Emerson's 'Emerson'

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Emerson saw anglo saxons as intelligent and freedom loving, but also beautiful. Nell painter traces a parade of elide americans who trumpeted a romanticized anglo saxon identity. Eugenics and its downfall, the acceptance of the irish and slavs and italians and jews into main stream hiteness the civil rights movements. We'll get to some of that later in the series.

“All men are created equal.” Those words, from the Declaration of Independence, are central to the story that Americans tell about ourselves and our history. But what did those words mean to the man who actually wrote them? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika.

Key sources for this episode:

Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People

Ibram Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning

The Racial Equity Institute