March 10, 2021 – Antiracism and the Struggle for American Democracy

Wednesday, March 10, 2:30 PM

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, will speak to the central question asked by our series: Is This What Democracy Looks Like? Speaking as a historian who writes frequently on the intersections of race, democracy, and inequality in American history, Muhammad is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness (Harvard) and is a frequent contributor to such periodicals as the Nation, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, among others. See Faculty Resources – Public for Democracy Series readings to access selected articles.

Register in Advance

This lecture considers the long history of freedom struggles among African Americans to achieve a multiracial democracy in search of meaningful patterns about what might come next. In light of the dramatic events of the past twelve years, with the historic election of the first Black president followed by Donald Trump, one of the most anti-democratic and pro-white supremacist Presidents since the end of slavery, what lessons should we draw from US history in consideration of the way forward as a nation.

Introduction of Speaker:

Leslie Wilson, professor of history

Moderator:

Emily Isaacs, executive director, Office for Faculty Advancement

Furthering the Conversation: Strickland and Muhammad

Historian Dr. Jeff Strickland will join Dr. Muhammad on the virtual stage to further the conversation.  Dr. Strickland, professor of history, is the author of Unequal Freedoms: Race, Ethnicity, and White Supremacy in Civil War-Era Charleston and the forthcoming All for Liberty: The Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion of 1849. He teaches courses on Race, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.  Respondents who have questions for Dr. Muhammad should forward those to Dr. Strickland in advance of the talk; while all will not be included, these contributions will inform Dr. Strickland’s understanding of the audience’s perspective.

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