Conversations
Monthly roundtable discussions at the Schomburg Center
2026 FALL
Sep 3
Black Women and Biography
Ashley Farmer, Alison Parker, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Susana Morris
Oct 1
Black Power Internationalism
Martha Biondi, Akinyele Umoja, Sam Klug, Russell Rickford
Nov 5
Sports and the Black Freedom Struggle
Louis Moore, Derrick E. White, Gregory J. Kaliss, Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown
Dec 3
Music in the Black Revolution
Quito Swan, Soyica Diggs Colbert, Reiland Rabaka, Jibola Fagbamiye
2026 SPRING
Feb 5
Policing Blackness: Resisting Repression, Police Violence, and Surveillance
LaShawn Harris, Brittany Friedman, Aaron G. Fountain Jr., Joshua Clark Davis
Mar 5
Black Women and Resistance: Biography of a Life in Struggle
Yoruba Richen, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kenja McCray, Louis Massiah
Apr 2
Freedom North: Civil Rights and Racial Justice in the Northeast and Midwest
Ashley Howard, Michelle Adams, Hettie Williams, Brian Kwoba
May 7
Unequal Housing and Transportation: The Fight to Live and Move Freely
Rosemary Ndubuizu, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Deborah N. Archer, Mia Bay
2025 FALL
Sep 4
Malcolm X at 100
Erik McDuffie, Anna Malaika Tubbs, Patrick Parr, Najha Zigbi-Johnson
Oct 2
Black Arts, Black Spaces, and Black Performance
Julius B. Fleming Jr., Jo-Ann Morgan, Courtney Thorsson
Nov 6
The Fight for Black Education and Black History
Brian Jones, Jesse Hagopian, Crystal Sanders, Barry Goldenberg
Dec 4
Reflections on SNCC History: 30 years of Charles Payne’s I've got the Light of Freedom
Charles Payne, Emilye Crosby, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Charlie Cobb, Tess Raser
2025 SPRING
Feb 6
First Person: Writing Activist Lives from the Inside
Millicent E. Brown, Mike Africa Jr., David J. Dennis Sr., David J. Dennis Jr.
Mar 6
State Violence: Prisons, Police, Politics
Mary Phillips, Donna Murch, Françoise N. Hamlin, Orisanmi Burton
Apr 3
Kings for our Time: Revisiting Martin and Coretta Scott King
Jeanne Theoharis, Barbara Smith, Beverly Guy-Sheftall
May 1
A Century of Preserving Black Freedom: Libraries and Archives in the Tradition of Arturo Schomburg
Laura Helton, Vanessa K. Valdés, Ethelene Whitmire
2024 FALL
Sep 5
The Campus as Crucible of Struggle
Stefan Bradley, Danica Savonick, Barbara D. Savage, Brian Jones
Oct 3
Jim Crow North/Black Freedom Struggle Outside the South
Laura Warren Hill, Say Burgin, Ujju Aggarwal, Shannon King
Nov 7
Black History, Anticolonialism and Global Revolutions
Paula Marie Seniors, Quito Swan, Natanya Duncan, Monique Bedasse
Dec 5
Black Freedom Movement Women Biographies
Noliwe Rooks, Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Sonya Y. Ramsey, Ashley Robertson Preston
2024 SPRING
Feb 1
Before Brown
Matt Delmont, Margaret Burnham, Cookie Woolner, Dylan Penningroth
Mar 7
Black Women, Freedom Making, and the Long 1960s
Anastasia Curwood, Suzanne Cope, Christina Greene
Apr 4
Food, Life, and Leisure
Blair LM Kelley, Theresa Runstedtler, Bobby J. Smith II, Ava Purkiss
May 2
Educational Injustice and the Struggle for Liberatory Education
Leslie Alexander, Zebulon Vance Miletsky, Keith Mayes, Conor Tomas Reed
2023 FALL
Oct 5
Screening and discussion of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Yoruba Richen, Jeanne Theoharis, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine
Nov 2
The Politics of Political Repression
Charisse Burden-Stelly, Lerone Martin, Adam Elliott-Cooper
Dec 7
