The Conversation

The story of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, America's first black pop star

Written by Adam Gustafson, Instructor in Music, Pennsylvania State University

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield.Wikimedia Commons

In 1851, a concert soprano named Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield embarked on a national tour that upended America’s music scene.

In antebellum America, operatic and concert songs were very popular forms of entertainment. European concert sopranos, such as Jenny Lind and Catherine Hayes, drew huge...

History shows Trump will face legal challenges to detaining immigrants

Written by Kevin Johnson, Dean and Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Davis

Protests after death of a 36-year-old woman in custody at immigration detention facility in Arizona.AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File

President Donald Trump has followed through on his promise to ramp up immigrant detention as part of immigration enforcement. His executive order on border security and immigration describes a “new normal”...

Even before sanctuary cities, here's how black Americans protected fugitive slaves

Written by Barbara Krauthamer, Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Over the past few days, the national climate has grown increasingly tense over the issue of “sanctuary” cities and states. Local communities, including some college and university campuses, have pledged to shield undocumented children and adults from President Donald Trump’s proposals for deportation. Municipalities and campuses...

Should scientists engage in activism?

Written by Ivan Oransky, Distinguished Writer In Residence, Arthur Carter Journalism Institute, New York University

When scientists stand up, do they lose standing?Liz Lemon

Have you heard that scientists are planning a march on Washington? The move is not being billed as a protest, but rather as a “celebration of our passion for science and a call to support and safeguard the scientific community,” although it comes as a direct response to recent...

The most important thing you’re not discussing with your doctor

Written by Melissa J. Armstrong, Assistant Professor, Neurology, University of Florida

From www.shutterstock.com,

Politicians and policymakers are discussing what parts of the Affordable Care Act to change and what to keep. While most of us have little control over those discussions, there is one health care topic that we can control: what we talk about with our doctor.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the landmark publication...

Will Trump's 'color-blind' pro-business policies help black entrepreneurs too?

Written by Steven J. Gold, Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University

A growing body of research has shown the power of entrepreneurship to help solve the economic problems of disadvantaged groups such as women, immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities.

This finding can be traced to a longstanding vision of entrepreneurship established by black Americans as a means of supporting their community and overcoming...

Detroit's recovery: The glass is half-full at most

Written by Laura A. Reese, Professor of Political Science and Director, Global Urban Studies Program, Michigan State University

Empty field north of downtown Detroit, photographed nine months before the city declared bankruptcy in 2013AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File

After decades of demographic and economic decline, culminating in America’s largest municipal bankruptcy in 2013, many observers were ready to proclaim that the city of Detroit was dead. But over the past...

Exploiting black labor after the abolition of slavery

Written by Kathy Roberts Forde, Chair, Associate Professor, Journalism Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Convicts leased to harvest timber in Florida around 1915

The U.S. criminal justice system is riven by racial disparity.

The Obama administration pursued a plan to reform it. An entire news organization, The Marshall Project, was launched in late 2014 to cover it. Organizations like Black Lives Matter and The Sentencing Project are dedicated to...

Staying politically neutral is more dangerous for companies than you think

Written by Daniel Korschun, Associate Professor of Marketing, Drexel University

President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning immigration from seven Muslim countries has put corporate executives in a bind. Almost from the moment he announced the ban, questions poured in about where those executives stood on the issue.

The media have highlighted a cluster of companies that have made public statements...

What Trump misses about regulations: They produce benefits as well as costs

Written by Joseph Aldy, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University

Shutterstock.com

President Trump jettisoned more than 30 years of bipartisan regulatory policy on January 30 when he issued an executive order on “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs.” The order requires that whenever a new regulation is enacted by any federal agency, regulators must eliminate two rules, so that the...