The Brown University Library and Brown University Digital Publications have announced the selection of the next four scholarly works to be developed by CDS, including The Chisolm Massacre: Reconstruction and the Politics of Violence by Christopher Grasso, Professor of History.

The case study focuses on a hinge moment in American history: 1877, when the nation backed away from its first great experiment in racial justice. In a small town in Kemper County, Mississippi in the spring of that year, a political mob murdered five people, including Republican Judge William Wallace Chisolm, former state senator J. P. Gilmer, and two of Chisolm’s children.

Grasso's historical narrative is based in part on an extensive private archive of Chisolm family papers. The digital publication will feature thematic document clusters, enabling readers to explore a variety of primary sources, surfacing epistemological issues and the practice of historical interpretation.

Read the press release