“This week on Elevations, we interview author Gordon H. Shufelt on his new book The Uncommon Case of Daniel Brown: How a White Police Officer Was Convicted of Killing a Black Citizen, Baltimore, 1875.”

Listen to the interview

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“This meticulous description of the 1875 trial and unlikely conviction of a Baltimore policeman of Irish immigrant heritage for killing an unarmed African American worker on the doorstep of the man’s own home following a complaint about excessive noise, and the imposition of a negligible prison sentence, has a hauntingly contemporary ring. George Shufelt’s masterful presentation of the social and political context in which the shooting and trial occur offers scholars, activists, and advocates historical perspective on the racial, ethnic, and class divisions that are the perennials of the American experience.”
      —Alan M. Kraut, Distinguished Professor of History, American University,