In honor of the Juneteenth Holiday Programming, join us as author Kellie Carter Jackson discusses her new book: We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance.
Register to attend the discussion of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. Black history is a history of refusal. From the moment slave ships left the coast of Africa for a new world, Black people have found ways to resist the oppressive rule of their white captors.
The breadth of Black resistance to white violence includes revolution, protection, force, flight, and even joy.
This will be a 45 minute conversation followed by Q&A, and book signing. First fifty registrants of the event will receive a complimentary book courtesy of the DC Public Library Foundation. You can learn more about the book and author below.
For reasonable accommodations, please contact the Center for Accessibility at 202-727-2142 or DCPLaccess@dc.gov. For ASL or tactile interpretation, please allow at least seven (7) days notice.
In WE REFUSE: A Forceful History of Black Resistance historian Kellie Carter Jackson explores the myriad of ways that Black people—particularly Black women—have pursued free and full lives by refusing white dominion over their mind, body, and soul. Carter Jackson rejects the false dichotomy that pits Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s principles of nonviolence against Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary” approach, and which discounts the many radical economic, political, and social forms of Black resistance. A national fixation on nonviolence, and dismissal of “Black violence” as illegitimate, is itself a manifestation of white supremacy; it upholds a status quo that advantages white people and ignores the original violence of structural racism.
Ultimately hopeful, WE REFUSE is a love letter to the resiliency of Black people and an invitation to those invested in the work of liberation.
Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Her book Force and Freedom was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Museum of African American History Stone Book Award.
Marcia Chatelain is the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. As a historian and active public speaker, Chatelain has received awards and honors from the Ford Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. During her twelve years at Georgetown University, Chatelain won several awards for her teaching and university service. Chatelain has received numerous awards, including the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Juneteenth | Author Talk |