Financing Freedom: Black Women and Economic Self-Determination
Tanisha Ford, Shennette Garrett Scott, Crystal Moten
Jan 4
New Perspectives on the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Brandon Terry, Traci Parker
2023 SPRING
Mar 2
Ten Years of Conversations in Black Freedom Studies
Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi Woodard, Brian Jones
Apr 6
Writing Black Activist Lives
Shana Redmond, Dan Berger, Shanna Greene Benjamin, Patricia Romney
May 4
The politics of religion and the role of Black faith
Su'ad Abdul Khabeer, Melissa Ford, Todne Thomas
2022 FALL
Sep 1
Surviving Racial Terror: Lessons from Black Women's Lives
Keisha N. Blain, Treva Lindsey, Erica R. Edwards
Oct 6
From CPS to Dobbs to the Carceral System–What History Shows Us for Challenging Systems of Oppression Today
Anne Gray Fischer, Dorothy Roberts, Loretta Ross
Nov 3
Towards Justice and Holistic Health
Zakiya Luna, Steven William Thrasher, Dana-Ain Davis
Dec 1
Education for Liberation
Brian Jones, Michael Hines, Kabria Baumgartner, Christopher Bonastia
2022 SPRING
Feb 3
Black New York
Tammy L. Brown, Christopher Hayes, Ariella R. Rotramel, Paula Marie Seniors
Mar 3
Black Power Revisited
Robin Hayes, D'Weston Haywood, Edward Onaci, Monica White
Apr 7
Slavery, Capitalism, and Empire
Justene Edwards, Adom Getachew, Peter James Hudson, Daniel Immerwahr
May 5
Racism and Resistance in the Post Civil Rights Era
Carol Anderson, Elizabeth Hinton, Emily Hobson, Daniel Lucks
Jun 2
Films of Black Struggle
Cynthia Gordy Giwa, Tayo Giwa, Emma Francis Snyder
2021 FALL
Sep 2
Black Health: Medical Racism, Resistance, and Wellness
George Aumoithe, Deirdre Cooper Owens, Stephanie Y. Evans, Martin Summers
Oct 7
Understanding Policing and Surveillance in America
Daniel S. Chard, Victoria Law, Marisol LeBrón, Stuart Schrader
Nov 4
Education as a Practice of Freedom
Davarian Baldwin, Jarvis Givens, Jesse Hagopian, Elizabeth Todd-Breland
Dec 2
Radical Black, LGBTQ+ Feminist Lives
Moya Bailey, Laura Lovett, Barbara Smith, Emily Thuma
2021 SPRING
Feb 4
Civil Rights Legacies: Martin, Malcolm, Gwen, and Julian
Ashley Farmer, Pam Horowitz, Peniel Joseph
Mar 4
Black Women in History and Struggle
Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross, Jeanne Theoharis
Apr 1
Black and Red: Black Liberation and Socialism
Charisse Burden-Stelly, Robin D. G. Kelley, Barbara Smith
May 6
Sounds of Freedom: The Music of Black Liberation
Hanif Abdurraqib, Shana Redmond, Rickey Vincent
2020 FALL
Sep 3
How Did We Get Here?: The Long Struggle for Educational Justice in New York
Ujju Aggarwal, Ernest Morrell, Terrenda White
Oct 1
Fighting for the Franchise: A Century of Struggle for Voting Rights
Carol Anderson, Ari Berman, Martha Jones, Reverend Liz Theoharis
Nov 5
Histories of Multiracial Solidarity and Struggle
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Johanna Fernandez, Paul Ortiz
Dec 3
Resisting Carceral Cities: Prisons, Police, and Punishment in Historical Perspective
Garrett Felber, Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Carl Suddler
2020 SPRING
Feb 6
Housing Discrimination in the Jim Crow US and the Case for Reparations
Nathan Connolly, Beryl Satter, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Mar 5
The Long Struggle Against Educational Injustice
Rachel Devlin, Devin Fergus, Elizabeth Gillespie McRae
Apr 2
Radical Black Queer and Feminist Lives (Cancelled due to Covid Crisis)
Saidiya Hartman, Imani Perry, Barbara Smith
May 7
The Poor People's Campaign, the Young Lords, and Black, Brown, Yellow, White, and Red Organizing (Cancelled due to Covid Crisis)
