Tuesday, Jan. 19
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Aoki Center and UC Davis History Department colloquium on Free People of Color: Race, Law and Freedom in the 19th and 20th Century U.S.
An Integral Portion of this Republic
This chapter explores the ways free black northerners used citizenship to protest their disfranchisement. Focusing largely on the struggle for voting rights in New York, I also examine efforts of activists in that state to connect with others across the North who faced similar restrictions. Together, these black Americans argued that their contributions to their communities made them citizens, and that citizenship must entail formal political rights. The chapter explores questions about the construction of citizen status as well as its uncertain relation to other ideals including freedom and equality.
Professor Christopher Bonner
Christopher Bonner teaches African American history at the University of Maryland, College Park. He published his first book, Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship, in March 2020. His work also appears in the collection New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition (2018) and at "Black Perspectives," the blog for the African American Intellectual History Society. He earned his B.A. from Howard University and Ph.D. from Yale University.
For more information, please contact Nina Marie Bell at nbell@ucdavis.edu