Race, Citizenship, and a Search for Intellectual Honesty

My essay, “Race, Citizenship, and a Search for Intellectual Honesty,” appeared in Muster, the blog of the Journal of the Civil War Era in January 2018.

For me, a seed of doubt about my thinking about race and citizenship was sown by a recent incident at Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville (SIUE). A professor reported entering a classroom to find this message written on the blackboard: “NO PERSON OF AFRICAN Descent shall be Citizen of the U.S.… NOR were they ever intended to be.” Dred Scott Decision