Melvin Patrick Ely News Today

Reconciliation is frowned upon in Donald Trumps America. And Anthony, in an interview with Fox News, appears to have gone off-message in saying: “We are the melting pot of the world. And that’s what makes us strong, our diversity. And we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone separate from it.”

A contested deathbed declaration; multiple, contradictory wills; allegations of insanity: These are the issues at the heart of “A Madman’s Will,” Gregory May’s account of a Virginia statesman who held men and women in bondage during his lifetime only to emancipate them as he lay dying.

In 1957, one state-commissioned textbook said slaves were happy, often referring to them as servants. It glorified Confederates. And it said precious little about women beyond Martha Washington and Pocahontas.

Blackface is a black mark on American history, and Park City is not innocent. The Park City Museum’s own photographic collections prove as much, where racist or appropriated costumes appear through the early 2000s for Halloween, parties, parades and events like Clown Day.