(Im)Mobile While Black: Narratives of Race & Movement in the United States

Sep 09, 2022  | 6pm ET

Lecture & Film Screening at Goethe-Institut Washington | Speaker: Mia Bay (University of Pennsylvania)

Presentation by Professor Dr. Mia Bay (University of Pennsylvania), author of the book Traveling Black. A Story of Race and Resistance (2021) and screening of segments of the documentary Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America (2020, Ric Burns, Dr. Gretchen Sullivan Sorin) at Goethe-Institut Washington (1377 R St. NW, Ste. 300, Washington, DC 20009)

How did the emergence of new modes of transportation such as the automobile change the lives of African Americans in the United States? With new mobility came new opportunities and freedoms, but also new and continued forms of exclusion, discrimination, and violence. The ambivalent history of Black mobilities also sheds light on current issues and experiences.

The Goethe-Institut and the German Historical Institute Washington are pleased to present a combined film screening and book presentation on the history of Black mobilities in the United States. Professor Dr. Mia Bay shares insights from her book Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance (2021) and comments on the documentary Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America (2020) which illuminates the early times of African American automobility and will be screened in segments. Afterwards, there will be an in-person Q&A with Mia Bay. Registration via Eventbrite is required.

Dr. Mia Bay is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of several books including Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021).

Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America 
Dir. Ric Burns, Dr. Gretchen Sullivan Sorin (PBS documentary
, United States, 2020).