Johanna Fernandez, Paul Ortiz, Reverend Liz Theoharis
2019 FALL
Sep 5
Stop Killer Cops: Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, and the Liberal Establishment
Max Felker-Kantor, LaShawn Harris, Naomi Murakawa
Oct 3
Rap Brown, Police Repression, and the Torture Machine
Simon Balto, Arun Kundnani, Flint Taylor
Nov 7
The Black Revolution on Campus
John Bracey, Jr., Stefan Bradley, Shirletta Kinchen
Dec 5
The Black Athlete in the Freedom Struggle
Louis Moore, Wyomia Tyus, Dave Zirin
2019 SPRING
Feb 7
Rethinking Black Women Freedom Fighters Gloria Richardson, Louise Thompson Patterson, and the Women of the Nation of Islam
Joseph R. Fitzgerald, Keith Gilyard, Ula Taylor
Mar 7
Radical Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
Barbara Ransby, Barbara Smith, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Apr 4
Black Women's Internationalism
Keisha N. Blain, Ashley Farmer, John Portlock
May 2
The Struggle Against Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, and Educational Discrimination in the Jim Crow North
Kristopher Burrell, James Forman, Clarence Taylor
2018 FALL
Sep 6
Black Health and Community Activism
Dr. Julius Garvey, Gabriel Mendes, Alondra Nelson
Oct 4
Rethinking H. Rap Brown and Black Power
Arun Kundnani, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Akinyele Umoja
Nov 1
The Struggle for Voting Rights and the Poor People's Campaign
Reverend William Barber, Gloria Browne-Marshall, Reverend Liz Theoharis
Dec 6
Black Politics and the Struggle for Justice in Sports
Howard Bryant, Amira Rose Davis, Randy Roberts, Toni Smith-Thompson
2018 SPRING
Feb 1
Black Resistance to Trump Tyranny
Haki Madhubuti, Noliwe Rooks, Michael Simanga
Mar 1
Revisiting the Uprisings of the 1960s
Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin, Laura Warren Hill, Peter Levy, Rosie Uyola
Apr 5
50 Years After the Assassination of Martin Luther King
Mary Frances Berry, Thomas Jackson, David Stein, Jeanne Theoharis
May 3
Abolitionism and Slave Resistance
Sowande' Mustakeem, Manisha Sinha, Sasha Turner
2017 FALL
Sep 7
Fifty Years After the Newark and Detroit Uprisings
Say Burgin, Mark Krasovic, Junius Williams
Oct 5
The Fannie Lou Hamer Centennial and Black Women's Organizing Traditions
Katherine Charron, Ashley Farmer, Charles Payne, Gloria Richardson
Nov 2
The Black Freedom Struggle and the Strange Career of Jim Crow New York
Tahir Butt, Brian Purnell, Christopher Tinson
Dec 7
The Black Freedom Struggle and the Strange Career of Jim Crow in the Midwest
Keona Ervin, Nishani Frazier, Patrick Jones
2017 SPRING
Feb 2
Black Power at 50
Jamala Rogers, Mark Speltz, Stephen Ward, Komozi Woodard
Mar 2
Intersectional Black Panther History Project
Angela LeBlanc-Ernest, Tracye Matthews, Mary Phillips, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine
Apr 6
Black Athletes and the Freedom Struggle
Jennifer H. Lansbury, Johnny Smith
May 4
The Long Fight Against New York's Police Brutality
Michael Flamm, Christopher Hayes, Cathy Schneider, Clarence Taylor
2016 FALL
Sep 1
Black Women and the Criminal Justice System
Keisha N. Blain, Sarah Haley, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Oct 6
Northern Organizing and Cultural Renaissance
Deborah Cullen-Morales, Erik Gellman, Anne Knupfer, Yasmin Ramirez
Nov 3
The War on Poverty at 50
Elizabeth Hinton, Alejandra Marchevsky, Crystal Sanders
Dec 1
Honoring the Legacy of Black Women Radicals Gloria Richardson and Mae Mallory
Ashley Farmer, Joseph R. Fitzgerald, Gloria Richardson
2016 SPRING
