Kidada Williams

Faculty Profile

Professor
bb2756@wayne.edu

Department

History

Phone

313-577-2525

Office

3069 Faculty/Administration Building (FAB)

Biography

Kidada E. Williams (here's a bio for introductions) researches African Americans' experiences of racist violence. Here at Wayne State, she teaches courses on African American history, U.S. history and historical research methods.

The earliest proponents of what we call African American history intended for their research to reach the broadest possible audience. Williams's embrace of this rich tradition informs her commitment to sharing her expertise as much as her busy schedule permits.

Williams began this work as a graduate student researching the Underground Railroad in Washtenaw County, Michigan and co-creating a bus tour. She has given talks at a variety of public institutions. She contributes to NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes and is on the Zinn Project's roster of People's Historians, both of which help K-12 teachers broaden their understandings of U.S. history and develop new strategies for teaching challenging subject matter. She has appeared on Skip Gates's PBS award-winning series, Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, Nikole Hannah-Jones's "The 1619 Project" series on Hulu and rebroadcast on ABC, NPR's "Morning Edition" and "On Point," WDET's "Detroit Today," and "BackStory with the American History Guys." Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, DAME, Slate, and Bridge Magazine.

Williams is also one of the co-developers of #CharlestonSyllabus, a crowd-sourced project that helped people understand the historical context surrounding the 2015 racial massacre at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church.

Lately, she has been extending her commitment to African American history by sharing her expertise on survivors of anti-black violence on podcasts, like Scene on Radio's The Land That Has Never Been Yet, Why Is This Happening? with Chris Hayes, MSNBC's Into America with Trymaine Lee, and the Slate Academy history series on Reconstruction. She was the host and co-producer of Seizing Freedom, a podcast docudrama created by Kelly Hardcastle Jones, that covered the epic story of African Americans' fight for freedom during the Civil War and beyond.

Contact

Email is the best way to reach her: kidada.williams@wayne.edu (if you need to arrange book signings, please contact Bloomsbury or email me for direct contact). Williams is booked with events. Her existing and emerging commitments and her insistence on being well rested don't always enable her to fulfill last minute requests or work on demand so please try to plan ahead, include all relevant details, and remember that Black History Month and Juneteenth are the same time every year. 😉 

Need a concise bio to introduce her?

There's no need to struggle about what to say when there's a press kit.

Want the expertise of other historians?

The historical profession, has plenty of experts, including ones on African American history or U.S. history, who can meet your needs. Check out:

History resources for K-12 teachers, parents and general folks

Williams often gets asked by K-12 teachers and parents for resources on the history she teaches. Here is a page with a not exhaustive list of links for teaching and learning African American and U.S. history. The page includes links to lessons plans, primary sources, shows, classes and workshops.

News mentions

Selected publications

Books

Edited books

  • With Chad Williams and Keisha N. Blain, Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. University of Georgia Press, 2016
  • A portion of the royalties will go to the Lowcountry Ministries Fund to address issues of social justice and economic empowerment in underserved communities in the South Carolina Lowcountry

Articles and chapters

Select public scholarship and appearances

Research Description

Professor Williams's research interests include African American History, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Black Freedom Struggle, and African Americans in the US collective memory. She is currently researching a new book on the impact of nightriding violence on African American families during Reconstruction.

Affiliated Departments

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