”Racial violence has been omnipresent in American history, and in far too many of the incidents, the perpetrators of the crime are acquitted or not even brought up on charges. When I think of such cases I am often haunted by the heinous murder of Fred Harvey Smith here in the land of John Brown in May 1936,” Shawn Alexander writes in this column.
Many people are familiar with the film “The Great Debaters,” starring Denzel Washington as Wiley College’s debate coach. But the film omits KU’s role in Wiley’s rise in the debating world in the 1930s, Shawn Alexander writes in this column.
”For generations, no matter what date was selected, freedom and an understanding of the meaning of freedom has been at the center of Emancipation Day events. We must honor and respect that history and legacy,” Shawn Alexander writes in this column.
”King is an example of why history matters and a testament of who gets lost in the retelling of history when certain stories, individuals and events are left out of the history books and public memory,” Shawn Alexander writes in this column.
