Martha S. Jones

I am a writer, historian, and legal scholar who also teaches at the Johns Hopkins University. I am the prize-winning author of several books. My latest is The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir. This is a personal look back across six generations to understand how color -- from slavery and sexual violence to antimiscegenation laws, passing, and colorism have shaped who we are and who we call kin. My past books include Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020), Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (2018) and All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture (2007,) and Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women (2015.)