CHS & DemCP book talk - Black Lives Matter: Segregation and Civil Rights in Local and Global Contexts

From the late nineteenth century until the mid-1960s, the U.S. South had a system of institutionalized racial segregation known as Jim Crow. In their talk, Chris Beuker and Maarten Zwiers will discuss how this social order operated and how civil rights activists fought to dismantle it. Beuker’s new book Voor elkaar Met elkaar: Black Lives Matter (2022) explores the Long Civil Rights Movement from a transnational perspective, focusing on the role of communism (and specifically Dutch communists) in the struggle for racial equality in the United States. Zwiers’s ERC research project “Race Land: The Ecology of Segregation” is an environmental and global history of Jim Crow apartheid. How did segregationist politics affect ecosystems inside and outside the U.S.?

The talk will be bilingual (English and Dutch), with English translations provided for the Dutch part. Attendees have the opportunity to buy a copy of Chris Beuker’s book at the event for €22,00 (please bring exact change).

Dr. Anne Martínez of the UG American Studies department will moderate the presentation.

This talk is organized in collaboration with the Research Centre for Historical Studies (CHS), the Americas Research Collective (ARC) Theme Group, and the Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics (DemCP).