The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Joe W. Trotter, Jr. will deliver the 2021 Diaspora Lecture and discuss his latest publication
Workers on Arrival: Black Labor and the Making of America. From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the Black working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the Black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.” In
Workers on Arrival, Trotter refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class’s vast contributions to the making of America.
For nearly seven years, the East Side Freedom Library has been a place for producing new knowledge and making connections. The link between African American history and labor history is one such connection. In collaboration with the University of Minnesota Department of History, the Ramsey County Historical Society, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association, ESFL is hosting an online conversation between the two leading scholars of Black labor in the United States: Dr. Joe W. Trotter, Jr., and Dr. William P. Jones. The conversation will take place on Wednesday, February 10 from 6:00-7:00pm. Please register here to get a link to join the program,