Announcing the Fall 2026 Conversations in Black Freedom Studies Season!

Please join us for the Fall 2026 season of Conversations in Black Freedom Studies! All the events in the series are free and open to the public. The events will take place online on the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 PM and recordings of all our events are available on the Schomburg Center’s youtube page.

The season begins on September 3rd with a discussion about Black women and biographical writing. Ashley D. Farmer will present on Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, whose long life in struggle shaped the politics of the Black Power Movement. Alison M. Parker will discuss Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell, a deep exploration of of Terrel’s life as a civil rights activist, educator, and suffragist.Susana M. Morris, author of Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler, will share her new work on the world-building Black feminist sci-fi writer. Elizabeth Todd-Breland will present on I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education, which she co-authored with the late labor organizer Karen Lewis, whose bold leadership transformed the Chicago Teachers Union and the US labor movement.

The season continues on October 1st with a panel on Black power internationalism. Martha Biondi, author of We Are Internationalists: Prexy Nesbitt and the Fight for African Liberation, will discuss Nesbitt’s life in struggle in Chicago and beyond. Russell Rickford will present on A Proxy Africa: Guyana, African Americans, and the Radical 1970s, illuminating the struggles in an often overlooked site of Black Power militancy. Sam Klug, author of The Internal Colony: Race and the American Politics of Global Decolonization, will draw out the threads of solidarity between Black freedom struggles in the US and anti-colonial liberation movements abroad. Akinyele Umoja will discuss The Memoirs of Robert and Mabel Williams: African American Freedom, Armed Resistance, and International Solidarity, a recently published volume from two pivotal Black Power organizers whose lives connected the US Black Freedom struggle to China and Cuba.

The season continues on November 5th with an event focused on sports and the Black Freedom Movement. Gregory J. Kaliss will present on Beyond the Black Power Salute: Athlete Activism in an Era of Change, illuminating stories of athletes who transformed the arena of sports into a site of political struggle. Louis Moore will discuss The Great Black Hope: Doug Williams, Vince Evans and the Making of the Black Quarterback, a dual biography of two Black quarterbacks and their navigation of racism in professional football. Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown, author of Say Her Name: Centering Black Feminism and Black Women in Sport, offers an important Black feminist intervention in the study of sports history. Derrick E. White will present on Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football, rooting our discussion of sports and the freedom struggle in the fascinating institutional context of HBCUs.

The season concludes on December 3rd with an evening focused on revolutionary music. Reiland Rabaka, author of Black Women’s Liberation Movement Music: Soul Sisters, Black Feminist Funksters, and Afro-Disco Divas will discuss the Black women who created the sounds of liberation struggles. Quito Swan will present on Born a Sufferah: Dancehall Music’s Insurgent Soundscapes, incisively reimagining the internationalist, diasporic, and decolonial politics of dancehall music. Jibola Fagbamiye, co-author with Conor McCreery of Fela: Music is a Weapon, will discuss the Afrobeats and political struggles in Nigeria. Soyica Diggs Colbert will present on Freedom’s Gate: Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, & Nina Simone, illuminating the entangled lives of five foundational cultural workers and freedom fighters.