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  3. Keisha N. Blain | Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights


Keisha N. Blain | Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights

Mon, October 27, 2025 7:00 P.M. Add to your calendar
Parkway Central Library
Cost: $5.00
REGISTER

The Author Events Series presents Keisha N. Blain | Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights

In Conversation with Timothy Welbeck

Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national and international movements for social change, weaving connections between their own and others’ freedom struggles around the world.

Without Fear tells how, during American history, Black women made humans rights theirs: from worldwide travel and public advocacy in the global Black press to their work for the United Nations, they courageously and effectively moved human rights beyond an esoteric concept to an active, organizing principle. Acclaimed historian Keisha N. Blain tells the story of these women—from the well-known, like Ida B. Wells, Madam C. J. Walker, and Lena Horne, to those who are still less known, including Pearl Sherrod, Aretha McKinley, and Marguerite Cartwright. Blain captures human rights thinking and activism from the ground up with Black women at the center, working outside the traditional halls of power.

By shouldering intersecting forms of oppression—including racism, sexism, and classism—Black women have long been in a unique position to fight for freedom and dignity. Without Fear is an account of their aspirations, strategies, and struggles to pioneer a human rights approach to combating systems of injustice.

Keisha N. Blain is professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University. She is a Guggenheim, Carnegie, and New America Fellow, and author—most recently of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Timothy Welbeck is the Director for the Center of Anti-Racism at Temple University. A Civil Rights Attorney by training, Timothy is a scholar of law, race, and cultural studies whose work has allowed him to contribute to various media outlets, such as the CNN, CBS, BBC Radio 4, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, NPR, The New York Times, and REVOLT TV. Timothy lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and three children.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.
Ages
  • Adult
Event Type
  • Author Events
  • Speakers and Lectures
Event Series
  • Author Events - Ticketed Series
Event Tags
  • African American
  • Author Events
  • History

Parkway Central Library
1901 Vine Street (between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway)
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1189
215-567-4341

Upcoming Events at Parkway Central Library

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Upcoming Author Events - Ticketed Series Events

Tuesday, October 14, 2025
7:00 P.M.
The Aeneid : Translating the Classics with Emily Wilson, Scott McGill, and Susannah Wright | Parkway Central Library
Thursday, October 16, 2025
7:00 P.M.
Nic Stone | Boom Town | Parkway Central Library
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
7:00 P.M.
Harmonia Rosales | Chronicles of Ori : An African Epic | Parkway Central Library
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
7:00 P.M.
Karine Jean-Pierre | Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines | Parkway Central Library
Monday, October 27, 2025
7:00 P.M.
Keisha N. Blain | Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights | Parkway Central Library
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