Feb 4
Black Power and Political Repression
Kenneth Janken, Erik McDuffie, Rhonda Williams
Mar 3
Women in the Black Panther Party
Ericka Huggins, Mary Phillips, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine
Apr 7
The Church and the Struggle
Kevin McGruder, Genna Rae McNeil, Jennifer Scanlon
May 5
Educational Injustice and Organizing
Matt Delmont, Ansley T. Erickson, Carla Shedd
Jun 2
The Struggle against Racism and Repression
Aram Goudsouzian, Aldon Morris, Caleb Smith
2015 FALL
Sep 3
Fallen Freedom Fighters: An Evening commemorating the lives of Maya Angelou, Chokwe Lumumba, General Baker, Thelma Dale and Amiri Baraka
Dayo Gore, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Akinyele Umoja, Komozi Woodard
Oct 1
The Young Lords Party, Part I
Johanna Fernandez, Jose Cha-Cha Jimenez, Felipe Luciano, Wilson Valentín-Escobar
Nov 5
Protest, Women and Performance
Ruth Feldstein, Tanisha Ford, Sherie Randolph
Dec 3
Problems with History of Racial Policing in NYC
Mary Frances Berry, LaShawn Harris, Shannon King
2015 SPRING
Feb 5
50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X: Malcolm X and Black Radical Women
Rosemari Mealy, Gloria Richardson, Komozi Woodard
Mar 5
Race and the Criminal Justice System: Political Prisoners, Resistance, and Mass Incarceration Part I
Dan Berger, Victoria Law, Bryan Stevenson
Apr 2
Race and the Criminal Justice System: Political Prisoners, Resistance, and Mass Incarceration Part II
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Arun Kundnani, Laura Whitehorn
May 7
Black and Brown Coalitions
Johanna Fernandez, Sonia Lee, Alejandra Marchevsky, Fred Opie
2014 FALL
Sep 4
The Urban Crisis: An Unfinished Agenda
Robert Curvin, Clarence Taylor, Junius Williams
Oct 2
Education for Liberation and Freedom Schooling
Ujju Aggarwal, Nicole Burrowes, Charles Payne, Brian Purnell
Nov 6
The Political Life and Legacy of Shirley Chisholm
Zinga Fraser, Barbara Winslow
Dec 4
Building Cooperative Economics and Movement Community Institutions
Laura Warren Hill, Alondra Nelson, Jessica Gordon Nembhard
2014 SPRING
Feb 6
Slavery, White Supremacy, and Struggle in American Education
Ansley T. Erickson, Jonna Perrillo, Craig Steven Wilder
Mar 6
Sisters in the Struggle: Sustaining Black Women’ Emancipation from Racism, Sexism and Violence
Emilye Crosby, Mary Phillips, Sherie Randolph, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine
Apr 3
The Jim Crow North and the Global History of Segregated Cities
Karen Miller, Carl Nightingale
May 1
The Biography of Global Black Power Politics: Stokely Carmichael and Walter Rodney
Peniel Joseph, Gloria Richardson, Michael West
2013 FALL
Sep 5
The Roots of Harlem Radicalism and Garveyism
Jeffrey Perry, Mary Rolinson, William Seraile
Oct 3
The Blues People 50 Years Later
Amiri Baraka, Ingrid Monson, John Szwed
Nov 7
The War on Poverty and The Struggle for Welfare Rights
Susan Youngblood Ashmore, Premilla Nadasen, Annelise Orleck
Dec 5
Black Power TV
Madeline Anderson, Devorah Heitner
2013 SPRING
Mar 7
The Black Panther Party: Oakland and Chicago
Donna Murch, Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Jakobi Williams
Apr 4
The Economics of Black Power
David Goldberg, Laura Warren Hill, Julia Rabig
May 2
Freedom North: The Black Freedom Struggle in New York
Brian Purnell, Clarence Taylor
Jun 6
Black Radical Internationalism
Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Akinyele Umoja, Michael West
Jul 19
Honoring the Legacies of Rosa Parks and Eslanda Robeson
Mary Frances Berry, Barbara Ransby, Jeanne Theoharis
