Nola Reporter

It was the bicentennial year, University of New Orleans alumnus Brian  Mitchell recalled, and his elementary school teacher was telling the  class about historical leaders in Louisiana. He waited, expecting to  hear the name Oscar Dunn, the first Black lieutenant governor of  Louisiana.

“Even though we were learning about governors at the time, there was  no mention,” said Mitchell, who grew up in New Orleans and is currently  an associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas Little  Rock and an associate faculty member at the Anderson Institute on Race  and Ethnicity at UALR.

When he didn’t hear Dunn’s name, Mitchell injected into the  conversation the stories he’d learned at home from his great-grandmother  about Dunn, a distant cousin of his great-grandfather.

 

“They didn’t believe me,” Mitchell said of his teacher and classmates.  “And it didn’t get better as time went on.  As I got into middle school  and high school, there wasn’t any emphasis put on the accomplishments  that were made by African Americans.”

“We heard that Black people were slaves. We heard that Abraham  Lincoln came and there was a Civil War and Black people weren’t slaves  anymore and then the modern Civil Rights Movement … what were Black  people doing in between these two times? What sort of progress?

“It wasn’t until I got to college that I had people who were capable  of explaining that,” said Mitchell, who earned a bachelor’s, two  master’s and a doctoral degree from the University of New Orleans.  

There was an informational void, Mitchell said, that wasn’t filled until he enrolled at UNO and met history professor Raphael Cassimere, among others.

“He was actually the first African American male teacher I ever had,”  Mitchell said. “He was particularly influential when we talk about me  becoming a specialist in African American history. He spoke with a  passion and he was able to fill in so many holes in what I’d been  taught. He made it all make sense.”     

‘Monumental’

Mitchell’s recent book, “Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight  in Reconstruction Louisiana,” is an outgrowth of his doctoral  dissertation and the historical void he found as a younger student. He  decided to create a graphic novel in an effort to reach younger readers,  Mitchell said.

“I’ve chosen to share Oscar Dunn’s story as a graphic history to make  sure that people, especially younger readers, won’t forget,” Mitchell  wrote in the book’s introduction. “Decades after my own teacher denied  the story of this critical person in not only my family’s history, but  America’s, I still feel the sting.”

The book, published in 2021 by The Historic New Orleans Collection,  has earned several awards, including the Phillis Wheatley Book Award  from the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage, which  recognizes recent books covering the topic of slavery. It was also  Louisiana's choice for the 2021 Library of Congress National Book  Festival’s Great Reads from Great Places.

The 200-plus page novel chronicles the life of Oscar James Dunn, who  rose to prominence in New Orleans as he led the fight for fairer  treatment and wages for recently freed African American men and soldiers  in the aftermath of the Civil War. In 1868, he was elected lieutenant  governor of Louisiana as part of the Republican ticket. He was an early  champion of what was seen at the time as “radical” causes, such as  universal male suffrage, civil rights and integrated public schools  during the early years of Reconstruction in Louisiana.

In 1871, amid in-party political strife, Dunn died under what some  have described as mysterious circumstances following a brief illness.  

Why history?

Mitchell earned four degrees from UNO: a bachelor’s and master’s  degrees in history, a master’s degree in urban studies, and a doctorate  in urban studies with a concentration in history.

Those degrees helped steer him into a career he’s always wanted, Mitchell said.

“I’m doing exactly what I’d hope to do,” Mitchell said. “I always  wanted to be a historian and that’s exactly what I do. My work has been  covered internationally. Whenever I can, I try to plug the people who  were part and parcel in that making, you know Dr. Cassimere, Dr.  (Arnold) Hirsch … they were all really important in my development.”

Mitchell’s historical research into the 1919 Elaine Massacre of Black  sharecroppers in Arkansas resulted in the awarding of a Purple Heart  medal in 2019 to one of the victims, Pvt. Leroy Johnston, a World World I  veteran who had only recently returned home.

“We came across his service records and his service records indicated  that his wounds sustained in battle had been changed from severely to  slightly, which would have negated him receiving any of the awards that  were given for valor on the battle field,” Mitchell said. “I began a  campaign petitioning the Secretary of Defense, with the help of our  member of the U.S. House of Representative French Hill and was able to  get those awards to the family posthumously.”

Mitchell also worked with Hill on federal legislation that re-opened  all of the service records for minority soldiers serving in World War I.  His historical research and efforts earned him an invitation to the  White House and President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union  address.

“Remember the Nancy Pelosi rip?” Mitchell asked, referencing when  Pelosi, a Democrat and Speaker of the House, tore in half a copy of  Trump’s speech during the televised address. “I was there; I saw it  all!”

Mitchell describes himself as an inquisitive child growing up, always  asking questions and wanting to know “why?” Hours spent in museums and  libraries fueled and fed that curiosity.

“I always wanted to be a historian as far back as I can remember,”  Mitchell said. “Our big pasttime was the library or museum; those were  free! In doing that, I just developed a passion for the past.”

As a college professor, Mitchell said he tries to instill the  importance of an inclusive history and one that is connected to the  future.

“I purposely am extremely plural in educating my students in regards  to diversity,” Mitchell said. “I always tell them that the United States  is made up of people that came from all over the world and that nobody  came and brought nothing; everybody brought something to the table.”

Mitchell said he makes his courses as relevant to his students as  possible, emphasizing that we are connected to the past and that our  past influences decisions that we make all the time.

“This is one of the things that most of my students walk away with:  history is likely the most important class that they will take because  it makes everything else make sense,” Mitchell said. “It puts everything  else in a chronology, it shows how everything is connected. It shows  how we came up with thoughts; it shows how we evolved those thoughts.

So, history is essential to understanding who we are and where we’re  going. And, as John Hope Franklin said, ‘We use it as a barometer to  measure the progress that we’re making.’”

Original source can be found here.