I had a great time at the “Roosevelt Reading Festival” hosted by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY. The festival features a collection of authors who have written books in the year since the last festival that include some material about the Roosevelts. Here’s a fun, 30 minute video […]
Today is Juneteenth!
“Juneteenth” commemorates the day when U.S. federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, and spread news that African Americans were no longer enslaved thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation. Chattel would legally end later that year when the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on December 18, 1865. Though widely […]
Great Soul Food Moments in Presidential History!
President Ronald Reagan and stock car driver Richard Petty eat fried chicken at a Fourth of July picnic in 1984. (Ira Schwarz/AP) I had a lot of fun writing this “From pig’s feet to corn bread, a history of soul food in the White House,” article for The Washington Post. It combines two of my current interests: […]
Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and mother figures. Here’s a piece that I wrote last year as a tribute to my late mother, Johnetta Miller.