INTRODUCTION
When teaching history, one of my most gratifying occurrences is when our students have that “ah-ha” moment—a moment when they have discovered their critical voice in understanding historical moments. In my classes, I stress that students embrace personal perspectives that speak to their worldviews. I challenge the consumer education model my students have often inherited in high school and offer a participatory alternative. While this approach demands more of students, they quickly grasp the benefits in the acquisition of new skills, stronger relationships, and greater decision-making power. Getting students to participate by their general comments or asking relevant questions has been an important by-product of this model.
Education & Training
University of Illinois PhD
Publications
"A Revolution in Labor: African Americans and Hybrid Labor Activism in Illinois during the Early Jim Crow Era"
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (Summer/Fall 2022), Volume 115, Numbers 2-3
“‘We Demand an Equal Show upon Matters Affecting Our Industrial Welfare’: Black Manhood and Labor Activism in Early Jim Crow Illinois” in Reimagining Black Masculinities and Public Space: Essays on Race, Gender and Social Activism, eds., Mark Hopson and Mika’il Petin, Lexington Books
Frequently Taught Courses
HIS 3750 African American History
HIS 3810 Illinois History
HIS 4775Z The Black Freedom Movement
Research & Creative Interests
My research focuses on African American history in the Midwest during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the general history of race and ethnicity in the United States. Specifically, I research African American labor history in Illinois in conjunction with the larger labor movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
My current book project, Relegated to the Bottom: Illinois African American Workers and their Struggle against Systematic Oppression during the Early Jim Crow Era (working title) is a multifaceted examination of African Americans in Illinois prior to the Great Migration of the twentieth century. This examination explores the type of labor Illinois African Americans procured during the early Jim Crow era (1877 to 1914).