Earlier this year, the Cleveland Foundation announced the winners of its 86th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. It's the only national juried prize for literature that addresses issues of racism and explores diversity.
Vincent Brown, Professor of American History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, is one of this year’s recipients. In his award-winning book, “Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War,” he investigates the transatlantic slave trade that extended from the UK to Africa to the Americas. Brown details how slavery was rooted in warfare.
"War and profit, war and accumulation, war and the slave trade kind of had a symbiotic relationship,” Brown said, creating institutions that utilized terror and fear to enslave captives forming the foundations of racism. The consequences of which continue today as the United States struggles with racial discrimination in a post-slavery society.
Ideastream Public Media's Mary Fecteau and Shelli Reeves contributed to this report.
Get to know more of the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners Thursdays in August during the "Sound of Ideas" on WCPN Ideastream Public Media. Celebrate all of this year's winners in a TV special airing Sept. 14, 9 p.m., on WVIZ.
