Why History Matters: The Creation of the Black/White Binary in the United States
Wednesday, January 13, 6:30 PM on Zoom
Join us as we welcome historian Christy Clark-Pujara, Associate Professor of Afro-American studies at UW-Madison, to present a lecture entitled "Why History Matters: The Creation of the Black/White Binary in the United States."
Why does race matter? Why is there such tension, division and disparities among racial groups in the United States of America, especially among white and black Americans? How and why did blackness and slavery become synonymous? How and why did a nation founded upon liberty and freedom perpetuate human bondage? What are the legacies of race-based slavery in America? These are a few of the questions explored in this talk.
Christy Clark-Pujara is a historian whose research focuses on the experiences of black people in French and British North America in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. She is particularly interested in retrieving the hidden and unexplored histories of African Americans in areas that historians have not sufficiently examined—-small towns and cities in the North and Midwest. She contends that the full dimensions of the African American and American experience cannot be appreciated without reference to how black people managed their lives in places where they were few.
To register for this thought-provoking program, please call the library, 608-798-3881 or email Kris at kloman [at] rgpl.org.
