconds,” with a “single prompt” to AI, and all I can think is: I hope I never have to sit through a presentation that was generated in seconds.

I find it very helpful, when reading a PDF with endnotes, to be able to “split” the PDF into two views, with one focused on the endnotes and the other on the text. Not all PDF viewers, even the most bloated, can do this, but two that can are Goodreader for the iPad and Skim for Mac.

My author’s copy of this special issue came over the weekend. Looking forward to reading the other contributions, especially one from @profmsinha.bsky.social.

For Day 5 of Black History Month, I made some improvements to the entry on Edith S. Sampson, who I learned more about while reading Mary Ellen Curtin’s new biography of Barbara Jordan.

Enjoyed speaking with host Craig Cohen and my co-author Alex Byrd on this morning’s Houston Matters about our book, Slavery, Segregation, and the Second Founding of Rice University.

For Day 4 of Black History Month, I updated the Wikipedia entry for Rosa Parks (born on this day in 1913) with a link to her 1973 interview with Studs Terkel.

Alex Byrd and I will be on Houston Matters with Craig Cohen this morning to talk about our book. Tune in on the radio at 9 a.m. Central or watch live on YouTube. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/shows/houston-matters/

Alex Byrd and I will be on Houston Matters with Craig Cohen this morning to talk about our book. Tune in on the radio at 9 a.m. Central or watch live on YouTube.

Per @joursouhist.bsky.social the February 2026 issue of the Journal of Southern History is now live on Project Muse. It’s the first with our new masthead, and I’m delighted that Rebecca Anne Goetz and Crystal ... https://updates.wcaleb.org/2026/02/03/per-joursouhistbskysocial-the-february-issue.html

For Day 2 of Black History Month, thanks to help from @[email protected], I was able to make a Wikipedia infobox with picture for Lawrence D. Reddick. I also made a small edit to Harriet Tubman’s page by adding Edda Fields-Black’s book to the historiography section.

Tomorrow evening I’ll be joining colleagues here at Rice for a panel discussion on “The Black Experience at Rice: The Past, Present, and Future.” Sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies, the event is part of a series of programs at Rice for Black History Month.

Last year during Black History Month, I resolved to make one Wikipedia edit per day on a related subject, and I wrote about why. I’m going to try for that pace again this year. I started with a few updates to the page on Lawrence Reddick.

Remember the Liberty Bell!: https://updates.wcaleb.org/2026/01/31/remember-the-liberty-bell.html

Good planning meeting this morning for a continuing studies course that I’ll be teaching with my colleagues this spring at Rice: Semiquincentennial: The United States at 250. Enrollment in the course is open to the public, and scholarships are available. https://glasscock.rice.edu/course?id=58416410

Tomorrow’s the day when I’ll be teaching James Forten’s Letters from a Man of Colour (1813), which always feels timely but is especially resonant right now. Kate Masur’s excerpt shows why.

My article “No Union with Slaveholders: A Radical, Practical Abolitionist Plan” is out now from Social Research, part of a special issue on “Abolition Then and Now.” Read more …

Today in my Civil War class, I will be sharing with students the story of Lawrence Reddick and explaining why I’m in possession of the last plaque ever produced by the Organization of American Historians with Avery Craven’s name on it.

It’s a good day to be tuned in to KTSU 90.9, The Choice.

Looking forward to Monday evening at Brazos Bookstore! Read more …

Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Elias Dibble, Houston Fire Festival.