On Second Thought For Tuesday, February 7, 2017

This is show is a celebration of Black History Month. Since 1970, February has been dedicated to celebrating the contributions and achievements of African-Americans. We talk about the "Bank Black" movement, some tragic history in Savannah, a daring escape from Macon, and even how to handle a controversial term in the classroom.

A study by Emory University found that people view the term “African-American” more favorably than “black.” We talked with Erika Hall, who worked on the study, about what this might mean for prospective job seekers.

Atlanta-based Citizens Trust had more than 8,000 new accounts open last July. It’s one of the country’s oldest African-American owned banks. The spike in new accounts is due in part to a new economic movement called “Bank Black.” On Second Thought intern Olivia Reingold spoke with a new applicant about the decision to Bank Black.

One of the largest slave sales in U.S. history happened in Savannah, but it’s largely unknown. During a two-day period in 1859, more than 400 people were sold to slave owners from across the Southeast, an event that became known as “The Weeping Time.” We talked with Atlanta-based landscape architect Kwesi DeGraft-Hanson, who is trying to identify living decedents of these slaves.

William and Ellen Craft escaped slavery in Macon, Georgia more than a decade before the start of the Civil War. How they did it is spectacular, as we learned from University of Georgia professor Barbara McCaskill.

The history of African-Americans can have a profound impact on our philosophy and perspectives. One young man in Georgia had a transformative experience at a recent screening of the History Channel miniseries "Roots." Atlanta teenager Jason Crichton wrote a commentary about it for Vox Teen Communications, a teen magazine in Atlanta. He said the show has encouraged him to take a stand against the casual use of a word that has the potential to offend.  

A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania shows the vast majority of teachers in the United States are white, and that more than half of black student suspensions happen in the South. The study’s authors say schools need to do a better job of talking about race. How can a white teacher relate to a classroom of black and brown students? We talked with two educators who have been thinking a lot about this issue: Georgia State University professor Brian Williams and Fulton County high school English teacher Matthew Patterson.

Before we ended this show on Black History Month, host Celeste Headlee took a moment to explain why she really doesn’t like Black History Month.  And it’s not for the reasons you might expect.