Education

Ph.D., History, Purdue University, 2002

Fields of interest

My research is in 20th century American history, with a particular focus on race, politics, and culture. Most of my books and articles have examined the era of the civil rights movement from a variety of angles, though my most recent book is on the presidential election of 1968, and I am pursuing some projects in U.S. sports history.

Courses taught

United States History Since 1877, The Civil Rights Movement, The U.S. Since 1945, African-American History

Representative publications

Books

• The Men and the Moment: The Election of 1968 and the Rise of Partisan Politics in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2019)
• Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014)
• King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (University of California Press, 2010)
• Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon (University of North Carolina Press, 2004)
• The Hurricane of 1938 (Commonwealth Editions, 2004)

Edited Books

• An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee, co-edited with Charles W. McKinney Jr. (University Press of Kentucky, 2018)

Graphic Books

• Man on a Mission: James Meredith and the Battle of Ole Miss, illustrated by Bill Murray (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2022)

Book chapters

• "Protest, Politics, and Paradox: The Black Freedom Struggle in Memphis," Karen B. Golightly and Jonathan Judaken, eds., Memphis: 200 Years Together (Memphis: Susan Schadt Press, 2019)
• Introduction to James Meredith, Three Years in Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi, 2019)
• "'If the March Cannot Be Here, Then Where?': Memphis and the Meredith March," in Goudsouzian and McKinney, An Unseen Light (University Press of Kentucky, 2018)
• "The Meredith March," in Jane Hearn, ed., A Past That Won't Rest: Images of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi, 2018)
• "Bigger Than His Britches: Wilt Chamberlain and Philadelphia," Ryan A. Swanson and David K. Wiggins, eds., Philly Sports: A History of Teams, Games, and Athletes from Rocky's Town (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2016)
• "Walking With Kings: Poitier, King, and Obama," Ian Gregory Strachan and Mia Mask, eds., Poitier Revisited: Reconsidering a Black Icon in the Obama Age (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014)
• "Basketball," Steven A. Riess, ed., A Companion to American Sports History (Malden, MA.: John Wiley and Sons, 2014)
• "Wilma Rudolph: Running For Freedom," in Sarah L. Wilkerson-Freeman and Beverly Greene Bond, eds., Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times (University of Georgia Press, 2009)
• "All Gods Dead: Babe Ruth and Boston, 1918-1920," Randy Roberts, ed., The Rock, the Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports (Harvard University Press, 2005)
• "The Rise and Fall of Sidney Poitier," Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts, eds., Hollywood's America: United States History Through Its Films, 3rd ed. (Brandywine Press, 2001)
• "Baseball in the Age of Disco: Race, Respect, and the Pittsburgh Pirates," Randy Roberts, ed., Pittsburgh Sports: Stories From the Steel City (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000)

Journal articles

• "From Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Race, Religion, and Representation in Basketball, 1968-1975," Journal of American Studies 51, no. 2 (May 2017): 437-470
• "'Back to One City': The 1973 Memphis State Tigers and Myths of Race and Sport," Study the South, March 2016
• "Three Weeks in Mississippi: James Meredith, Aubrey Norvell, and the Politics of Bird Shot," The Journal of the Historical Society, March 2011
• "Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution," American Studies, Fall 2006/Winter 2007
• "'The House That Russell Built': Bill Russell, the University of San Francisco, and the Winning Streak That Changed College Basketball," California History, Summer 2007
• "Can Basketball Survive Chamberlain?: The Kansas Years of Wilt the Stilt," Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains, Autumn 2005
• "'What Do You Do With A Disaster?': Providence and the Hurricane of 1938," Rhode Island History, Summer 2004
• "'Just Wavering on the Brink': Sidney Poitier and Blackboard Jungle," Film and History CD-Rom Annual 2001
• "'Ba-ad, Ba-a-ad Tigers': Crispus Attucks Basketball and Black Indianapolis in the 1950s," Indiana Magazine of History, March 2000

Edited Primary Sources

• Karnig Panian, Goodbye, Antoura: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015)

Review essays

• "'My Impact Will Be Everlasting': Wilt Chamberlain in History and Memory," Journal of Sport History, Summer 2005

Popular Writing

• Contributor page at Chapter 16
• Op-eds at Al-Jazeera
• Appreciation of Muhammad Ali at Quartz
• Review of Richard Nixon biography in Washington Post
• Contributor page at The Conversation