Simon Balto Lecture: “Occupied Territory: Understanding the Roots of the Crisis of Racist Policing”

In this talk, historian Simon Balto, University of Iowa, discusses the origins of the modern policing crisis in black communities, using Chicago in the early and mid-twentieth century as a lens. Contrary to most scholarly and popular assumptions alike, his research locates those origins not in the era of the wars on crime and drugs, but rather in earlier periods of black urban in-migration, spatial and political conflict, and the developing urban crisis. Bookended by Chicago’s race riot of 1919 and the Chicago Police Department’s assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in 1969, the talk also offers ruminations on the recent 100 and 50-year anniversaries, respectively, of these tragic events.

Organized by the UIC Race and U.S. Empire Working Group.