Dr. Toure Reed
Professor
History
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 328
Office Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00-3:00, and by appointment
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
Dr. Reed earned his BA in American Studies from Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), and his PhD in History from Columbia University (New York, NY). He is a fourth generation African American educator and third generation professor. Having spent his formative years in South West Atlanta, GA and New Haven, CT, Dr. Reed's research interests center on race, class, and inequality. In addition to being a historian of African American and 20th Century US History, Dr. Reed is a shred guitar enthusiast.
Current Courses
HIS 258.001 Afro-American History Since 1865
HIS 499.016 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
HIS 287.001 Independent Study
HIS 400.002 Independent Study
HIS 490.007 Readings -- Field Of Study
HIS 421.001 Seminar: Topics In American Racial & Ethnic History
HIS 257.001 Afro-American History To 1865
HIS 111.001 American Diversity: Contested Visions Of The U.S. Experience
HIS 287.002 Independent Study
HIS 490.009 Readings -- Field Of Study
HIS 328.001 The Modern Civil Rights Movement, 1933-1968
Teaching Interests & Areas
Professor Reed's courses center on black social, political, and intellectual history. His courses draw from US urban and labor history.
Research Interests & Areas
Professor Reed's research projects focus principally on the impact of race and class ideologies on African American civil rights politics and US public policy from the Progressive Era through the Presidency of Barack Obama. Dr. Reed is the author of Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910-1950 (UNC Chapel Hill Press, 2008) and Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism (Verso Books, 2020). He is also co-author of Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of Black American Thought (Paradigm Publishers, 2009 hardcover, 2010 paperback). Professor Reed's articles have appeared in the Journal of American Ethnic History, LABOR, nonsite.org, Catalyst, Blackagendareport.com, Commondreams.org, Dissent Magazine, Jacobin, the Nation, and The New Republic.
Dr. Reed is currently engaged in research for two monographs. Menace II Equality: How the Entertainment Industry Sold Reaganism to African Americans and New Deal Civil Rights: Class Consciousness and the Quest for Racial Equality, 1933-1948.
Dr. Reed has received numerous grants and fellowships including the prestigious Kluge Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Library of Congress in support of New Deal Civil Rights.
Ph D History
Columbia University
New York, NY
M Phil History
Columbia University
New York, NY
MA History
Columbia University
New York, NY
BA American Studies
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA
Influential and Inspirational Professor
History and Social Science Education Program
2024
Influential and Inspirational Professor
History and Social Sciences Education Program
2024
Distinguished Lecturer
College of Arts and Sciences, Illinois State University
2024
Influential and Inspirational Professor
History and Social Sciences Education Program
2023
Influential and Inspirational Professor
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2023
Influential and Inspirational Profesor
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2021
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2021
Impact Award
Illinois State University, Office of the Provost and University College
2021
Outstanding College Researcher in the Humanities
Illinois State University
2020
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2019
Book Review
Joe Trotter, Jr., Pittsburgh and the Urban League Movement: A Century of Social Service and Activism, September 2022, Journal of American History
Keneshia Grant, The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century, Spring 2021, Journal of Urban Affairs
Glenn Feldman, ed. Nation within a Nation: The American South and the Federal Government, Spring 2018, Florida Historical Quarterly
Martin Kilson, The Transformation of the African American Intelligentsia, 1880-2012, June 2015, Journal of American History
Erik S. Gellman, Death Blow to Jim Crow: The National Negro Congress, February 2014, Journal of Southern History
Book, Authored
Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Verso Books, 2020, (paperback and digital), https://www.versobooks.com/books/3166-toward-freedom
Coauthor/Contributor-- Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of African American Thought. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2009 (Paperback 2010), https://www.routledge.com/Renewing-Black-Intellectual-History-The-Ideological-and-Material-Foundations/Reed-Warren/p/book/9781594516665
Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910-1950. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2008 (Hardcover/Paperback), https://uncpress.org/book/9780807859025/not-alms-but-opportunity/
Book, Chapter
“Is it Race or Racism: Why Binary Explanations for Racial Inequality Have Failed Black Americans,” Steve Maher and Sam Gindin eds. SR 2025: [Title], New York: Monthly Review Press, 2025, in press.
