Is 19th-Century Politics Returning to the 21st Century?

When: Wednesday, July 8th at 7PM
Where: In-Person (RSVP HERE FOR IN-PERSON) at 269 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215 &  Zoom* (RSVP HERE FOR VIRTUAL)
*must RSVP above to receive link

Next Wednesday, July 8th at 7:00 PM, join the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture and historian Dr. Alan Singer (Hofstra University) for an urgent conversation on race, voting rights, and American democracy. From the Reconstruction era to modern Supreme Court rollbacks of the Voting Rights Act, we will look at how the past is repeating itself—and what we can do to stop it.

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On December 18 1865, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, during debate on how to treat the traitorous Confederate states and on support for newly freed people who had been enslaved in the United States and in British North America for almost 250 years, warned “If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of history and of all future ages.” The United States failed to rectify injustice in the past, and it is failing once again. In the 1960s, spurred by the African American Civil Right Movement, Congress finally passed legislation to address a century of segregation and racial injustice, but with the Supreme Court’s rulings against the Voting Rights Act and the Trump Administration’s refusal to enforce the Civil Rights Act, they are trying to return the United States to the era of Jim Crow segregation and racism institutionalized in the 19th century.
Bio:
Alan Singer is a social studies educator and historian in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York. He is a former New York City high school teacher and regularly blogs on Daily Kos and other sites on educational and political issues. Dr. Singer is a graduate of the City College of New York and has a Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University. He is the author of Education Flashpoints (Routledge, 2014), Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach: A Handbook for Secondary School Teachers, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2013), Social Studies For Secondary Schools, 4th Edition (Routledge, 2014), Teaching Global History (Routledge, 2011), New York and Slavery, Time to Teach the Truth (SUNY, 2008), and New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee (SUNY, 2018).