Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation

Publish Date:27 May 2025

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Senior Fellow Zaakir Tameez published a landmark biography of Charles Sumner, the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856.

Zaakir Tameez’s compelling new book reintroduces Charles Sumner not just as the abolitionist caned on the Senate floor, but as a visionary statesman and one of the nation’s earliest champions of multiracial democracy and civil rights.

Drawing from rich historical sources, Tameez presents Sumner as a constitutional architect of Reconstruction and an overlooked figure in LGBTQ+ history—whose enduring legacy speaks powerfully to our current debates on race, equality, and justice.

Zaakir recently introduced his new book on the “Keen On” show with Andrew Keen:

Read Zaakir’s new book
  • Learn more about the book here, on sale from June 3rd, 2025.

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