In the spring of 1917, the American Expeditionary Forces entered World War I under the command of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who had also led the famous 10th Cavalry Regiment of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” during the Indian wars and the Spanish-American conflict. In fact, “Black Jack,” his nickname, was initially an insult leveled […]
A General’s Family Tragedy Read More »
In Honor of Black History Month Twenty-eight years ago, I landed my first full-time college teaching position at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Originally known as Tuskegee Institute, the school was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 to provide vocational education for southern blacks in the years after Reconstruction. Washington, born a slave in 1856,
To Till a Field or Write a Poem? Booker T. Washington’s Legacy Read More »
Hours after Battleship Row’s ruins smoldered in Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces attacked the Philippines and Guam. Historians have written extensively about Hawaii’s “day of infamy” and General MacArthur’s 1942 retreat from Corregidor. However, the story of Guam’s heroic resistance to Japanese occupation from 1941-1944 remains unknown in U.S. history. The Chamorros, Guam’s indigenous people, governed
World War II Stories: The Heroic Resistance of Guam Read More »
Before he capitulated to the cancer that lay siege to his throat behind the warring fog of cigar smoke, a lethal Anaconda Plan executed to precision, cutting off air, squeezing and suffocating his lungs, the victorious general of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Appomattox reflected on his life, penned his memoirs, handed them unceremoniously to Mark Twain,
The Unconditional Judgment of History Read More »
After a recent faculty meeting, one of my departmental colleagues and I hopped into my brown Subaru (still sporting the “Make America Great Again” bumper sticker if you’re wondering) and headed off to meet some other colleagues at the local brew pub. As we drove along, my friend told me about a home-improvement headache she
My friend, colleague, and fellow native Alabamian, Gary Walker, wrote an excellent USR essay reflecting on being a writer who just happens to be from the South. Despite others’ expectations that he write about red dirt, hunting, fishing, football, the land, and the people, Gary confessed that he doesn’t really feel motivated to write about
Follow the Red Dirt Road: Some Thoughts on Being a Southern Writer Read More »