Annette Gordon-Reed

Harvard University professor and author, Annette Gordon-Reed, talks about the history of the Juneteenth holiday and how it's evolved since becoming a federal holiday.

The 2-day conference for journalists, teachers, and policy makers called Faultlines: Democracy that seeks to shore up one of the bulwarks of democracy -- the free press.

Annette Gordon-Reed discusses her new book, On Juneteenth

Annette Gordon-Reed, author of “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” says the wrongdoings of America’s past continue to haunt the nation's present.

Over hours of confirmation hearings yesterday, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan faced tough questioning from senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. For nearly twenty minutes, ranking Republican Jeff Sessions asked Kagan about her policies banning military recruiters from campus while she was the dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan repeatedly said recruiters were never banned and that she always complied with the law, as she saw it. In response, Sessions told the nominee her remarks were "unconnected to reality."

Later in the day, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch from Utah explained his personal frustrations with criticisms on Citizens United v. FEC, the controversial campaign finance ruling by the Supreme Court. Kagan argued the case on behalf of the federal government as Solicitor General and maintained that as a justice, she would respect "settled law" and Supreme Court "precedent." It was the same answer she used when asked about the Second Amendment and Roe v. Wade.

The Hemings family had close blood ties with President Thomas Jefferson, due to Jefferson’s relationship with slave Sally Hemings, who was also the half-sister of his late wife Martha. Historian Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from Virginia in the 1700s to its dispersal after Thomas Jefferson’s death in 1826. ...

Writers Ian Buruma, Richard Halpern and Annette Gordon-Reed discuss the idea of loss of innocence in American culture and history. All of them will be participants at an event on Saturday, October 5th at NYU's Cantor Film Center.