KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Jan. 13, 2022 \u2013 In the violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, D.C., Marcus Nevius saw a call to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think today we engage in our democratic processes \u2013 voting or running for office \u2013 while taking for granted that our political institutions will always endure in the forms we know,\u201d says the äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ associate professor of history and Africana studies. \u201cBut historically, and in the present, democracy requires vigilance, and requires respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevius, an author and historian, recently served as one of the experts on the PBS documentary \u201cPreserving Democracy: Pursuing a More Perfect Union.\u201d The film explores U.S. democracy from the American Revolution to the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol that attempted to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a lineup of historians, political experts, activists, and journalists, the two-hour film provides a historical backdrop to the United States\u2019 250-year-old \u201cgrand experiment\u201d with democracy and an encourages people to think critically about their role in preserving it. Along the way, the film investigates U.S. democracy\u2019s ideals and flaws, the cycles of civil rights progress and backlash, shifting voter rights and rules and the role of civics curricula in creating engaged and informed citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An expert on slavery and African Americans in the early U.S. republic, Nevius contributed to the film\u2019s discussion of the U.S. in the 1850s, when continued compromises that allowed slavery to grow with the country exploded into bloody feuds between pro- and anti-slavery forces \u2013 both around the country and in the halls of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese struggles had deep roots in U.S. and Atlantic world imperial and colonial contexts, reaching back to the earliest years of colonization in the 1500s,\u201d Nevius says. \u201cThe republican democracies that emerged in the late 18th century inherited the problem of slavery, and its attendant polarizing politics. That Kansas bled in the 1850s \u2026 or that blood was drawn in the U.S. Congress \u2013 these were but stages in a much broader historical drama centered on slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevius, who holds bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in history from North Carolina Central University and a Ph.D. in history from The Ohio State University, is the author of \u201cCity of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763-1856.\u201d His work has also been published in the William & Mary Quarterly, the Journal of African American History, the Journal of Southern History, H-Net Civil War, and History Compass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He became involved with the PBS project after a fellow historian, Alexis Coe, mentioned his work to producer Matt Spolar of Retro Report, one of the production companies working with PBS on the documentary. In the documentary, Nevius joins a robust list of experts, including historians from institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Georgetown universities, national journalists and former high-ranking government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThough we were interviewed in different locations and at different times, it has been humbling to share space with intelligent luminaries like Professor Jelani Cobb, Valerie Jarrett, Professor Joanne Freeman, Professor Eric Foner and others whose life’s work has contributed so much to preserving democracy and toward forging a more perfect union of the United States,\u201d says Nevius. \u201cThis is all too important work that is a validation of my own studies, to be sure, but may also reach a new generation of Americans who may see in me a new voice, a new sort of representation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its final form, Nevius says, the documentary is well produced and features a strong diversity of experts, all with a common interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat common interest is a fundamentally important lesson about our nation\u2019s history, our nation\u2019s present, our nation\u2019s future: democracy is fragile, and requires a well-educated, vigilant, fully-enfranchised citizenry to sustain,\u201d he says. \u201cThe insurrection of January 6, 2021, demonstrated just how forcefully a fragile democracy might be threatened and deposed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recognizing that threat is the first step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis isn’t necessarily a call to arms, but a call to action,\u201d he says. \u201cThat action begins with valuing an education in the issues, their historical roots and their contemporary forms, such that we are inspired to act in the best interests of one another, of state, of nation, of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n