Kevin Mumford is a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches African American history, civil rights, and the history of sexuality. His research looks at long-term social inequalities and the dynamics of oppression and resistance in cities. He is author of Interzones: Black/White Sex Districts in Chicago and New York in the Early Twentieth Century (1997), Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America (2007) and Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men From the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis (2016).
Is race a physical reality or a cultural category? A site of oppression or a source of belonging? What are the prospects for an end to racism? This lecture examines key debates over the meanings of race and racism from the colonial era to the present in order to consider new strategies and pathways for a future of racial justice
