{"id":516,"date":"2008-02-20T11:26:04","date_gmt":"2008-02-20T17:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=516"},"modified":"2014-09-23T09:24:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T14:24:42","slug":"alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum’s Debut Book Reveals Untold African-American History of Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"alumbook.jpg\"OXFORD, Miss. – Every day, tour buses crisscross
\nWashington, D.C., showing visitors the usual sights – the
\nNational Mall, the White House and the U.S. Capitol
\nBuilding. Aboard those buses, tour guides dole out
\ninteresting facts about our nation’s capital.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nBut one expert on the city’s history says that while none
\nof those facts are wrong, there’s also much more to the
\nstory.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nLike how the National Mall was once the largest slave
\nmarket in the city. Or that the second child ever born in
\nthe White House was black.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThese and other lesser known but important facts can be
\nfound in “Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering
\nAfrican-American History In and Around Washington, D.C.”
\n(Globe Pequot, 2007), the debut book by University of
\nMississippi alumnus Jesse J. Holland.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nHolland plans to speak about his book at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26
\nat the Southeast Neighborhood Library in Washington. The
\nbook doesn’t rewrite history; it expands on it, he said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“As America matures, we want to know the full story, not
\njust the ‘George Washington chopped down the cherry tree
\nstory.'” said Holland, a veteran political reporter who
\ncovers the U.S. Congress for the Associated Press. “I don’t
\nsay that what you know is wrong. But what I do say is that
\nthere are some other things you don’t know.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nGiven his day job, one might expect the Holly Springs
\nnative to tackle a politically themed book as his first
\nproject. That, combined with the fact that he’s not from
\nWashington, has prompted many to ask: Why did he write the
\nbook?
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“There were some D.C. natives who wanted to know why a
\nnon-native would tackle this,” Holland said. “I jokingly
\nrespond, ‘Because nobody else did.’ But it’s deeper than
\nthat.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“When I moved to D.C., I did all the historical tours, and
\nI’d see different artifacts featuring African Americans – a
\npainting in the Capitol, a statue in Lincoln Park. But
\nthere was no single volume that laid it all out,” Holland
\nsaid. “I figured that I couldn’t be the only one who
\nwanted to know these things.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nFor about a year, he researched his book all over
\nWashington, visiting various historical sites and poring
\nthrough tons of information at the Library of Congress and
\nthe National Archives. “Like anyone who learns something
\nnew, I wanted to share what I found with others,” Holland
\nsaid. “That’s how the book took form.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd how do others feel about “Black Men Built The Capitol?”
\nHolland said the book is about to enter its fourth printing
\nsince its release last fall, and the feedback he’s gotten
\nhas left him “flabbergasted.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“To tell the truth, I didn’t know what type of reaction I’d
\nget,” Holland said. “But people are responding really well.
\nOf course, it resonates particularly well with African
\nAmericans, but I’ve also had readers from all backgrounds
\nwho appreciate learning these untold stories of American
\nhistory.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nAs a political reporter, he expects to be extremely busy
\nthis election season, but he’s working on other writing
\nprojects, including books and screenplays. He lives in
\nWashington with his wife, Carol, and infant daughter Rita.
\nAs an undergraduate at UM, Holland was a part of history
\nhimself, as the second African-American to be editor of The
\nDaily Mississippian. He credits his experiences at UM for
\nsetting him on his current path.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“Much of my interest in history and journalism came from my
\ntraining at Ole Miss,” he said. “This book wouldn’t exist
\nwithout the support of a lot of people at Ole Miss.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nFor more about Holland, including scheduled appearances in
\nthe Washington Metro area, visit
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nwww.jessejholland.com<\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. – Every day, tour buses crisscross Washington, D.C., showing visitors the usual sights – the National Mall, the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building. Aboard those buses, tour guides dole out interesting facts about our nation’s capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlum's Debut Book Reveals Untold African-American History of Washington - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alum's Debut Book Reveals Untold African-American History of Washington - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. – Every day, tour buses crisscross Washington, D.C., showing visitors the usual sights – the National Mall, the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building. Aboard those buses, tour guides dole out interesting facts about our nation’s capital.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T14:24:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/wp-content\/uploads\/stories\/alumbook.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/wp-content\/uploads\/stories\/alumbook.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/\",\"name\":\"Alum's Debut Book Reveals Untold African-American History of Washington - Ole Miss News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-23T14:24:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alums-debut-book-reveals-untold-african-american-history-of-washington\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e8e7562bf6d779d771ad8ce4cecd7ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42902,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/42902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}