In March 2016, I’ll be at the Mid-American American Studies Association conference, “Battleground Midwest,” at Kansas University in the flint hills of my home state.

I’ll be giving a paper on a panel titled “From Coal Fields to Kitchenettes: Illinois Labor and Civil Rights Struggles” with William Adams, who I know from Black Chicago History circles, and Rosemary Feurer, who is an expert on Mother Jones.