Schooling Jim Crow: The Fight for Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington High School and the Roots of Black Protest Politics -In 1919 the NAACP organized a voting bloc powerful enough to … More
My Work

Historical Consulting and Research
Based in Washington DC, I possess an intimate familiarity with the collections housed at the major DC-area repositories. As a Yale-trained, practicing and published historian, my … More

Current Projects
“If it Snaps Heart Strings”: Race, Respectability and Black Balance of Power Politics after the Brownsville Affray In September of 1907, W. E. B. Du Bois called on “the 500,000 … More

Published Work
Articles: “America just doesn’t get it: Why police killings demand more than a “respectable” response” -Salon.com, 13 December 2014 “How PBS whitewashed the abolitionist … More

Selected Papers
“‘War Dreams’: Patriotism and Cross-Class Black Solidarity in WWI-Era Atlanta” -Southern Labor Studies Association Annual Meeting, 7 March 2015 “Florida’s “Second … More

About Jay
I am a historian whose work explores the relationship between race, gender and the forging of effective political solidarities in struggles for power within the urbanizing, … More