Conversations in BlackFreedom Studies (CBFS) is a monthly discussion series held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Curated by Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, the series was established as a space to discuss the latest scholarship in Blackfreedom studies, bringing the campus and community together as scholars and activists challenge the older geography, leadership, ideology, culture, and chronology of Civil Rights historiography. In anticipation of the planned discussion on The Struggle Against Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, and Educational Discrimination in the Jim Crow North on May 2nd, we are highlighting the scholarship of two of their guests.

Dr. Clarence Taylor was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College, and his MA from New York University. While teaching in the New York City public school system, he pursued his doctorate in history at Graduate School of the City University of New York. In 1991, he received his PhD in American history and began teaching at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. Professor Taylor’s research interests are the modern civil rights and Black power movements, African-American religion, and the modern history of New York City. He is the author and editor of several books including, The Black Churches of Brooklyn from the 19th Century to the Civil Rights Era, Knocking At Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools, Black Religious Intellectuals: The Fight for Equality from Jim Crow to the 21st Century, Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the Giuliani Era, and Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights and the New York City Teachers Union. His latest book is Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City. He is Professor Emeritus in history at Baruch College, CUNY.

Dr. Kristopher Burrell is an Assistant Professor of History at Hostos Community College. He earned his doctorate in U. S. History from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2011. His research interests include the civil rights movement in New York City and twentieth century African American intellectual history. Dr. Burrell published “Where From Here? Ideological Perspectives on the Future of the Civil Rights Movement, 1964-1966” in the Western Journal of Black Studies and has just published a chapter titled, “Black Women as Activist Intellectuals: Ella Baker and Mae Mallory Combat Northern Jim Crow in New York City’s Public Schools during the 1950s” in The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North: Segregation and Struggle outside of the South.Dr. Burrell is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled, Outsmarting Racism: New York’s Black Intellectuals and Theorizing Northern Racism, 1945-1968. He is proud to have been born and raised in Harlem, New York.

To see the full interview, please visit Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS).

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