On Monday, September 16, 2024, historian Kellie Carter Jackson will discuss We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance with Teaching for Black Lives co-editor Jesse Hagopian and Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones. Carter reframes the past and present of Black resistance — both nonviolent and violent — to white supremacy.

Kellie Carter Jackson is fearless. She is not afraid to tell you want she thinks, share what she knows, or challenge prevailing wisdom. We Refuse is proof. She taps the wellsprings of memory, archives, oral histories, literature, imagination, and personal experience to tell a very Black story of armed resistance, strategic retreat, unbreakable resolve, and joyous rapture. Reading this book will cause discomfort in some folks, provoke cheers in others. But I doubt anyone will be able to put it down.” — Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams

Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise ‘68 associate professor of Africana studies and the chair of the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College. She is the author We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance and Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, the Boston Globe, CNN, and others, and she has also given a Tedx talk on “Why Black Abolitionists Matter.” Her next book project is entitled, Losing Laroche: The Story of the Only Black Passenger on the Titanic, which traces the story of Joseph Laroche and examines the possibilities and limitations of black travel in the Titanic moment.

These online classes with people’s historians are held at least once a month (generally on Mondays) at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET for 90 minutes. In each session, the historian is interviewed by a teacher and breakout rooms allow participants to meet each other in small groups, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas. We designed the sessions for teachers and other school staff. Parents, students, and others are also welcome to participate.