"Black Exceptionalism and the Militant Capitulation to Economic Inequality," in Cedric Johnson's The Panthers Can't Save Us Now: Debating Left Politics and Black Lives Matter, Verso Books, 2022.
Reprint of “Black Exceptionalism and the Militant
Capitulation to Economic Inequality,” New Politics Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter 2019)
Reprint of “Black Exceptionalism and the Militant
Capitulation to Economic Inequality,” New Politics Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter 2019)
“The Evolution of ‘Race’ and Racial Justice Under Neoliberalism,” coauthored with Adolph L. Reed, Jr., in Greg Albo, Leo Panitch, and Colin Leys eds. SR 2022: New Polarizations, Old Crisis of Centrism. The Crisis Centrism, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2021, pp. 113-134, https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv
“El excepcionalismo negro y la capitulación militante ante la desigualdad económica,” in Las Panteras Negras Ya No Pueden Salvarnos: Sobre excepcionalismo negro, violencia policial y politicas de la identidad, Libros Corrientes, 2020. Reprint of “Black Exceptionalism and the Militant Capitulation to Economic Inequality,” New Politics Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter 2019)
“The Educational Alliance and the Urban League of New York: Ethnic Elites and the Politics of Americanization and Racial Uplift, 1903-1931,” 95-125 in Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of African American Thought, Paradigm Publishers, 2009
Encyclopedia
“W.E.B. DuBois and the Philadelphia Negro,” in the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, ed. Anthony Orum, 2019
Journal Article
“Blinded by Righteous Outrage: From the 1994 Crime Act to Trump 2.0,” in The Road to Trumpism—Two of the Paths that Brought Us Here a Special Section nonsite.org, No. 50, 6/14/25, https://nonsite.org/blinded-by-righteous-outrage-from-the-1994-crime-act-to-trump-2-0/
“Black Exceptionalism and the Militant Capitulation to Economic Inequality,” Symposium on Cedric G. Johnson’s “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now: Anti-Policing Struggles and the Limits of Black Power,” New Politics, Vo 17, No. 2 (Winter 2019):
8-11, https://newpol.org/authors/rred-toure-f/
8-11, https://newpol.org/authors/rred-toure-f/
“Granger’s ‘Challenge to the Youth,’ Stein’s Challenge to Historians: Industrial
Democracy and the Complexities of Black Politics”
in Symposium in Honor of Judith Stein, nonsite.org, No. 29 (Fall 2019),
https://nonsite.org/grangers-challenge-to-the-youth-steins-challenge-to-historians-industrial-democracy-and-the-complexities-of-black-politics/
Democracy and the Complexities of Black Politics”
in Symposium in Honor of Judith Stein, nonsite.org, No. 29 (Fall 2019),
https://nonsite.org/grangers-challenge-to-the-youth-steins-challenge-to-historians-industrial-democracy-and-the-complexities-of-black-politics/
“Between Obama and Coates,” Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter 2018): 8-54,
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no4/between-obama-and-coates
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no4/between-obama-and-coates
“All Roads Named Culture of Poverty Lead to Mass Incarceration,” Symposium on Elizabeth Hinton’s From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, LABOR: Studies in Working Class History in the Americas. Vol. 14, No. 4 (Winter 2017): 75-79
Magazine/Trade Publication
“Kamala Harris Didn’t Lose Because of Racism,” JacobinMag.com, 6/18/25, https://jacobin.com/2025/06/harris-trump-democrats-race-reductionism
Reprint of “Blinded by a Moralistic Outrage: From the 1994 Crime Act to Trump 2.0,” in The Road to Trumpism—Two of the Paths that Brought Us Here a Special Section nonsite.org, No. 50, 6/14/25
Reprint of “Blinded by a Moralistic Outrage: From the 1994 Crime Act to Trump 2.0,” in The Road to Trumpism—Two of the Paths that Brought Us Here a Special Section nonsite.org, No. 50, 6/14/25
