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How the Past Echoes in the Protests: A Historian’s Recommended Reads

Keisha N. Blain shares works from Black writers examining the past, present, and future purpose of Black protest.

Keisha N. Blain

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

In the months since the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and George Floyd, marches against racism and police brutality have swept the United States and cities around the world. To help make sense of this movement, award-winning historian Keisha N. Blain offers this curated collection of articles by Black writers on the history of Black protest, the legacy of state violence, and why these demonstrations might yet be different.

In 1919, the State Failed to Protect Black Americans. A Century Later, It’s Still Failing.

There is something so wounded in American society that basic commitment to justice is not part of the operating code.

The Double Standard of the American Riot

The nationwide protests against police killings have been called un-American by critics, but rebellion has always been used to defend liberty.

Violence in Minneapolis Is Rooted in the History of Racist Policing in America

Police violence against African Americans has persisted for centuries.

Why Are Black Women and Girls Still an Afterthought in Our Outrage Over Police Violence?

In a country reeling from being involuntary witnesses to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Breonna Taylor’s death does not fit the spectacular forms of police killing that we have come to associate with America’s nefarious lynching past.

We Are Living in a Red Spring

In the Red Summer of 1919, racist violence hit America as the Spanish flu ravaged the country. With mass protests against police murders sweeping the pandemic-plagued United States, it appears we might be now living in a Red Spring.

The Minneapolis Uprising in Context

A proper understanding of urban rebellion depends on our ability to interpret it not as a wave of criminality, but as political violence.

The American Nightmare

To be Black and conscious of anti-Black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction.

How Cities Offload the Cost of Police Brutality

Cities spend tens of millions of dollars on lawsuits over police violence and killings. But municipalities are effectively using residents to mortgage the cost.

We Should Be Afraid, But Not of Protesters

The rage on display in Minneapolis is not only about police violence. It is also about the country’s utter disregard for the pain of Black Americans.

Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People.

The collapse of politics and governance leaves no other option.

Keisha N. Blain

Keisha N. Blain is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and author of the multi-prize-winning book, Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). Blain is currently a 2019-2020 W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow in the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Follow her on Twitter @KeishaBlain.