Speaking Engagements
Keynote addresses
“Measuring the Cost: Black History, Reparations, and the Search for a Restorative Faith,” Durham Congregations in Action Annual Banquet, January 30, 2020.
Convocation Address, NC State University, August 19, 2019.
“The Historian’s Guide to Black Twitter: Navigating Discussions of Race on Social Media,” Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Symposium on Social Movements, Online Communication, and Transformation, CRDM Program, NC State University, March 28-29, 2019.
“’I’ve lived to see my lost causes found:’ Pauli Murray and the Fight for Equality,” Pauli Murray Awards, Orange County Human Relations Commission, Sunday, Hillsborough, NC, February 24, 2019.
“Sarah Keys Evans: African American Women and the Fight against Segregated Transportation,” Roanoke Rapids, NC--Z. Smith Reynolds Inclusive Public Art Grant, Halifax Community College, Weldon, North Carolina, March 18, 2019.
"Unabated Protest: African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson,” German Association for American Studies (GAAS), Osnabruck, Germany, May 19-22, 2016.
“They Killed that Girl: Memory, Race, Crime, and the Case of Corrine Sykes,” Legacies of Reconstruction, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, February 18, 2016.
“’Everything to Defend our Human Ranks’: How the History of Black Activism should Inform the Present,” Charles Hamilton Houston Keynote speaker, Black Alumni Weekend, Amherst College, April 11, 2015.
“Between Barack Obama and Michael Brown: African American History at Racial Crossroads,” Black Culture Week, Black Student Alliance, University of Virginia, October 23, 2014.
“Writing Right to Ride,” Fall Lecture in African and African American Studies, Marshall University, November 12, 2013.
“Plessy and the Legacy of Protest,” Plessy Day, Plessy v. Ferguson Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana, June 7, 2012.
“Researching the Long Civil Rights Movement,” Writing Our Future and Our History, Humanities Seminar, Shaw University, April 12, 2012.
“The Roots of Right to Ride,” Southern Seminar Series, University of Virginia, March 15, 2012.
“Tourgée, Race, and the Plessy Case,” Albion Tourgée Conference, NC Museum of History and the Center for the Study of the American South, November 4, 2011.
“Bend with Unabated Protest: African American Resistance at the Dawn of the 20th Century,” Department of History, University of South Carolina, September 1-2, 2010.
Community-engaged talks
“Navigating Jim Crow: The Negro Motorist Green Book and the Power of Black Mobility,” North Carolina Museum of History and UNC-TV, March 12, 2020.
Frederick Douglass, The Fourteenth Amendment, and Their Relevance Today, Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, Northern Orange NAACP, and the Free Spirit Freedom, October 26, 2018.
“You can’t tell US history without Black history,” Black History Month Keynote, Durham Academy, February 1, 2018.
“What we remember, and what we forget: The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration, Durham Academy, January 15, 2018.
“Assessing Between the World and Me,” College of Humanities and Social Sciences, NC State University, August 15, 2017.
NC State Khayrallah Center Oral History training and historic preservation workshop, Vicksburg, Mississippi Feb 17-18, 2017.
“African American Experience in WWI,” Teacher Training Workshop, North Carolina Museum of History, February 8, 2017, and August 11, 2017.
“Lynching: Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Remembering Our History,” University Honors Program, North Carolina State University, February 16, 2017.
“Residue of Resistance,” Martin Luther King Day Keynote, Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP, January 16, 2017.
“Historically-Minded Diversity: How We Got Here and How Campus Faculty and Staff Can Progress,” Division of Academic and Student Affairs Diversity Workshop, North Carolina State University, February 3, 2017.
Social Justice in our Communities Symposium, College of Education, North Carolina State University, November 16, 2016.
Faculty Roundtable on Just Mercy, African American Faculty Retreat, North Carolina State University, August 8, 2016.
“Fisk Jubilee Singers, Spirituals, and building a HBCU Legacy,” Coming Home: The History of North Carolina’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, North Carolina Office of the Governor, Community and Constituent Affairs, Raleigh, North Carolina, July 20, 2016.
“A Vision for Independence: Frederick Douglass and “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” Town of Carrboro July 4th Celebration, Carrboro, NC, July 4, 2016.
“The Importance of Listening: Hearing from Women of Color in the Academy,” North Carolina Chapter of the National Institutes of Health Women of Color Research Network, Duke University, April 9, 2016.
“Black Citizenship in the Age of Black Lives Matter,” Light Up Your Winter Speakers Series, United Church of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, January 13, 2016.
“Where I stand today: MLK Remembered the Movement,” Durham Nativity/Trinity School MLK Day Celebration, Durham, NC, January 18, 2016.
“Processing Just Mercy: Conversations with Faculty and Staff,” Humanities and Social Sciences, Office of Faculty Development, Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, Division of Academic and Student Affairs, North Carolina State University, August 19, 2016.
“Challenges and Opportunities of Interdisciplinary Departments and Interdisciplinary Research,” Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement, Duke University, August 2015, August 2016.
“The Fight before the Fight: The Early Struggle for Civil Rights,” Hidden Histories Teacher Workshop, NC Civil Education Consortium. North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, N.C., August 7, 2014.
“The Bill of the Century: The Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Town of Chapel Hill Justice in Action Committee, Chapel Hill Public Library, July 2, 2014.
“Why I Hate D’Jango Unchained and Love 12 Years a Slave: Black History and Popular Culture,” Black History Month Celebration, Durham Academy, Durham, N.C., February 20, 2014.
“Plessy v. Ferguson: Uncovering the History of African American Protest,” “Beyond the ‘Founding Fathers’—African Americans and the Constitution,” Professional Development Seminar, UNC Chapel Hill, May 3, 2013.