Author Archives: Doug Cumming

I was working for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, stuck in a little bureau in Johnston, R.I., when I typed out a two-page proposal for why a maniacal editor named Joel Rawson should send me to Atlanta to do a story on … Continue reading →

More than two years of Trump’s presidency have passed since I wrote this op-ed that ran in the Roanoke Times (Feb. 5, 2017). The only thing that is surprising about the last two years is that there are few surprises … Continue reading →

Louise Mikell is an 89-year-old black woman living in Lexington, Virginia. She graduated from Morgan State University in Baltimore and received her master’s in education from George Washington University. She is considered the “unofficial historian” of both the black community … Continue reading →

“An actual saint was in this place, think of that,” Col. Keith Gibson told fellow church members gathered in the new Jonathan M. Daniels Community Room underneath the sanctuary of Grace Episcopal Church. The Sunday dedication and blessing, Feb. 3, … Continue reading →

HISTORY DIVISION OF AEJMC ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 Submitted by Division Chair Douglas O. Cumming, June 9, 2018 1a. Division name: History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 1b. Current Officers Head/Program Chair Doug Cumming Washington … Continue reading →

History Division 2017 Business Meeting Minutes, Chicago (Printed in Clio Among the Media, Fall 2017, pp. 5-8) By Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas-Arlington Vice Chair/Research Chair Outgoing Chair Mike Sweeney (Ohio) called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. on … Continue reading →

A terrible premonition dawns on my Democratic friends: Their party could fail to win either the House or the Senate this November. An even darker vexation follows: Trump is re-elected in 2020 (after winning the Nobel Peace Prize). My wife, … Continue reading →

Last July on the Lower East Side of New York, I was draining the ice cubes of my second cocktail at Schiller’s Liquor Bar on Rivington Street when I fell into a trance. Rivington himself seemed conjured up from the … Continue reading →

Yes I guess the gate of heaven is everywhere. But you had to see on your cellphone in the dark that the train would be two hours late turning us three back home at exactly the right moment so that … Continue reading →

Confederate symbols in churches, especially Episcopal churches in Virginia and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., have followed a pattern of controversy parallel to, but distinct from, the civic battles over their removal from public spaces. In Episcopal churches directly … Continue reading →