Links

Review of Theresa Runstedtler, Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA, in The Common Reader, 30 September 2025

Review of Caleb Gayle, Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State in Washington Post, 13 August 2025

“Don’t Restrict Stories Such as Bayard Rustin’s,” The Daily Memphian, 16 April 2025

"Hunter S. Thompson: Sportswriter," Modern American History, July 2024

"Imagine an America" podcast, National Civil Rights Museum, 6/24

Commencement Address, University of Memphis, 8/19

Review of Wright Thompson, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi, in Washington Post, 9/18/24

"Kamala Harris is no Hubert Humphrey," The Conversation, 7/26/24

"How Willie Mays Handled Racism and the Media," Time, 6/25/24

"Q&A with the editor of Out of Left Field," University of Illinois Press blog, 6/24

"The Politics of Rage: From George Wallace to Donald Trump," Institute for Public Service Reporting, 8/26/24

"Teaching this History is an Act of Patriotism," The Daily Memphian, 8/29/23

Review of Samuel Freedman, Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights, in Washington Post, 6/29/23

Review of Howard Bryant, Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, in The Common Reader, 3/21/23

“Harry Belafonte Leveraged Stardom for Social Change,” The Conversation, 8/26/23

“The 1973 Memphis State Tigers Prove the Power of Sports,” The Daily Memphian, 2/24/23

"How Bill Russell Changed America," on Hang Up and Listen, podcast by Slate, 8/22

“Remembering James Meredith 60 Years After He Entered Ole Miss,” The Daily Memphian, 9/25/22

“Bill Russell’s Legacy of NBA Championships and Cerebral Fight for Civil Rights,” The Conversation, 8/1/22

Review of David Maraniss, Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe, in Washington Post, 8/12/22

Interview with Michael Ray Taylor about Man on a Mission: James Meredith and the Battle of Ole Miss, 6/22/22

Review of Kostya Kennedy, True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson, in Washington Post, 4/8/22

Zoom lecture, "Framing the Civil Rights Movement," Humanities Texas, 1/22

Zoom lecture, "Teaching the Civil Rights Movement with Primary Source Documents," Humanities Texas, 1/22

"Sidney Poitier set the template for Barack Obama's Rise," Washington Post, 1/13/22

"How Sidney Poitier sold civil rights to America," Slate, 1/10/22

Review of Ben Golliver, Bubbleball: Inside the NBA's Fight to Save a Season, in Washington Post, 6/4/21

"Shot 55 years ago while marching against racism, James Meredith reminds us that powerful movements can include those with very different ideas," The Conversation, 6/2/21

Review of Luke Epplin, Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, in Washington Post, 4/9/21

"Race, History, and Democracy: A Conversation with Charles McKinney," University of Memphis Libraries, 3/15/21

Review of Alan Gaff, Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir, in Washington Post, 6/19/20

"Writing Race: An Armenian-American and African-American History," Society of Armenian Studies, 7/20

“Remembering Wilma Rudolph, the ‘Queen of the Olympics’,” Black Perspectives, 10/2/20, co-written with Scott N. Brooks

“Why Protest? Recent Killings Resonate with Black Memphians,” The Daily Memphian, 6/1/20, co-written with Charles McKinney

“Tiger Hoops: How UM Basketball Shaped Us,” Memphis Flyer, 3/5/20

Review of Kerri K. Greenidge, Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, in Washington Post, 1/2/20

“Amateur Status + Big-Time Sports = Hypocrisy,” The Daily Memphian, 11/13/19

“Leading While Losing: Benjamin Hooks and the 1980 Presidential Election,” University of Memphis Libraries, 10/19

"The March Against Fear," in Mississippi Encyclopedia, 2019

"What I'm Reading" interview with History News Network, 4/18/19

“Politics, Old and New,” UNC Press Blog, 4/11/19

Review of Charles Lane, Freedom's Detective, in Washington Post, 4/12/18

"Why the Republican Party is so Polarizing,” Washington Post, 11/6/18

"Democrats' Struggle Over Masculinity 50 Years Ago Still Playing Out Today," Salon, 11/2/18

"Legacy of the 1966 March Against Fear," CSPAN, 9/18

Review of Jane Leavy, The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, in Washington Post, 8/18/18

"Why Donald Trump Likes Mike," Washington Post, 8/8/18

"RFK’s Promise, Compassion Still Mourned 50 Years Later, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 6/4/18

Review of Keith Hernandez, I'm Keith Hernandez: A Memoir, in Washington Post, 6/18/18

Op-eds at Al Jazeera

"An Unseen Light: New Book Chronicles Struggle for Freedom and Equality in Memphis,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 3/25/18, co-written with Charles McKinney

“Karnig Panian’s Genocide: Memory, Identity, and the Editing of Goodbye, Antoura,” Beth Sholom Synagogue, 3/18

Review of Marc Perrusquia, A Spy in Canaan, in Washington Post, 4/1/18

“‘An Unseen Light’: On the History of Black Memphis,” Black Perspectives, 10/8/18, co-written with Charles McKinney

“Memphis and the Movement,” Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, 1/10/18

Review of Jonathan Eig, Ali: A Life, in Washington Post, 9/28/17

“What Would MLK and JFK Do About Statues?,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9/7/17

Review of John Farrell, Richard Nixon: The Life, at Washington Post, 3/24/17

Appreciation of Muhammad Ali at Quartz, 6/4/16

MLK50 and An Unseen Light, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 3/23/18

"Conscience and History: Justice, Martin Luther King, and the Armenian Genocide," Stanford University Press blog, 4/23/15

Interview for "The Obama History Project," New York, 1/15

"'Back to One City’: The 1973 Memphis State Tigers and Myths of Race and Sport,” Study the South, 3/16

Interview with Ed Odeven for "Ed Odeven Reporting," 1/4/17

Interview for Book TV: After Words about Down to the Crossroads, 2/22/14

Interview with Clay Risen about Down to the Crossroads, 6/2/16