Rayman Solomon
Current city/town: Camden, NJ
Title/Affiliation: University Professor and Dean Emeritus, Rutgers Law School
What's the last page-turner biography you read? What podcasts are keeping you going during those long Turnpike commutes? Which poems or novels do you return to over and over when you need a laugh (or a cry)?
We're asking NJCH staff members, trustees, and community partners to contribute thoughts on their favorite humanities-related books, shows, and sounds. We'll be sharing these contributions on the NJCH website and social media as part of a new regular "Humanities Moment" feature, to create community around the humanities content we love here in NJ.
This week we’re highlighting recommendations from Rayman Solomon, a renowned legal and historical scholar who joined the NJCH Board of Trustees in October.
BOOKS
Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and a Story of Reconciliation
On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation
"These books tell the story of the Elaine (Arkansas) Massacre in 1919, which may well have been the deadliest massacre of African Americans in 1919. The Supreme Court case that was generated was the first time since Reconstruction that the federal courts intervened on behalf of African Americans and can be seen as leading to Brown v Board of Education. Damaged Heritage is a 21st century story of reconciliation between a descendant of a member of the posse that murdered African Americans and a descendant of victims of the Massacre."
Find these books:
Read more about the Elaine Massacre of 1919 in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Interested in being featured in an NJCH Humanities Moment? Contact Valerie Popp, Director of Strategic Initiatives, at vpopp@njhumanities.org.
