Free People of Color Lecture Series, co-presented by History Department, continues Tuesday

The Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies and the UC Davis Department of History are co-hosts of The Free People of Color Lecture Series, which runs through April.

The series explores the rights of people of color in the United States following the Civil War, and investigates how that history continues to shape our thinking today.

The series kicked off Jan. 19 with a talk by University of Maryland, College Park Professor Christopher Bonner titled “An Integral Portion of this Republic.” Bonner discussed how free Black Northerners used citizenship to protest their disenfranchisement.

At noon on Tuesday, Jan. 26, Northwestern University Professor Kate Masur will deliver a talk titled “The Rights of the Citizens of Massachusetts: African American Sailors in Southern Ports of the 1830s.”

The series will offer 10 more talks from scholars from across the country before concluding April 27 with a lecture by UC Davis Law Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin, whose expertise includes immigration law and policy, race and law and civil rights.