Episode 12: Barbara Ransby

Black Work Talk

In this twelfth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Barbara Ransby, professor of history at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Barbara has written extensively on the Black Freedom Movement on topics ranging from Ella Baker and Eslanda Robeson to the current Black Lives Matter movement. Our conversation took place soon after the release of the videos of the Chicago police’s killing of 13-year old Adam Toledo and we began our talk examining the battle for justice in the face of police brutality. We moved on to look at the relationship between policing and political economy. During the episode other topics included:

• The nature of racial capitalism
• The Portal Project which Barbara initiated to bring together social justice activists and scholars
• Her views on Black freedom and movement building

Here are links to two articles mentioned during this episode:

Ransby - The Class Politics of Black Lives Matter

Ransby - The White Left Needs to Embrace Black Leadership

Here is a link to the website of The Portal Project that Barbara Ransby launched:

https://sji.uic.edu/portal-project/