When Black communities across the United States went up in flames in the 1960s, Midwest cities, where racial inequity was endemic, were among those most likely to burn. In her book, Midwest Unrest Howard explores those rebellions, paying particular attention to the ways that region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people’s resistance to racialized oppression. In her Floating Friday presentation, she will discuss how multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, scholars, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives.

The Department of American Studies will host as series of research presentations by a faculty member, recent Department PhD, or American Studies graduate students. As experts and emerging scholars in fields devoted to the study of American culture in the U.S. and globally, we invite students and scholars, at any stage of research, to attend and participate in discussions of the core issues and challenges of our time.