Past Event: New York's Communities of Color and the Police: A Historical Perspective

This conversation was recorded on Wednesday, July 29. See the full event description below.

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Join us for a virtual discussion about how communities of color have experienced and responded to the police in twentieth-century New York.  Veteran TV journalist Carol Jenkins leads three distinguished professors of African-American history in a conversation about the complex roots of our city's (and nation's) ongoing crisis of policing, focusing on key moments from the 1920s through the 1980s. With LaShawn Harris (Michigan State), Carl Suddler (Emory), and Cheryl Hicks (University of Delaware).

About the Speakers:
LaShawn Harris is an Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University and Assistant Editor for the Journal of African American History (JAAH). Her area of expertise includes twentieth century African American and Black Women’s histories. Harris’s scholarly essays have appeared in the Journal of Social History and Journal of Urban History. Harris’s work has also been featured in popular media outlets, including TV-One, Glamour Magazine, Vice, and The Huffington Post.  Her first monograph Sex Workers, Psychics, and Number Runners: Black Women in New York City’s Underground Economy was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2016. Her second book project examines New York City black women and police violence during the 1980s.

Cheryl D. Hicks is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History at the University of Delaware. She holds a B.A. in American History from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in American History from Princeton University. Her research addresses the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the law. She has published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Journal of the History of Sexuality, and the Journal of African American History.  Her first book, Talk With You Like a Woman: African American Women, Justice, and Reform in New York, 1890-1935 (University of North Carolina Press, 2010) received the 2011 Letitia Woods Brown Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians.

Carl Suddler is an Assistant Professor of History at Emory University. His research interests lie at the intersections of youth, race, and crime in the United States. Suddler’s first book, Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York, was published by New York University Press in 2019. And his other works have appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as the Journal of American History, Journal of African American History, American Studies Journal, Journal of Sports History as well as op-eds for the Washington Post, The Conversation, HuffPost, Bleacher Report, and Brookings Institute.

Carol Jenkins (moderator) is an American women's rights and media activist and author. She is Co-President and CEO of The ERA Coalition and Fund for Women's Equality, comprised of more than 100 organizations across the country, representing millions of girls and women. An Emmy Award-winning former television journalist, she hosts the Emmy-nominated show, Black America, on CUNY TV and produced its award winning documentaries. In 2004, Jenkins was founding president of the Women’s Media Center, a nonprofit founded by Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, and Jane Fonda to increase the prominence of women in media. She was an anchor and correspondent for WNBC TV in New York for nearly 25 years. With her daughter, Elizabeth Gardner Hines, Jenkins is the co-author of the award winning Black Titan: A. G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire (2004).

Registrants will receive a Zoom link via the Museum's ticketing website after registering.