AADS2800 · African and African Diaspora Studies

From Slave Patrol to the War on Crime: Policing Blacks Across American History

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

During the "racial reckoning" in the summer of 2020, Americans engaged in a lot of discussions about race and the criminal justice system - and especially policing and its historical connections to slavery. While containing some truth, this particular framing of policing obscures a more complex history. This course will explore the larger history of policing Black Americans, from slavery to the early twenty-first century. Topics will include: race and policing in the antebellum period; legal and extralegal forms of policing Blacks in the Jim Crow era; mass incarceration in the late-twentieth century; and activism against the carceral state.