As the United States approaches its semiquincentennial, the American Antiquarian Society brings together a panel of distinguished Black women historians to reconsider how the nation defines “revolution” and whose struggles are recognized as revolutionary. Moderated by Deborah Hall, chief executive officer of YWCA Central MA and founder of Worcester Black History Project, the panelists will examine how Black women have demanded freedom through social, political, and legal activism over the past 250 years, from early petitions and collective resistance to organized movements for justice and liberation.
Panelists Patrice R. Green, curator for African American and African diasporic collections at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America; Kyera Singleton, executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters; and Angela T. Tate, chief curator and director of collections at the Museum of African American History, will discuss questions that challenge traditional narratives of revolution. What makes a revolution truly revolutionary? How have Black women’s visions of freedom, rooted in community, care, and collective survival, reshaped the meaning of political change? And why have these revolutionary acts so often been erased, minimized, or reframed to fit an American mythology of perseverance without structural transformation?
To attend this free program, in person or virtually, visit americanantiquarian.org.
