Ta-Nehisi Coates on ‘Why So Few Blacks Study the Civil War’

The Takeaway

The uneasy embrace of slavery in colonial America produced an economic boom, rendered the founder’s debates over freedom from kings and despots questionable distortions of truth and logic, slavery enshrined rascism in the U.S. Constitution and made the Civil War inevitable. The War itself created an identity for the United States from which there was no escape, even though it seems from time to time that the Civil War blinks out in relevance. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates  says this narrative has to change. In a piece in this month’s Atlantic, Coates says more black Americans need to study the war and their role in it in order to understand their place in history. Coates is senior editor for The Atlantic, and author of “The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood.”

Will you support The World with a monthly donation?

Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!