Episode 94: The Help with Kellie Carter Jackson

Historians At The Movies

This week Kellie Carter Jackson drops in to talk about The Help. We get into Black representations in film, white savior tropes, and what more nuanced discussions of the lived experiences of Black workers in the Civil Rights era look like. Kellie is a freaking powerhouse. Expect her to be back.
About our guest:
Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise Kellen 68’ Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She studies the lived experiences of Black people with a focus on slavery, abolitionism, the Civil War, political violence, Black women’s history, and film. She is the author of the award-winning book, Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, which won the SHEAR James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize. Force and Freedom was also a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, a finalist for the Museum of African American History Stone Book Prize, and listed among 13 books to read on African American History by the Washington Post. Carter Jackson is also co-editor of Reconsidering Roots: Race, Politics, & Memory. Her essays have been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, and other outlets. She has also been interviewed for her expertise on Netflix, Apple TV, Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, MSNBC, PBS, Vox, CNN, the BBC, the History Channel, Al Jazeera, Slate, and a host of documentaries.

Carter Jackson is also a Historian-in-Residence for the Museum of African American History in Boston. She also serves as a commissioner for the Massachusetts Historical Commission, where she represents the Museum of African American History in Boston.

Carter Jackson's latest book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance (Seal Press), examines a radical reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and violent—to white supremacy. She is also working on the story of the only Black passenger on the Titanic which examines the unexplored aspect of race, migration, and our obsession with one ship thought to be supreme.

Lastly, Carter Jackson loves a good podcast! She is the co-host of the podcast, “This Day in Esoteric Political History” with Jody Avirgan and Niki Hemmer and serves as the Executive Producer and host of "You Get a Podcast" formerly known as "Oprahdemics: The Study of the Queen of Talk" by Radiotopia with Leah Wright Rigeuer. You can follow her on Twitter @kcarterjackson. She currently resides in the suburbs of Boston with her husband and three children.