Civil rights on film: Eyes on the Prize

Cinema is central to our understanding of civil rights movement history. Join filmmakers and historians at the British Academy on 24, 25 and 26 May to discuss the relationship between history, activism and documentary filmmaking. The Civil Rights Movement exists in “grainy black-and-white” (Obama, 1995) When Barack Obama published Dreams From My Father in 1995, …

Race and Rights: American Atrocities and British Smugness

By Peter Ling The Oregon shootings, in the wake of the Virginia shootings, in the wake of the Charleston shootings, in the wake of the Ferguson killing, and the Sandy Hook school massacre drew global media to the issue of American gun control, yet again. A clearly frustrated President Obama was shown lamenting the fact …

Race and Rights: Charleston

In response to the murder of nine African Americans by a young white man at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, Professor Peter Ling of the Centre for Research in Race and Rights examines the surrounding history, political context and narrative. In classic English crime fiction, such as Agatha Christie, the recurrent plot …

Race and Rights: Black Soldiers Part 4

To mark the 150th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War in 1865, James Brookes of the Centre for Research in Race and Rights analyses the visual culture of African American flags—regimental colours that expressed the black experience of war and of life in America itself. In the fourth and final blog of …

Race and Rights: Black Soldiers Part 3

To mark the 150th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War in 1865, James Brookes of the Centre for Research in Race and Rights analyses the visual culture of African American flags—regimental colours that expressed the black experience of war and of life in America itself. In the third of this four-part series, …

Race and Rights: Black Soldiers Part 2

To mark the 150th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War in 1865, James Brookes of the Centre for Research in Race and Rights analyses the visual culture of African American flags—regimental colours that expressed the black experience of war and of life in America itself. In the second of this four-part series, …

Race and Rights: Black Soldiers Part 1

To mark the 150th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War in 1865, James Brookes of the Centre for Research in Race and Rights analyses the visual culture of African American flags—regimental colours that expressed the black experience of war and of life in America itself. In the first of this four-part series, …