About Me
Ann Banks is a journalist and writer living in New York. She has written features for the New York Times Magazine, including an article about Black combatants in WWII. She has also published in the NYT Book Review, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, Smithsonian, and many other magazines. Some of her work may be found here.
She edited an anthology of oral histories from the Federal Writers Project, First Person America, and co-produced a radio series for National Public Radio on the same subject. She received a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation to write about military families. She also has published eight books for children.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since starting research on my Confederate ancestors, I have had much more than a village’s worth of help. So there are many townspeople I want to thank.
First among them is Karen Orozco Gutierrez, whose great grandfather was enslaved by my great great grandfather. Five generations later, we traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, together to do research in the archives. “Daring to Face the Past,” published in the September, 2020, issue of Smithsonian, tells the story of this trip and of the discovery we made in the archives.
The historian Johanna Nicol Shields offered Karen and me her perspective and advice on our work and on the character of my great great grandfather.
My friend Eric Foner, whose books in the subject area number well into the double digits, made good on his promise to save me from major historical mistakes. (Any that may have crept in are mine alone.)
My husband Peter Petre and our daughter Caitlin patiently read numberless drafts of Confederates in My Closet and “Daring to Face the Past,” My friend Laura Shapiro read an early draft of the stories on this site; she said the best thing you can ever say to a writer: “Keep going.”
Other friends offered editorial counsel, pep talks and reading suggestions, including Paul Critchlow, Patty McCormick, Benjamin de la Piedra, Caitlin VanDusen, Sarah Lazin, Alison Relyea, Beth Rashbaum, Margo Jefferson, Robin Henig, Niesha Davis and Diane McWhorter.
This website would not exist without my friend Filippo Ciampini, whose art direction was more inventive than anything I could have imagined. I thank him for both his patience and his vision.
RESOURCES
A racial justice organization founded by descendants of slaveholders and of the enslaved
Designed by David Campt for white people who want to work to dismantle racism
A site devoted to African American genealogy
A non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources for African American genealogical research,
A Civil War blog pushing back against the myth of the Lost Cause
The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade, by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Morgan
The preeminent scholar of Reconstruction. His website is filled with useful articles.
Stories of the descendants of enslavers and the enslaved, as edited by members of Coming to the Table.
Podcast of stories left out of the official version of Civil War history.
Library of Congress collection of stories of former slaves.
An advocacy and education organization in Montgomery, Alabama, working for racial justice.