Originally from southern Kentucky, I attended Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio for my B.A. (2019) and M.A. (2021) in history and also served as Phi Alpha Theta chapter president. I completed a public history internship at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio, where I assisted with collections and archival processing and with opening the permanent exhibit “African Americans Fighting for Double Victory.”
Research Interests
My thesis entitled “The Work of Freedom: African American Child Labor Exploitation in Reconstruction Kentucky” described African American child apprenticeships in the border state in the years immediately following the Civil War. In my current work, I am continuing this line of inquiry by investigating how children found ways to defy an exploitative labor system that attempted to strip them of their familial ties and individual agency. I am particularly interested in how the intersections of region and race formed unique communal identities in isolated portions of the commonwealth, enabling both the bonding of children to white re-enslavers and the resistance of Black children and families.
Advisor: Dr. Alexandra Finley