About
Sheila Curran Bernard is the Glen Trotiner Professor of Visual Storytelling in the Department of History at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her most recent publication is "Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies" (Cambridge University Press, 2024), the untold story of an American musical legend — a performer, cowboy, farmer, and activist — and a powerful case study of crime, punishment, and systemic racism in Jim Crow America.
Bernard is best known as an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker with credits on nearly 50 hours of prime-time broadcast, theatrical, and giant screen programming, including the acclaimed theatrical documentary "Slavery by Another Name." She is also the author of "Documentary Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction on Screen," now in its fifth edition (Focal Press/Routledge, 2022), and with Kenn Rabin, "Archival Storytelling: Finding, Using, and Licensing Third Party Visuals and Music," now in its second edition (Focal Press/Routledge 2020).
Featured Work
Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies (Cambridge University Press); trade book
The untold story of an American musical icon — and a case study in crime, punishment, and systemic racism during the Jim Crow era.
Known worldwide as Lead Belly, Huddie Ledbetter (1889–1949) is an American icon whose influence on modern music was tremendous – as was, according to legend, the temper that landed him in two of the South's most brutal prisons, while his immense talent twice won him pardons. But, as this deeply researched book shows, these stories were shaped by the white folklorists who 'discovered' Lead Belly and, along with reporters, recording executives, and radio and film producers, introduced him to audiences beyond the South.
Through a revelatory examination of arrest, trial, and prison records; sharecropping reports; oral histories; newspaper articles; and more, author Sheila Curran Bernard replaces myth with fact, offering a stunning indictment of systemic racism in the Jim Crow era of the United States and the power of narrative to erase and distort the past.
Cambridge University Press (use code BJD25 for a 20% discount) - $24-$27
