Today, another installment of the Midday Culture Connection with Dr. Sheri Parks of the University of Maryland.
Sheri is an Associate Dean for Research, Interdisciplinary Scholarship and Programming at the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is also an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies. She’s the author of Fierce Angels: Living with a Legacy from the Sacred Dark Feminine to the Strong Black Woman.
We’re joined by Dr. Brittney Cooper, an assistant professor of women and gender studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University in Brunswick, New Jersey. She is also the author of a new book called Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women.
Dr. Cooper’s book explores the history of black women as intellectuals. The 19th and 20th century “Race Women” she tells us about are often thought of as activists rather than public intellectuals. Their scholarship and achievements are often overshadowed by the work of Black men like W.E.B Dubois, Frederick Douglas and others, as well as the writing and activism of white feminists.
A little later in the program, Tom is joined by Ellen Gee, a contemporary Race Woman, who is one of the organizers behind the Baltimore Ceasefire, an attempt to put a stop to the onslaught of violence that has plagued Baltimore, particularly since the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. She and other organizers are calling for no violence in our city for 72 hours, beginning this weekend.
