slavery
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Underground Season 2 Episode 9 Recap
“A sense of safety transforms the spirit.” —- Georgia We return to the safe house and how come we haven’t seen the other ladies of the sewing circle in like a month of Sundays? If you recall from last week’s episode, Cato was taken in as a runaway slave and he’s there as a stowaway…
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University Students Vote to Give Free Tuition as Slave Reparations
One of the most infamous tactics used in America’s history of delaying and denying justice is “sparking a conversation.” If that phrase is ever uttered, you can be sure that whatever promise follows will never come to fruition because “sparking a conversation” never results in action. When slave owners brought human beings to these shores…
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Henrietta Lacks at Johns Hopkins, Slaves at Georgetown, and Compensating Specific Historical Wrongs
On Saturday, HBO aired its original movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an adaptation of the book of the same name. Even if you’ve never read the book (as I haven’t, but am going to) you’ve more than likely heard somebody you know talking about this book, written by Rebecca Skloot, that talks about…
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Underground Season 2 Episode 7 Recap
After dedicating last week to the one-woman show that was Aisha Hinds’ Emmy consideration reel, Underground returns to form with “28”. We check back in with my favorite character whose story-line has yet to be connected to any other character, Daniel. Looks like he’s changed his mind about not teaching other slaves to read and…
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Georgetown University and Jesuits Issue Apologies for Their Role in Slavery
Last year Georgetown University acknowledged the role it played in slavery when, in 1838, it benefited from the sale of 272 slaves to pay off debts. The sellers of the slaves were Jesuits, part of the group of Catholics who helped establish Georgetown University. To atone, on Tuesday, the Rev. Timothy Kesicki, president of the…
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Aisha Hinds Was Brilliant as Harriet Tubman on Underground
This week’s episode of Underground, “Minty” came at a special time. Yes, it literally aired two hours earlier than it usually does and was rebroadcast throughout the evening by WGN but it also ran during a time in this nation’s history where Harriet Tubman’s words struck with such fervent urgency that it played dual roles…
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Underground Season 2 Episode 4 Recap
This week’s episode is all about choices. The choices that we make. The choices that we sometimes convince ourselves we have no other option but to make and the disparity that lies between those who choose to hide behind their choices and those who choose to stand in their truth. Cato is the latter, a…
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Why This Season’s Underground Should Be in Every Conversation About the War on Drugs
Over the last few years, I have spent a lot of time thinking, talking and writing about the war on drugs, particularly how it affects black women. And it is clear that the writers of WGN’s Underground, the exceptional runaway hit show that tracks the movements on the Underground Railroad, have been, too. There are…
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Black Georgetown Employee Finds Out School Sold His Great-Great-Great-Grandmother
One Georgetown University employee recently found out that he was tied to the school by more than a paycheck. Jeremy Alexander, an executive assistant in Georgetown’s Office of Technology Commercialization, recently found out that his paternal great-great-great-grandmother, Anna Mahoney Jones, was one of the hundreds of slaves sold by two Jesuit priests at Georgetown to…
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Underground Season 2 Episode 3 Recap
Daniel’s learned a few more words since we saw him last episode. In addition to “love” we can add “strength” to his list of vocabulary words he’d choose to describe the black women in his life. He’s reading Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech to his daughter and she can’t believe northern black folk…