As part of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, examining the history of race and racism since slavery was introduced into British North America four hundred years ago, D’Angelo Lovell Williams argues that race and racism have long torpedoed efforts to implement universal health care in the United States.
According to Williams, federal policy, starting with the end of the Civil War in 1865, was based on the belief that “free assistance of any kind” to newly freed Blacks would “breed dependence and that when it came to black infirmity, hard labor was a better salve than white medicine.”
Those are beliefs echoed in politics and rhetoric today, but one of the worst racists in the United States Congress at that time, whose views shaped post-Civil War policy, was Samuel Sullivan Cox. During the 38th session of Congress, Cox led opposition against the formation of a Freedmen’ Bureau to assist newly emancipated Africans based on his belief that that African race was doomed to extinction by its inherent inferiority and inability to survive outside of bondage. [Read more…] about Racism’s War On Equality Has A Long History
The latest episode of the Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast features Mark Will-Weber who talked about the influence of alcohol on the Civil War and the history of presidential drinking.
Schoharie County Historian Ted Shuart is set to tell the story and share the personal diary of Civil War United States Army Signal Corps 2nd Lieutenant William H. Hill on Thursday, August 8 at 7 pm at the Old Stone Fort Museum in Schoharie, NY.
The historic Albany Rural Cemetery is set to hold a dedication ceremony to unveil a new headstone for Civil War veteran Captain Samuel L. Bridgeford of Albany on Saturday, August 3rd. Captain Bridgeford, who died in 1901 at the age of 82, served with the 43rd NY Infantry and 20th NY Calvary. 
As the Civil War raged on the land, the two national navies — Union and Confederate — created another war on the water. The naval war was one of sudden, spectacular battles as well as continual and fatal vigilance on the coasts, rivers, and seas.
Fort Ticonderoga is set to host one of its signature events, “Montcalm’s Cross,” a two-day battle reenactment, on Saturday, July 20, and Sunday, July 21.
Plattsburgh based film preservationist and archivist Andy MacDougall will co-host two screenings of his personal 16mm print of The Raid on Friday and Saturday, July 19th and 20th at 7 pm at the Clinton County Historical Museum, 98 Ohio Ave, in Plattsburgh.
Descendants of members of the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War regiment raised in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, are set to hold their 34th annual reunion from 2 to 5 pm on Saturday, July 20, at the Bemus Point United Methodist Church at 4954 Bemus-Ellery Road in Bemus Pont, Chautauqua County. 
The Saratoga County History Roundtable is set to present a program on a forgotten Saratoga County railroad on Thursday, June 13 at 7 pm, at Brookside Museum, 6 Charlton Street, in Ballston Spa.