“Even When They Fail, They Win: Ocean Gate and the Cult of the Super-Wealthy Innovator,” CommonDreams.org, 7/5/23, https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/oceangate-tragedy-super-wealthy
“Why Juneteenth Celebrations Should Acknowledge the 13th Amendment,” CommonDreams.org, 6/20/22, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/20/why-juneteenth-celebrations-should-acknowledge-13th-amendment
"Pourquoi il est dangereux de laisser l’artefact de la race supplanter la classe sociale en temps de pandémie." La Pensee 408, no. 4 (2021). Reprint of “The Dangers of Letting Racecraft Displace Class During the Pandemic, JacobinMag.com, 8/13/20
“Pourquoi les libéraux progressistes séparent la race de la classe,” La Pensee, 408, No. 4 (2021). Reprint of “Why Liberals Separate Race from Class,” JacobinMag.com, 8/22/15
Other
The Moynihan Report and the Crescent City: Culturalism and Katrina in New Orleans
nonsite.org No. 17 (Fall 2015), https://nonsite.org/issues/issue-17-the-moynihan-report-and-the-crescent-city/
nonsite.org No. 17 (Fall 2015), https://nonsite.org/issues/issue-17-the-moynihan-report-and-the-crescent-city/
Presentations
“A Brief History of Antidiscrimination: Antidiscrimination Did Not Always Mean Diversity,” City of Bloomington Symposium on Inclusion & Access Compliance, 8/26/25, https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-08-12/city-of-bloomington-to-host-a-free-symposium-discussing-the-future-of-inclusion-and-access
“Race and Class: Intersections and Differences: A Convocation of the Unitarian Universalist Multiracial Unity Action Council” featuring Touré F. Reed (ISU), Olufemi Taiwo (Georgetown), and Jonathan Wilton-Hartgrove (Yale), 6/7/25 (invited)
Guest lecturer: Mercer Community College, NJ, Dr. Hadass Silver’s “Race and Labor” course, 4/29/24 (invited)
“Is it Race of Racism: Why Binary Explanations for Inequality Have Failed Black
Americans,” Illinois State University, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecture, 3/27/24, https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2024/03/dr-toure-reed-history-professor-to-deliver-spring-college-lecture-march-27/?utm_source=Relay&utm_medium=Email
Americans,” Illinois State University, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecture, 3/27/24, https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2024/03/dr-toure-reed-history-professor-to-deliver-spring-college-lecture-march-27/?utm_source=Relay&utm_medium=Email
“Is it Race or Racism: Why Binary Explanations for Inequality Have Failed Black Americans,” University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, keynote for the Africana Studies Department’s Research and Discovery Week, 11/7/23 (invited), https://twitter.com/nmhumanitiesnow/status/1721660847058305167
“Is it Race or Racism?: Why Binary Explanations for Inequality Have Failed Black Americans” Illinois College Convocation, 10/16/23 (invited)
“Is it Race or Racism?” Delving Into Race Reductionism vs. Class-First Explanations in Social Phenomena with Professor Touré F. Reed, University of Pennsylvania Philosophy of Race Workshop Group, 10/27/23 (invited)
“Toward Freedom: Discussion with Historian Touré Reed,” Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas (SEIU-IIMK), 2/2/23 (invited), https://twitter.com/SEIUhciimk/status/1620507581767905280/photo/1
“Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism,” St. Xavier’s Office of Inclusive Excellence DEI program, 3/29/23 (invited).
Education Week Magazine, Editorial Staff and Journalists “Brown Bag Discussion with Touré Reed,” (invited), 9/9/22
Grants & Contracts
Kluge Center, Postdoctoral Fellowship. Library of Congress. Federal. (2011)
Kluge Center, Postdoctoral Fellowship. Library of Congress. Federal. (2010)
Summer Faculty Fellowship. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2009)
Faculty Research Award. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2008)
Provost Incentive Award. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2003)