Author Interview--Alaina E. Roberts (I’ve Been Here All the While) Part 4

Niels Eichhorn Discussion

Hello H-CivWar readers,

today we close our multipart video interview series with Alaina E. Roberts. We chat about how tribal sovereignty declined within Oklahoma Territory and will maybe return in light of the recent Supreme Court decision.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Alaina E. Roberts via Zoom. We talked about her forthcoming book I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land, which will be released soon by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The interview is broken up so that you can easily use the material in class.

Alaina E. Roberts is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University. Her writing has also appeared in the Washington PostHigh Country News, Al Jazeera, the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and the Western Historical Quarterly.

These videos are also available on this Playlist

We start today by looking at how discrimination arrives with Oklahoma Territory:

We turn to a question raised in the book if Oklahoma helped develop racial policies:

We venture briefly to the impact of McGirt v. Oklahoma:

We close by looking to the future with book promotion and research plans: