Anne Bailey | Source | Professor of History at Binghamton University, State University of New York
Anne Bailey
Anne Bailey, Binghamton University Professor of History and Director of the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity, is available to discuss a variety of issues in relation to recent protests and race in America.
- Expanding curriculum on structural and systemic racism in high schools
- How the issue of slavery reparations need to be addressed in order to heal racial divisions
- The constant fear that Black mothers have that their sons will be killed
- The role of the church now and in civil rights history
- History of protests in the civil rights movement
Bailey, a contributor to The New York Times’s 1619 Project, research interests include African-American history; African and African Diaspora studies; history and memory; oral history; and civil rights. She writes and speaks about a variety of topics related to these research areas, including race, slavery, immigration, refugees, diasporas, faith and history and human rights. In her work, Bailey combines the elements of travel, adventure, history and an understanding of contemporary issues with an accessible style. Her works range from adult non-fiction to children’s historical fiction, and includes African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame (Beacon Press, 2005) and You Can Make A Difference: The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. (Bantam/Doubleday/Dell). Her newest book, The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History, was published by Cambridge University Press in October 2017 and has received very wide coverage.
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Binghamton University, State University of New York
Professor of History
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What Was The Underground Railroad? Honoring The Legacy of Harriet Tubman
Explore the history of the Underground Railroad — a secret network of people and safe houses that helped enslaved African Americans escape to freedom in the United States. And learn about its most famous conductor, Harriet Tubman, who was commemorated with a statue on the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail.
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They Sold Human Beings Here
For hundreds of years, enslaved people were bought and sold in America. Today most of the sites of this trade are forgotten. As part of The 1619 Project, we photographed 12 of them.
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New Harriet Tubman statue unveiled in downtown Binghamton
The statue is part of the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail, a public trail that marks stops along the Underground Railroad, as well as other anti-slavery and civil rights sites.
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The Senate has unanimously passed a bill to establish Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday. This is an historic moment and an opportunity to create a “new America,” according to Anne Bailey, professor of history at Binghamton University, State University of New York and director of the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity.
“We are in what I am calling, ‘The Age of Repair,’ This is a moment for us to look back and look forward to creating a new America-- one that is more equitable and lives up to its stated ideals,” said Bailey.
Bailey said that there are so many people on the grassroots level to thank for their commitment to making this a reality, including the late Dr. Ronald Myers, who led early efforts to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.“This Juneteenth holiday is a reminder that we must put people over profit and seek to repair the inequities and disparities that have arisen as a result of almost 250 years of slavery in the United States of America,” said Bailey.
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Slavery reparations could help United States reclaim moral leadership
The House Judiciary Committee today plans to review and vote on House Resolution 40, or the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. Reparations could drastically improve the United States’ international standing and serve as an example to other nations on how to deal with past inequities, according to Anne C. Bailey, Slavery and Reparations expert, professor of history and director of the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
According to Bailey, the renewed focus on reparations comes at a pivotal time in recent U.S. history.
“Long considered, rightly or wrongly, as a beacon of democracy and freedom, the U.S. has in the past four years presented a different face to the world amid a retreat into “America first” policy,” said Bailey.
“Meanwhile, the recent attack on the Capitol, the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police and racial disparities highlighted in the pandemic have raised concerns about the fragility of American democracy and have put the lasting legacies of structural racism in the U.S. on full display.
“Paying reparations to Americans of African descent could, I believe, help the U.S. reclaim some moral leadership on the global stage. The U.S. is not the only country in the world with human rights abuses then or now, but it can be one of the few countries in the world that truly addresses these wrongs.”
For information on the Tubman Center's recent press on reparations and associated issues, visit https://www.binghamton.edu/centers/harriet-tubman/press.html.
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The issue of slavery reparations needs to be addressed in order to heal racial divisions today, according to Anne C. Bailey, professor of history at Binghamton University, State University of New York, civil rights scholar and contributor to the prize-winning New York Times 1619 Project.
“Many of us have kept our views to ourselves and have not dared to say what we think and feel. Around the dining room table or with our intimate friends, we may say a word, but otherwise, we are silent,” says Bailey. “The question is: Has this silence helped to heal our racial divisions? And is this silence and subsequent inaction at the root of our current crisis today?”
Bailey has made the case for reparations in African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame which was originally published in 2005 (Beacon Press) and also in her most recent book, The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History. (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
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