We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance - Hardcover

Carter Jackson, Kellie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1541602900 ISBN 13: 9781541602908

Publisher: Seal Press (CA), 2024

Synopsis

An "unsparing, erudite, and incisive" (Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker) reframing of the past and present of Black resistance--both nonviolent and violent--to white supremacy

Named a Best Book of 2024 by Smithsonian * Kirkus * Chicago Review of Books * Emancipator * Ms. Magazine

Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolence and Malcolm X's "by any means necessary." In We Refuse, historian Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.

The dismissal of "Black violence" as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force--from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt--has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away.

Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, We Refuse offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation.

Winner of the Organization of American Historians' 2025 Darlene Clark Hines Award

About this title

About the Author

Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise Kellen '68 Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Her book Force and Freedom was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Museum of African American History Stone Book Award. She is the cohost of the Radiotopia podcast "This Day in Esoteric Political History." She lives outside of Boston with her husband and three children.

Edition details

• Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1541602900
• ISBN 13: 9781541602908
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304