Historian David Krugler is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.
David is the author of the new book 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back.
Dr. Krugler's work is an exciting intervention against a narrative of African-American passivity in the face of white racial pogroms and other violence in the post World War One era. Black America has used a range of means to resist white supremacy. "Non-violence" has come to dominate public memory about the Black Freedom Struggle. Great work such as David's is helping a broader public to learn what black Americans have always known: African-Americans fought back with honor and dignity against the violence that was visited upon them by Jim and Jane Crow, the white mob, and the racial state.
Dr. Krugler and Chauncey discuss the Black Freedom Struggle, why and how the legacy of African-American resistance to white racial violence has been erased in the American public memory, some of the great stories of resistance that David uncovered in his research, and what prompted the nationwide white on black racial terrorism of 1919 and its relationship to Whiteness.
David and Chauncey also talk about the former's great book on American civil defense during the Cold War and how racism even impacted the United States' preparations for defending against a nuclear war.
Friend of WARN Bill the Lizard also stops by to talk about the great new movie Mad Max: Fury Road.
And of course, Chauncey gives an epic recounting of how he damn near broke his leg before going to see Mad Max: Fury Road and what the recovery has been like so far.
