Boston Book Festival

Black resistance, black politics, and the work of democracy will be the focus of this conversation between four distinguished scholars.  Wellesley professor and co-host of the podcast This Day in Esoteric History, Kellie Carter Jackson highlights the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women, in We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance.  Art and cultural historian Sarah Lewis, author of The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America, explores the myth of whiteness and the many ways that American culture has taught people not to see, in order to preserve the lies that support racism and to maintain the country’s racial hierarchies. The multi-talented Thulani Davis, in The Emancipation Circuit, offers a deep look at how the four million newly freed slaves created community networks and political organizations to defend freedom and show how these circuits of freedom were the bedrock of the first mass political movement for equal citizenship in the United States. Princeton University professor and frequent MSNBC contributor Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. in his book We are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For argues that Black Americans must step out from under the shadows of past giants to be the heroes that our democracy urgently requires. Noelle Trent, President and CEO of the Museum of African American History, will moderate. This session is sponsored by the Museum of African American History and the Stone Foundation.