This essay collection, World to Come: Essays on the Baltimore Uprising, Militant Racism, and History, addresses the 2015 Baltimore protests and riots over the death of Freddie Gray. The main purpose of this compilation is to critically explore the historical moment surrounding the 2015 Baltimore Uprising and the death of Freddie Gray (excluding the court cases of the Baltimore 6-the police officers involved). The manuscript makes a unique contribution to several fields: African American history, African American studies, Africology, historical criticism, and critical race theory. The author situates the manuscript in the protest event and immediate aftermath (April-December 2015). This manuscript is compelling because it was written from the perspective of those most affected by fatal police-encounters in the United States-African Americans who question and dispute this police action. The work is timely because it focuses on the importance of history, issues of race, racism, encounters with law enforcement, the media, the Black Lives Matter movement, and uses interdisciplinary sources (and theories) too often overlooked. The manuscript is 450 pages (with 500+ citations), contains a preface, a forward by Dr. Reiland Rabaka (University of Colorado at Boulder), 15 chapters (each with an epigraph), an epilogue, an extensive appendix (A Timeline of the 2015 Baltimore Uprising, Baltimore Uprising Protest Signs, A Compendium of African Americans Who Died In Police-Encounters, 1994-2015, Grand Jury Charges Against The Baltimore 6, May 21, 2015, Domestic Riot/Civil Disobedience and Protest Events Related to Race in the United States, 1863-2015), and a general index.
About the Author: KATHERINE BANKOLE-MEDINA is a Professor of History at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a scholar of African American and United States history, African American Studies, Africalogy, Race Relations, Black Women, Slavery and Medicine Studies, and the History of Science, Medicine and Technology. Dr. Bankole-Medina has published numerous scholarly articles on these subjects, including her book, Slavery and Medicine: Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana. Her research and scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Black Studies, Plantation Society and Race Relations (edited by Thomas J. Durant and J. David Knottnerus), Afrocentricidade: Uma Abordagem Epistemologica Inovadora (edited by Elisa Larkin Nascimento); Handbook of Black Studies (edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Maulana Karenga) and Malcolm X A Historical Reader (edited by James L. Conyers, Jr. and James Smallwood). She served on the Editorial Board of The Encyclopedia of Black Studies (edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, Los Angeles: Sage, 2005). Since 2004 she has worked as the founding editor of Africalogical Perspectives: Historical and Contemporary Analysis of Race and Africana Studies. Her most recent publications include an article on African American women's studies, the life and legacy of Fannie Jackson Coppin, and on Charles Hamilton Houston. Her current research focuses on antebellum medical racism and contemporary analysis of the 2015 Baltimore Uprising. The recipient of numerous scholarship, teaching and service awards, Dr. Bankole-Medina was twice named most influential person in the state of West Virginia. She is a recipient of the Judith Stitzel Endowment Award for teaching and research, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Scholarship, The Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference Award for Editorial Excellence, and she was selected for the first Distinguished Senior Faculty Research grant awarded by Coppin State University. Dr. Bankole-Medina's additional training includes certification in Conflict Mediation (Racial/Ethnic Conflict); and she was also recently awarded the Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning from the Online Learning Consortium OLC (formerly the Sloan-C Consortium). Dr. Bankole-Medina has been interviewed by numerous radio stations, print news outlets (the Baltimore Sun, the Times-Picayune, and the Dominion Post), and on television (CNN [Fox and Friends] and NBC and CBS news affiliates).