This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. This month marks

the third anniversary of George Floyd's murder, and the third year of America's so-called

racial reckoning. And while the backlash in politics and academia has been strong, some

say the fight to tell the true history of America and race is just beginning.

Yes, they are difficult stories, but they are filled with extraordinary, visionary,

outrageous individuals who we carry with us.

Teaching the hard history of slavery and racism, coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson.

Stay with us.

Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm your

host, Jason Johnson. The murder of George Floyd three years ago sparked what has been

called the reckoning, a re-examination of how institutional racism has shaped American

history and our society today. Well, we all see how that turned out. The backlash began

almost immediately, with mostly Republican political leaders labeling the accurate teaching

of racial history as dangerous and anti-patriotic. Books that acknowledge slavery, segregation

and Jim Crow are being targeted and removed from school libraries. And educators who try

to teach about this history are having their jobs, and sometimes they're very safety

threatened. Beyond that, many of the racial reckoning efforts at major institutions have

seen their funding and support cut. But one that's still going strong is the hard history

project. At Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, it's committed to diving into the difficult

history of slavery and race around that institution and the surrounding community. The director

of that project is Professor Martha Jones. She's an historian and a prolific author of

books, including her latest Vanguard, how black women broke barriers, won the vote and insisted

...