Over 200 Years Later: The Return of The Emancipator
The BU Center for Antiracist Research’s Public Scholarship Shop and the BU College of Communication hosted ‘The Return of the Emancipator’ on Wednesday, January 26. During this virtual event, Deborah Douglas and Amber Payne explored how they intend to reframe the national conversation and hasten racial justice for our times as the editors of The Emancipator. The pair were joined by Kimberly Atkins Stohr, a BU alum and Senior Columnist at The Boston Globe and The Emancipator. Michelle Johnson, COM associate professor of the practice journalism, moderated this event.
The Emancipator was the first abolitionist newspaper in the United States, founded more than 200 years ago, which has now been resurrected and reimagined as the Center’s new multimedia publication in partnership with the Globe.
“Boston is central to this narrative, because it was the center, the hub of abolitionism in the United States and a hub for abolitionist news outlets. Beating that steady drum beat towards abolition of slavery…The idea is that we can take a singular focus on the most urgent topic of today, in the context of the American project to achieve racial equality, to achieve the American promise of an open and free society,” Deborah Douglas says, “This platform can beat that steady drumbeat on a regular, daily basis until we get this work done.”
In a record for the BU College of Communication, almost 800 people registered for ‘The Return of The Emancipator,’ with about half of the registrants affiliated with Boston University and half from outside of the University.
“The Emancipator offers enormous potential to advance antiracist analysis and solutions for a public broad audience,” says Dr. Jennifer Beard, Assistant Director of Narrative with the BU Center for Antiracist Research. “The collaboration between Boston University and The Boston Globe is particularly exciting because it creates a venue for CAR faculty affiliates, based at BU and universities across New England, to engage in public scholarship.”