Dr. Keisha N. Blain, "Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement"

Dr. Blain highlights the significance of Black women’s political activism during the 1950s and 1960s
About this Event

The Institute for Common Power Presents:

"Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement"

Dr. Keisha N. Blain

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 1:00 pm PST / 4:00 pm EST

While mainstream historical narratives tend to focus on the political work of prominent men such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, Black women played instrumental roles in shaping the Civil Rights Movement. These women were community organizers and leaders, sustaining the movement as it grew from local communities into a national struggle. Black women, such as Ella Baker, Diana Nash, Jo Ann Robinson, and Fannie Lou Hamer, were central to the movement’s success. In this lecture, Dr. Blain highlights the significance of Black women’s political activism during the 1950s and 1960s and brings to light some of the challenges they encountered as women organizing in predominantly male-dominated spaces.

Biography

Dr. Keisha N. Blain is professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University. She is an historian of the 20th century United States with broad interests and specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She completed a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. Dr. Blain is a Guggenheim, Carnegie, and New America Fellow, and author—most recently of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America. Her next book—a sweeping history of human rights told through the ideas of Black women in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present—will be published by W.W. Norton in September 2025.