Prof. Williams Joins Conversations in Black Freedom Studies Roundtable

Hettie V. Williams, Ph.D., associate professor of African American History in the Department of History and Anthropology, recently presented her work as part of the Conversations in Black Freedom Studies roundtable series presented by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. This month's event topic was "Freedom North: Civil Rights and Racial Justice in the Northeast and Midwest."

As part of the virtual event, Williams brought a feminist analysis to the Northern struggle in the discussion of her publication, "The Georgia of the North: Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey" (Rutgers University Press, 2024).

The book's historical narrative focuses on Black women and civil rights movement in New Jersey from the Great Migration to 1954. Williams specifically centers the book around the critical role played by Black women in forging interracial, cross-class, and cross-gender alliances at the local and national level and their role in securing the passage of progressive civil right legislation in the Garden State.

Additional presenters included Ashley Howard, Ph.D., professor of African American Studies at the University of Iowa; Michelle Adams, JD, Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan; and Brian Kwoba, Ph.D., associate professor of history and director of the African and African American Studies program at the University of Memphis.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem is one of The New York Public Library's renowned research libraries. A world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diasporic, and African experiences, the Schomburg stewards a collection of over 11 million items.

Watch the recording of the event below.