Kerri K. Greenidge is an American historian and academic. Her book ''Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter'', a biography of civil rights activist

William Monroe Trotter William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent of ...

, won the 2020

Mark Lynton History Prize The Mark Lynton History Prize is an annual award in the amount of $10,000 given to a book "of history, on any subject, that best combines intellectual or scholarly distinction with felicity of expression". The prize is one of three awards given as p ...

. Her sisters are the playwright

Kirsten Greenidge Kirsten Greenidge is an American playwright. Her plays are known for their realistic language and focus on social issues such as the intersectionality of race, gender, and class. Her sister is the historian Kerri Greenidge. Career Greenidge ha ...

and the novelist

Kaitlyn Greenidge Kaitlyn Greenidge is an American writer. She received a 2017 Whiting Awards, Whiting Award for Fiction for her debut novel, ''We Love You, Charlie Freeman''. Her second book is a historical novel called ''Libertie'' (2021). Early life and educa ...

Biography

Greenidge is Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

, director of American Studies and co-director of the African American Trail Project at Tufts' Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.American Studies faculty
Tufts University. Retrieved 7 July 2020."Winners and finalists of the 2020 Lukas Prize Project Awards announced"
Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Retrieved 7 July 2020. Previously Greenidge worked as a historian for the

Boston African American National Historic Site The Boston African American National Historic Site, in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts's Beacon Hill neighborhood, interprets 15 pre-Civil War structures relating to the history of Boston's 19th-century African-American community, connected ...

, under the auspices of which she wrote and published ''Boston Abolitionists'', a short history of the role that

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

leaders in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's Beacon Hill neighborhood played in the

Abolitionist Movement Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

in the pre-Civil War era. Greenidge's research focuses on the role that

African-American literature African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of slave narratives, African-A ...

has played in the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and particularly its more radical expressions in Boston during the

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...

, as well as its intersection with

populism Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

in the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. Greenidge signed 2020

A Letter on Justice and Open Debate "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate", also known as the ''Harper's'' Letter, is an open letter defending free speech published on the ''Harper's Magazine'' website on July 7, 2020, with 153 signatories, criticizing what it called "illiberalism" ...

, but asked later for her name to be removed from the letter, which was done. Greenidge's 2022 book ''The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family'' was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award in biography. In a glowing review, the ''New York Times'' notes that Greenidge establishes "the sisters’ contributions to abolition and women’s rights were undergirded by the privileges they reaped from slavery."

Smithsonian (magazine) ''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life (magaz ...

named the book one of the ten best history books of 2022, and it was shortlisted for the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for History in the same year.

Publications

* Greenidge, K. (2006). ''Boston's abolitionists''. Beverly, Mass: Commonwealth Editions. * Greenidge, K. (2020). ''Black radical: The life and times of William Monroe Trotter''. *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenidge, Kerri Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Tufts University faculty American women biographers 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers