Dr. Toure Reed
Professor
History
- 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
111.001American Diversity:Contested Visions Of The U.S. Experience
499.026Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
328.001The Modern Civil Rights Movement, 1933-1968
309.001Selected Topics In United States History
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 is a co-author of Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of Black American Thought (Paradigm Publishers, 2009 hardcover, 2010 paperback). He has also published in the Journal of American Ethnic History, LABOR, nonsite.org, Catalyst, Blackagendareport.com, Commondreams.org, Jacobin, the New Republic, and the Nation.
Dr. Reed's second book/monograph, titled Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, was recently published by Verso Books (February 25, 2020). Dr. Reed is currently engaged in research for a third book/monograph titled 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 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
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2019
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2018
Impact Award
Illinois State University, Office of the Provost and University College
2018
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2016
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2016
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2014
Book Review
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
Gordon Mantler, Power to the Poor: Black-Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice, 1960-1974, Spring 2014, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
Charles Euchner, Nobody Turn Me Around: A People’s History of the 1963 March on Washington, 2/2/13, Firedoglake.com
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
“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
“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
“Why Moynihan Was Not So Misunderstood at the Time: The Mythological Prescience
of the Moynihan Report and the Problem of Institutional Structuralism,” in The
Moynihan Report and the Crescent City: Culturalism and Katrina in New Orleans, ed.
Touré F. Reed, nonsite.org No. 17 (Fall 2015),
http://nonsite.org/article/why-moynihan-was-not-so-misunderstood-at-the-time
of the Moynihan Report and the Problem of Institutional Structuralism,” in The
Moynihan Report and the Crescent City: Culturalism and Katrina in New Orleans, ed.
Touré F. Reed, nonsite.org No. 17 (Fall 2015),
http://nonsite.org/article/why-moynihan-was-not-so-misunderstood-at-the-time
Magazine/Trade Publication
"A Liberal ‘Moral Reckoning’ Can’t Solve the Problems that Plague Black America,” JacobinMag.com, 11/1/20, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/sanders-race-black-working-class-ta-nehisi-coates
"The Dangers of Letting Racecraft Displace Class During the Pandemic.” JacobinMag.com, 8/13/20, https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/race-neoliberallism-covid-19-class-struggle
“Jess La Bombalera and the Pathologies of Racial Authenticity,” JacobinMag.com, 9/6/20, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/jess-la-bombalera-and-the-pathologies-of-racial-authenticity
“Why I’m Still Thinking about the Amy Cooper ‘Black Birder’ Episode in Central Park” JacobinMag.com, 6/4/20, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/christian-cooper-amy-central-park-racism-black-birder
“The Ties that Divide: How Bipartisan Identitarianism Works For the Boss and Against Citizen and Noncitizen Workers,” CommonDreams.org, 1/22/18, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/22/ties-divide-how-bipartisan-identitarianism-works-boss-and-against-citizen-and-non
Presentations
Panel: “Abbey Speaker Series: Defining Racial Justice in the 21st Century—Competing Perspectives on Shared Goals,” Moderated by Jamelle Bouie, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Program for Public Discourse, 2/23/21
https://publicdiscourse.web.unc.edu/events/defining-racial-justice-in-the-twenty-first-century-competing-perspectives-and-shared-goals/
https://publicdiscourse.web.unc.edu/events/defining-racial-justice-in-the-twenty-first-century-competing-perspectives-and-shared-goals/
Panel: “What is the Democratic Commons?” Hunter College Conference on the Public Humanities and the Democratic Commons sponsored by the Mellon Foundation
Presentation: “The Dangers Posed by Identity Politics to Racial Justice and the Public Good,” 4/9/21
Presentation: “The Dangers Posed by Identity Politics to Racial Justice and the Public Good,” 4/9/21
Round Table: “Social Democracy in New York and the Nation,” with Joel Suarez, Nelson Lichtenstein, Ruth Milkman, Conference on Working-Class New York Revisited, sponsored by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, 4/23/21
https://slu.cuny.edu/public-engagement/conferences/
https://slu.cuny.edu/public-engagement/conferences/
“The Pitfalls of Woke Neoliberalism: The Conservative Implications of Liberal Race Reductionism,” Ted Rose Speaker Series at Ohio University, 3/18/21 (Invited), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrvWwtqLgQE
"Toward Freedom, A Discussion of Race and Class with Professor Touré Reed," Democratic Socialists of America-Austin, Texas, 7/9/20, https://austindsa.org/
"Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism," by Touré F. Reed, The Labor and Working Class History Association’s Pandemic Book Talk Series, 10/15/20,
http://www.lawcha.org/event/lawcha-pandemic-book-talk-toure-reed-toward-freedom-the-case-against-race-reductionism/
http://www.lawcha.org/event/lawcha-pandemic-book-talk-toure-reed-toward-freedom-the-case-against-race-reductionism/
“The Pitfalls of Liberal Antiracism and Woke Neoliberalism,” a lecture on Toward
Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Jacobin Magazine’s, Stay at Home #12,
4/7/20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FztmNrp08yY
Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Jacobin Magazine’s, Stay at Home #12,
4/7/20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FztmNrp08yY
“The Pitfalls of Woke Neoliberalism,” a lecture on Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism," delivered to the Sociology Colloquium on Race and Race Relations at the University of California, Riverside, 11/19/20 (invited)
“Woke Neoliberalism: The Conservative Implications of Liberal Race Reductionism,” a lecture on Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Donovan Lecture Series at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, March 2, 2020 (Invited)
"The Conservative Implications of Liberal Race Reductionism". Illinois Wesleyan University-- History Department. Illinois Wesleyan University-- History Department. (2019)
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)
2017-06-23T13:52:52.264-05:00
2017