Jessica Levy, Johns Hopkins University, will discuss her paper "Black Empowerment, Global American Business, and the Post-Jim Crow/Apartheid City."

Author's abstract for the seminar paper:

This paper analyzes the transnational rise of black empowerment, including government and private initiatives promoting black entrepreneurship, community development, and other kinds of black commercial activity.

Building on a century-old racial uplift tradition, black empowerment emerged in black neighborhoods from North Philadelphia to Soweto as a popular response to social unrest and poverty. Drawing on corporate and “movement” archives from the United States and South Africa, this paper illuminates the intellectual and financial investments made by American businesspeople, government bureaucrats, and black entrepreneurs in transforming black dissidents into “productive citizens” in both an economic and civic sense. It furthermore elucidates the critical work black entrepreneurs performed disseminating and translating free market politics to Africans and their descendants in the diaspora. ​

Commentator: Tiffany Gill (University of Delaware)

The seminar is open to the public and is based on a paper that is circulated in advance. Those planning to attend are encouraged to read the paper before coming to the seminar. Copies may be obtained by emailing Carol Lockman, clockman@Hagley.org.

Reception at 6 p.m., seminar begins promptly at 6:30 p.m. in the Copeland Room of Hagley’s library building.

See more about our Research Seminar series here.

Image: Delaware Historical Society.