Online,
Join us for the 47th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day lecture with Clint Smith, author of the New York Times best-seller, How the World Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America.
In a deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the World Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view, whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods (like downtown Manhattan) on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted. Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, Clint Smith’s debut work of nonfiction is a landmark work of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Smith will be in conversation with Dr. Paula C. Austin, a professor of History at Boston University, focused on African American history, the history of race and racism, visual culture, urban and women’s history, history of social science, and the history of childhood. Dr. Austin is the author of Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC: Navigating the Politics of Everyday Life (NYU Press), a social and intellectual history of poor and working class young black people in early twentieth century, racially segregated Washington, D.C.
Co-sponsored by the City Manager's Office, Mayor's Office and the City of Cambridge Employees' Committee on Diversity.