Historian, Author, Educator, Speaker

Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise ‘68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies and the Chair of the Africana Studies Department Wellesley College. She is the author We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance (Seal Press) and of the award winning book, Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence . Force and Freedom was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, a winner of the James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize, and a finalist for the Museum of African American History (MAAH) Stone Book Prize Award for 2019. The Washington Post listed Force and Freedom as one of 13 books to read on African American history. Her interview, “A History of Violent Protest” on Slate’s What’s Next podcast was listed as one of the best of 2020. She has also given a Tedx talk on “Why Black Abolitionists Matter.”

Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, the Boston Globe, CNN, and a host of other outlets. She has been featured in numerous documentaries for Netflix (African Queens: Njinga and Stamped From the Beginning), PBS, MSNBC, CNN, and AppleTV’s “Lincoln’s Dilemma.” She has also been interviewed on Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, MSNBC, Democracy Now, SkyNews (UK) Time, Vox, The Huff Post, the BBC, Boston Public Radio, Al Jazeera International, Slate, and countless podcasts.

Carter Jackson loves a good podcast and her Radiotopia family! She is Executive Producer and Host of the award winning “You Get a Podcast! The Study of the Queen of Talk,” formerly known as “Oprahdemics” with co-host Leah Wright Rigueur and a co-host on the podcast, “This Day in Political Esoteric History” with Jody Avirgan and Nicole Hemmer.

Carter Jackson served as a Historian-in-Residence for the Museum of African American History in Boston from 2021-2024 and is commissioner for the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Her next book project is entitled, Losing Laroche: The Story of the Only Black Passenger on the Titanic, which traces the story of Joseph Laroche and examines the possibilities and limitations of black travel in the Titanic moment.

Carter Jackson represented by the indefatigable Tanya McKinnon and her team at McKinnon Literary. She currently resides outside of Boston with her husband and three children.