The Unbearable Burden of Black Studies and the Enduring Fight for American Democracy

Black studies has been under constant attack as a threat to American society since its founding in the late 1960s. But recently, these assaults have intensified, leading to state legislative action to outlaw Black and ethnic studies, and more expansively laws banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. How does the field’s past help explain this moment and what the future holds for higher education and American democracy?

In-person and online attendance options

Khalil Gibran Muhammad’s scholarship examines the broad intersections of racism, economic inequality, criminal justice and democracy in U.S. history. He is co-editor of “Constructing the Carceral State,” a special issue of the Journal of American History, and contributor to a National Research Council study, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences (2014), as well as the award-winning author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. He is currently co-directing a National Academy of Sciences study on reducing racial inequalities in the criminal justice system.

Muhammad’s writing and scholarship have been featured in national print and broadcast media outlets, such as the New Yorker, Washington Post, The Nation, National Public Radio, PBS Newshour, Moyers and Company, MSNBC and the New York Times, which includes his sugar essay for The 1619 Project. He has appeared in a number of feature-length documentaries, including Amend: The Fight for America (2021), the Oscar-nominated 13th (2016) and Slavery by Another Name (2012). Before joining Harvard, he was director Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global black history. In January 2025, Muhammad will begin an appointment as professor of African American studies and public affairs at Princeton University.

This event is part of the James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture on Higher Education annual series.