Professor, History
Expertise:
African American history, southern history, particularly the history of the Jim Crow South
Credentials:
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1999
M.A., University of Georgia, 1989
B.A., Franciscan University of Steubenville, 1987
Associations:
Southern Historical Association, Oral History Association, Agricultural History Association, American Historical Association
Exceptional Service:
Reviewer of book manuscripts for Columbia University Press, 2018.
Scholarly Publications:
Schultz, M. and Petty, A. (2018). Farm Ownership. In Reich S. (Ed.). World of Jim Crow: A Daily Life, Encyclopedia Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Schultz, M. (2018). Conversations with farmers: Oral history for agricultural historians. In Strom C. & Tudor A. (Eds.). Using Diverse Primary Resources to Research US History: Essays from the Agricultural History Society (pp. 201-19). Starkville, Miss: Agricultural History Society.
Publications:
“African-American Landowners” in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Volume 18, Agriculture, ed. by Melissa Walker, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming)
“Rural Segregation” in The Jim Crow Encyclopedia, ed. by Nikki L.M. Brown and Barry M. Stentiford, (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, forthcoming)
“The Rural Face of White Supremacy: Beyond Jim Crow,” (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005). It was designated an Editors Choice by the Atlantic Monthly
“African American Farmers and the USDA: 150 Years of Discrimination,” Agricultural History, (87) Summer, 2013, 332-343. Mark Schultz and Adrienne Petty
Scholarly Presentations:
Schultz M. (2018, October). Breaking new ground; The significance of African American farm owners in the Jim Crow South. Presented at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Indianapolis, IN.
Schultz M. & Petty, A. (2018, November). Breaking new ground: African American landowners and the pursuit of the American dream. Presented at Lincoln’s Unfinished Work, Clemson University, SC.
Presentations:
Schultz, M. (2015, March). The geography of settlement and race relations among black and white farm owners in Georgia, Missouri and Arkansas. Missouri Conference on History, St. Louis, MO.
“American Land Reform; Reconsidering Land Ownership in the African American Experience,” American Historical Association, Washington D.C., January 2, 2014.
“Standing in the Doorway: African American Women’s Defense of their Homes in Jim Crow Georgia,” Southern Association for Women Historians Southern Conference on Women’s History, Columbia S.C., June 4, 2009
Interview on episode of NBC program “Who Do You Think You Are?” with Spike Lee— aired April 23, 2010
“Complicating the Picture: Oral History and the Rural South,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Seattle, March 26, 2009
“Non-segregated White Supremacy: Searching for a New Paradigm for Rural Southern Race Relations,” James A. Hutchins Lecture at the Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April 3, 2007.
“Ruining Field Hands: The Meaning of Education in Hancock County Georgia, 1900-50,” Social Science History Association Annual Meeting, Portland, November 3, 2005
Thank you, Dr. Schultz, for your interview today with Drew Mariani. While your outline on the sadder aspects of U.S. history was thorough and noteworthy, your nobly-intended proposal of some sort of government reparations seems short-sighted to me. While I get your point regarding examples of other reparations made, I see such reparations to blacks descended from slaves to be enormously problematic.
For example, there is the question of vetting; how can such heritage be solidly documented? Next if one is only half black, would they get 50%? Aside from such logistics, the bigger problem would be the perpetuation of victim mentality and the re-opening of old wounds that instead really need forgiveness.
Since white (often Dutch) traders bought slaves, should the Netherlands make reparations to U.S. blacks? Since Africans sold conquered neighboring tribes into slavery, perhaps the black descendents of sellers of slaves should make reparations. What should be the statute of limitations? Should the U.S. sue the U.K. for the war of independence? The War of 1812? Israel sue Egypt for the time before the Exodus? Why only recent events? Should Mormons receive reparations for the abuses they incurred for their peculiar faith?
When I consider the early Chinese immigrants to the U.S., I see a people who suffered discrimination, abuse, persecution, exploitation, and horrific working conditions. But look at Chinese-Americans today: a much lower rate of divorce, abortion, and out-of-wedlock births than even whites! They excel in academics, especially science, they excel in business, and often can’t get into colleges because while they have the GPA, the quotas for them are filled! Lastly, they don’t maintain a victim mentality.
More blacks have emigrated willingly from Africa to the U.S. since the Civil War than came on slave ships. These people thrive in the U.S. I see the problem with blacks born here as mostly one of well-intended liberal policies, starting with forced school integration, which, without the necessary time that would have eventually become the needed emulsifier, was essentially a premature attempt to mix oil with water.
Welfare that rewarded single motherhood, Margaret Sanger’s attack on “weed people” first with contraception and then abortion, plus other family-destroying policies have devastated black families. And then along come the profiteers and agitators: race-baiting shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who push an hysteria-driven narrative to capitalize by perpetuating or manufacturing black fear and white guilt.
I am a white man who bears no such guilt. I had a black girlfriend in middle school and another as a young adult. I have opposed racist humor by whites. All this and more from the son of a man from Pulaski, TN, where the KKK started. I have lived any amends due on account of my ancestors’ misdeeds.
Racism has always existed. It always will this side of heaven. I have twice been assaulted simply for being a white face in a black neighborhood. My black friends think the Reparations narrative is demeaning nonsense.
I encourage you to solicit a radio interview with nationally syndicated host Larry Elder, who is black and pretty keen on the topic, if you haven’t done so already.
Please check out Project 21. Project 21 is an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility have NOT traditionally been echoed by the nation’s civil rights establishment.
https://nationalcenter.org/project-21/
I also invite you to view Prager University’s nine 5-minute online videos addressing current race relations. https://www.prageru.com/playlists/america-racist-0
And while there, look for “The Inconvenient Truth About the Democrat Party” by Professor Carol Swain of Vanderbilt. It’s quite enlightening.
My sincerest thanks for your time & attention.
Peace be with you.
Michael