Black Lives and Liberation

Black Lives Matter. What began as a Twitter hashtag after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin has since become a widely recognized rallying cry for Black being and resistance. The series aims are twofold: 1) to explore social justice and activism by Black individuals and communities throughout history to the present, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the evolving ways it is being articulated and practiced across the African Diaspora; and 2) to examine everyday life and culture, rectifying well-worn “histories” that have excluded or denied the contributions of Black individuals and communities or recast them as entirely white endeavors. Projects will draw from a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and will first and foremost be informed by “peopled” analyses, focusing on everyday actors and community folks.

Key Themes of the Series

Abolitionism
Race, gender, and sexuality
Intersectionality and Black liberation
Religion and secularism
Black radicalism and Black political thought
Popular culture and hip hop
Anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism
Haitian history, literature, and culture

Series Editors

Brandon Byrd is an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University and the author of The Black Republic: African Americans and the Fate of Haiti (University of Pennsylvania Press). Byrd also writes for Black Perspectives, the online publication of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), and serves on the AAIHS Executive Committee.

Zandria F. Robinson is an associate professor of African American studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of This Ain’t Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), Chocolate Cities (University of California Press, 2017), and the forthcoming Soul Power (University of North Carolina Press).

Christopher Cameron is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is the author of To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement (Kent State University Press, 2014), and is founder of the AAIHS.