Event Description
Even when they embody everything the nation claims to respect, African Americans cannot count on being treated like citizens. Simply consider the black soldiers and nurses who served in the Civil War, WWI, and WWII only to be disfranchised and denigrated … or consider the Ivy League-educated constitutional lawyer who rose to the office of president only to face demands that he “show his papers,” his birth certificate and academic transcripts. Though their success will not likely bring them the safety and respectability it should, African Americans seem to cling to all that purportedly makes one an ideal citizen, including the heteronormative nuclear family and its traditional household. What does this pattern of investing against the odds reveal about African American culture? The short answer: homemade citizenship.
Please register in advance for this Zoom presentation:
https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUpfuqtqz4sGtJEyuHUt4hIY_c7r1JfIzQu
Purchase Professor Mitchell's book here. Use Promo Code F20UIP for a 30% discount (expires December 30, 2021).
Hosted by: University of Illinois Press
In conjunction with: African American Research Center, College of Education, Department of African American Studies, Department of English, Department of Gender & Women's Studies, Department of History, Department of Theatre, Humanities Research Institute, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research