Forum From the Archives: ‘Black Folk’ Centers History and Activist Legacy of Black Working Class

“Our national mythos,” writes historian Blair LM Kelley, “leaves little room for Black workers, or to glean any lessons from their history.” Kelley’s latest book “Black Folk” offers a corrective, focusing on the lives of Black working people after the Southern Emancipation, the challenges they faced bringing their skills to bear and the networks of resistance they formed. Kelley’s book is also personal, grounded in the stories of her own ancestors, including her great, great grandfather, a highly skilled blacksmith who was enslaved. We’ll talk to Kelley about the origins of the Black working class and about the people who animate it, then and now.

Guests:

Blair LM Kelley, author, "Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class." She is the director of the Center for the Study of the American South and co-director of the Southern Futures initiative at the University of North Carolina.