Humanities on the Hill:

Martha S. Jones

Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor

Professor of History

Professor at the SNF Agora Institute

Director of Graduate Studies

I am a historian, writer, and commentator who focuses on how black Americans have shaped the history of American democracy. This theme runs through my scholarship, commentary and creative projects.

My latest book is The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir, coming from Basic Books in March 2025. My other books include a prize-winning history of African American women’s politics titled Vanguard: How Black Women Overcame Barrier, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, from Basic Books in 2020. In 2018, I published a new history of the early African American struggle for citizenship. Birthright Citizens examines how black Americans constructed their legal rights in a world predominated by the view that were non-citizens without rights. My first book, All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture, 1830-1900, examined black debates about women’s rights, and was inspired by the women I’d met as a girl at Bennett College. I extended this work in 2015 with a co-edited volume, Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women. 

Event Location: JHU Bloomberg Center – 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001

Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Time: 6 PM – 7 PM

Register here!