African American Studies

Seeking a broader American understanding. The evolution of our national identity has always been a multicultural journey, and never more has the integral role of Black Americans been so critical to its understanding. From our acclaimed Black Community Studies series to recent reaccountings of the history of lynching in the South, from civil rights icon Daisy Bates’s memoir to the definitive biography of social justice martyr Medgar Evers, our coverage of African American studies transcends genre and discipline to bring new focus on the true foundations and troubling failures of our ongoing national experiment.

African American Studies News

Fugitivism Reviewed in the Journal of American History

Fugitivism Reviewed in the Journal of American History

The Journal of American History reviewed S. Charles Bolton's Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1820–1860 in their March 2021 issue. “S. Charles Bolton’s deeply researched and elegantly written account of runaways in the lower Mississippi...

Now Available! Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps

Now Available! Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps

Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1965 by Cherisse Jones-Branch is now available! The first major study to consider Black women’s activism in rural Arkansas, Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps foregrounds...

Announcing the Forthcoming Publication of American Atrocity

Announcing the Forthcoming Publication of American Atrocity

The University of Arkansas Press announces the forthcoming publication of American Atrocity: The Types of Violence in Lynching by Guy Lancaster. Lynching is often viewed as an narrow form of violence: either the spontaneous act of an angry mob against accused...

Now Available! The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas

Now Available! The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas

“Ken Barnes has skillfully produced a work that is accessible to a general audience and one that offers new insights for historians. An undeniable contribution to Arkansas and American history.”—Ben F. Johnson III The Ku Klux Klan established a significant foothold in...

Announcing the Forthcoming Publication of George Dixon

Announcing the Forthcoming Publication of George Dixon

The University of Arkansas Press announces the forthcoming publication of George Dixon: The Short Life of Boxing's First Black World Champion, 1870–1908 by Jason Winders. In this work of sporting and social history we have a biography of Canadian-born, Boston-raised...

40% Off for Black History Month

40% Off for Black History Month

To celebrate Black History Month, the University of Arkansas Press is offering 40% off two books that explore African-American History in Arkansas. The first major study to consider Black women’s activism in rural Arkansas, Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps...

Fugitivism Reviewed in the Journal of American History

Fugitivism Wins 2020 Booker Worthen Literary Prize

Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1820–1860 by S. Charles Bolton has won the 2020 Booker Worthen Literary Prize. Like enslaved people all over the South, those in the Lower Mississippi Valley left home at night for clandestine parties or...

Bullets and Fire reviewed in the Journal of American History

Bullets and Fire reviewed in the Journal of American History

“Guy Lancaster has assembled in ten concise essays a sweeping examination of lynching in Arkansas from slavery to 1950. In doing so Bullets and Fire makes a major contribution to our understanding of the connection between repressive violence and the erection and...

Now Available! Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps

Cover Reveal: Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps

Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps encourages a new consideration of Arkansas rural history by foregrounding Black women’s astute navigation of racial and gender politics as a means to uplift African Americans, develop opportunities for social mobility in...

Readings