The Fight to Fight

The African American Campaign for Martial Inclusion and the Contested Origins of Harlem’s Rattlers

2013-2014 Bentson Dean's Lecture Series
By Jeffrey T. Sammons

"The long and tortuous campaign to establish New York State’s first Black National Guard regiment comes out of blacks’ embrace of martial institutions as instrumental to the pursuit of individual personhood and collective citizenship. Few realize that New York refused to recognize black militias in the Civil War and authorized none in the Spanish-American War. Not until organized and sustained pressure from within the black community did the state finally authorize formation of a black regiment of infantry in 1916."

Wednesday, April 30, 5:30 pm
Jurow Lecture Hall