This week Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Lewis F. Thomas, III about education, Black men, and mentoring. Williams is a professor of history in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University and the director of the African Diaspora Studies (ADS) program at Monmouth. Thomas has more than thirty years of experience in the field of education working in several urban environments including in Philadelphia and New York. This week we focus on his extensive career as a teacher and administrator in various locales as well as his work specifically on the development of Black men in society with such initiatives as the Black Fathers Institute a research-to-practice hub that amplifies the voice of Black fathers and advances radical hope and healing for families. Thomas has through his extensive experience as an educator implemented mentoring programs focused on data informed, culturally responsive, restorative justice approaches.

This week Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Mary Ellen Curtis about her recent book She Changed the Nation: Barbara Jordan’s Life and Legacy in Black Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025). Williams is a professor of history in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University and the current director of the African Diaspora Studies Program at Monmouth University. Curtin is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies and Director of American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. She is a historian of modern African American and women’s social and political history and the author of Black Prisoners and Their World, Alabama 1865-1900 (University Press of Virginia, 2000) that details the origins of the convict leasing system in Alabama as well as the lives of Black coal miners after emancipation. In this episode, she discusses her latest book about Barbara Jordan and Jordan’s role in both local and national politics as one of the most important Black women political figures of her generation. Click here to order a copy of She Changed the Nation

This week Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Marion Orr about his recent book House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs, Jr (University of North Carolina Press, 2025). Williams is a professor of history in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University and the current director of the African Diaspora Studies Program at Monmouth University. Orr is the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies at Brown University. He was a member of the political science faculty prior to coming to Brown. He has served as Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University and he is former chair of Brown’s Department of Political Science and a former director of the Urban Studies Program at Brown. House of Diggs is an assiduously researched book about the first Black elected member of the U.S. Congress from Michigan: Charles C. Diggs, Jr. Diggs rose to prominence during the height of the Civil Rights Era in the 1950s and 1960s including playing a direct role in witnessing the trial of Emmett Till as well as supporting the eyewitnesses to the Tills abduction and murder. Orr argues that Diggs is one of the most impactful members of the U.S. Congress as pivotal founder of the Black Congressional Caucus and home rule for Washington, D.C. including a series of other critical issues. Click here to order a copy of House of Diggs

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